The soul needs living models to grow and, quite precisely, we need exemplars with the expansive energies of love. People who are eager to love change us at the deeper levels; they alone seem able to open the field of both mind and heart at the same time. When we are in this different state, and that is what it is, we find ourselves open to directions or possibilities we would never allow or imagine before or after.
When you are fully there, you will know. When you are fully present, the banquet will begin. When all three inner spaces (heart, mind, and body) are open and listening together, you are present. To be present is to know what you need to know in the moment. To be present to something is to allow the moment, the person, the idea, or the situation to influence you and even change you.
Jesus’ mother, Mary, is a model of such presence. Her kind of yes (Luke 1:38) does not come easily to us. It always requires that we let down some of our boundaries, and none of us like to do that. What I mean by Mary’s kind of yes is an assent that comes from the deep self. (Note that no preconditions or worthiness are required.) Mary somehow is able to calmly, wonderfully trust that Someone Else is in charge. All she asks is one simple clarifying question (Luke 1:34). Not if but how, and then she trusts the how even though it would seem quite unlikely. Her yes is pure and simple in its motivation, open-ended in intent, and calm in confidence. Only grace and calm presence can achieve such perfect freedom in the body, heart, and mind at the same time.
Adapted from
Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, p. 248;
and
Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, p. 10;
and
Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer, p. 67
Gateway to Silence:
Open me to Presence.
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