Remember:
When all three inner spaces (heart, mind, and body) are open and listening together, you are present. (Sunday)
The work of spirituality, which makes presence possible, is keeping the heart space open (which is the work of love), keeping the mind space in a �right mind� (which is the work of contemplation), and keeping the body living inside this very moment (which is often the work of healing). (Monday)
In honor of Clare (or a prophet who lived on the edge of the inside and whose heart you trust), please consider supporting CAC with a gift of any amount.
(Tuesday)
Wholeness (head, heart, and body all present, positive, and accounted for!) can see and call forth wholeness in others. (Wednesday)
Honestly, it takes major surgery and much of one�s life to get head, heart, and body to put down their defenses, their false programs for happiness, and their many forms of resistance to what is right in front of them.
(Thursday)
It often seems to me that Western Christianity has been much more formed by Plato (body and soul are at war) than by Jesus (body and soul are already one). (Friday)
Rest: Body Prayer
Julian of Norwich experienced severe bodily pain when she was thirty years old. It was during her illness that she received visions, which she later recorded in Revelations of Divine Love. Though I don’t wish physical suffering on anyone, when we welcome and witness our body’s sensations with openness, we are also open to Presence in a way that is less mediated by the mind (which is, for many of us, the primary conscious filter).
Julian wrote, “The fruit and the purpose of prayer is to be oned with and like God in all things.” Take a few minutes to let your heart and mind’s attention sink deeper into your body, to remember your being’s inherent oneness, through these simple words, postures, and intentions (the words are from the Order of Julian’s motto):
AWAIT (hands at waist, cupped up to receive): Await God’s presence, not as you expect, hope, or imagine, but just as it is in this moment.
ALLOW (reach up, hands open): Allow a sense of God’s presence (or not) to come and be what it is, without meeting your expectations.
ACCEPT (hands at heart, cupped towards body): Accept as a gift whatever comes or does not come. Accept that you are not in charge. Accept the infinity of God’s presence, present whether or not you are aware.
ATTEND (hands outstretched, ready to be responsive): Attend to what you are called to, actions that God invites you to from this stance of openness.
Gateway to Silence:
Open me to Presence.
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