Recently in On prayer Category

Very simply, today, a wonderful thought-provoking quotation (thanks to Paul on the Prodigal Kiwi blog) from Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits in the 1500's):

...insisting on God's presence in all things, denied a group of Jesuit students in his day, permission to prolong their morning meditation time. Instead he reminded them that rather than spending lengthy time in prayer:

"...they should strive to seek the presence of God in all things - for instance, in association with others, in walking, looking, tasting, hearing, thinking, indeed, in all that they do. It is certain", he said, "that the majesty of God's presence, activity, and essence" is in all of these things.

What have I missed today in my busy-ness (or even in my too-long-praying... if only!) of the majesty of God's presence, activity and essence in the world I've tramped through at high speed?

I use a daily pattern called Celebrating Common Prayer to provide the 'scaffolding' for my days prayer-wise. It comes out of the Franciscan monastic tradition and gives morning, noon, evening and night prayer (though most often I use the first two), with a mixture of Psalms, readings, prayers and space.

One of my particular pleasures is that it means I connect with several Psalms each day - and that each Psalm has a prayer written to draw its threads together and help me apply what I've just read.

Reading Psalm 148 today, I was struck by a phrase in the prayer that followed it:

Oh Glorious God,
the whole of creation proclaims your marvelous work:
increase in us the capacity to wonder and delight in it.
That heaven's praise may echo in our hearts
and our lives be spent as good stewards of the earth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It's an odd concept on first reading, that we need an "increase in our capacity" to "wonder and delight" in creation, but it makes increasing sense the more I've turned it over in my mind today.

In a life where I rush way too much and take way too much for granted, my capacity for wonder and delight is perhaps the first thing to go - and makes me much less likely to "echo heaven's praise" to the Creator and much less inclined to be a "good steward of the earth".

Asking for more capacity to wonder and delight in what God has given seems a good place for me to start today.

You can read the Psalm for yourself here.