Opening to God

1. Prayer is an invitation to open your whole self to God, not merely a duty.

Prayer is not simply words that we offer when we speak to God but an opening of our self to God.

Beyond obligation. Many perceive prayer as a spiritual discipline or an obligation, something we should do rather than a spontaneous desire. This limited view often reduces prayer to a mental activity or a list of petitions. However, prayer is fundamentally an invitation to deep communion and union with God, a continuous opening of our entire being to the divine flow.

Transformational journey. This opening holds immense transformational potential, moving us from a state of being partially closed to God towards full openness. Obstacles like fears, unhealed wounds, distorted views of God, or rigid spiritual practices often block this flow. Prayer, in its truest sense, is God gaining access to us to remove these blocks, allowing us to become increasingly filled with God's life and to experience continuous spiritual awakening.

Life as prayer. The ultimate aim is not just to be a person who prays, but for our entire life to become a prayer. This means shifting from prayer as something we do to prayer as a way of living, where every moment is an opportunity to be attuned to God's loving presence. This profound shift redefines our understanding of ourselves, others, and the world, making prayer the natural language of the soul.

2. True prayer is God's work in us, requiring our consent and radical honesty.

Understood more correctly, prayer is what God does in us.

God's initiative. Prayer does not begin with our initiative but with God's. It is our response to a divine invitation to encounter, a "yes" to God's already-begun conversation. Our role is less about initiating and more about consenting, trusting that God is constantly reaching out in self-revealing love. This perspective liberates us from the burden of "performing" prayer perfectly.

Trusting openness. Genuine prayer demands trust in God's goodness, allowing us to approach with vulnerability and brutal self-honesty. This means bringing our true, often messy, self to God—our confusion, doubts, anger, fears, and brokenness—rather than a false, guarded self. As Thomas Merton noted, God is too real to be met anywhere other than in reality.

Soul's natural language. Prayer is the soul's native language, an inherent posture of attentive openness to the divine. When we embrace this, prayer ceases to be a complicated skill to be mastered and becomes as natural as breathing. Our effort is simply to make space for God, turning towards Him with attentiveness and openness, and trusting God to do the rest.

3. Lectio Divina provides a holistic map for prayer: Attending, Pondering, Responding, Being.

He taught that prayer is a journey from the biblical text (lectio) to inquiry (meditatio) to response (oratio) and finally to the gift of God’s presence (contemplatio).

Ancient wisdom. Lectio Divina, or "divine reading," is an ancient monastic practice rooted in Judaism, offering a prayerful engagement with Scripture to hear God's personal word. It's not a rigid method but an approach to encounter the living Word behind the words, seeking communion and union rather than just information.

Four movements. Guigo II outlined four stages, which are better understood as dynamic movements of prayer:

• Lectio (Attending): Listening for God's personal word, a phrase that stands out.
• Meditatio (Pondering): Reflectively chewing on what is received, engaging both head and heart.
• Oratio (Responding): Expressing our stirred spirit through words, actions, or creative outlets.
• Contemplatio (Being): Resting in God's presence, a quiet, wordless communion.

Holistic engagement. These movements encourage holistic prayer, involving our entire being—mind, heart, senses, imagination, stillness, and action. Rather than a hierarchical ladder, they are a dance led by the Spirit, inviting us to open all dimensions of ourselves to God, fostering wholeness and deeper intimacy.

4. Prayer as Attending cultivates awareness of God's constant, loving presence in all things.

It should be a rather exhilarating thought that the moment of creation is now—that if, by some unthinkable accident, God’s attention slipped, we wouldn’t be here.

God's continuous presence. God's presence is not just a promise but a continuous reality, sustaining all existence. Creation is ongoing, an unremitting outpouring of God's life. This means God is closer than our next breath, within every circumstance, object, and person, a "white heat at the center of everything."

Cultivating awareness. Attending prayer is about cultivating awareness of this constant divine presence. The Ignatian "Examen" is a powerful practice for this, involving:

• Affirming God's presence and desiring to see through God's eyes.
• Reviewing the day, noticing blessings and moments of misalignment, expressing gratitude and sorrow.
• Closing with a prayer for continued openness and attentiveness.

Sensory and spiritual perception. Attentiveness is an act of release, allowing our awareness to be absorbed by the present moment and the God within it. Our senses can be powerful channels, turning sights, sounds, smells, or feelings into calls to prayer. Spiritual perception, like Mother Teresa seeing Jesus in every face, allows us to encounter God in all things and respond with the mind of Christ.

5. Prayer as Pondering involves sharing our thoughts, questions, and imagination with God.

Pondering prayer is talking with God about our thoughts, our wonderings and our reflections on life experiences or challenges.

Reflective engagement. Pondering prayer is a reflective, not analytical, form of thought where we hold issues lightly, turning them over from various angles and ruminating on them with God. It's sharing our questions, concerns, and observations, much like talking to a trusted friend who listens without needing to provide immediate answers.

Mind and heart. This prayer engages both our cognitive mind and our affective heart. It involves:

• Reflecting on Scripture, sermons, conversations, or books.
• Meditating on creeds or the Lord's Prayer, allowing their meaning to sink in.
• Journaling as a conversation with God, exploring experiences and their interpretations.
• Theological reflection, examining life through the lens of faith and tradition.

Imaginative prayer. Imagination plays a crucial role, allowing us to enter biblical scenes, visualize details, and engage with Jesus personally. Meditating on Christian art also provides a rich resource for imaginative pondering. This expands our prayer beyond abstract thought, making the encounter immediate and intimate.

6. Prayer as Responding extends beyond words to music, creativity, service, and physical actions.

What joy it is to learn to not only pray with words but also with our hands, feet and hearts!

Beyond verbal petitions. While worded prayer is essential, prayer as responding invites our whole being into communion with God. The Lord's Prayer, for instance, encompasses faith, praise, kingdom hope, and petitions, but our responses can take many other forms.

Diverse expressions:

• Music: Singing, playing, or listening to music engages emotions and deeper parts of the self, carrying our spirit heavenward even without understood words.
• Creativity: Any authentic act emerging from deep within—writing, painting, dancing, preparing a meal, or simply being our true self—is a creative prayer.
• Hands and Feet:
  • Signing the cross: A symbolic invocation of the Trinity.
  • Prayer beads: Like the Jesus Prayer or rosary, they use touch and repetition to move prayer from mind to heart.
  • Walking/Pilgrimage: A journey undertaken with prayerful openness, where the travel itself becomes transformational, leading to the "Center" like a labyrinth.

Loving service. Acts of loving service and social justice are profound forms of prayer. As Jesus taught, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." Love flowing through us to others is love flowing back to God, making our actions sacred.

7. Prayer as Being (Contemplation) is wordless resting in God's presence, fostering deep union.

Contemplative prayer is wordless, trusting openness to the God who dwells at the center of our being and at the center of the world.

Resting in God. Contemplative prayer, often called "prayer as being," is the gift of the Spirit that arises from attending, pondering, and responding to God. It is an experiential knowing of our being in God, a quiet rest in the Beloved where words become less necessary. It's like gazing at a starry sky with awe, not analysis, simply being open to the ineffable.

Abiding with God. The word "contemplation" itself suggests "abiding with God" (con-templa-tion). It's a state of being, a knowing that comes from being with and in God, opening our body, mind, and heart to the ultimate Mystery. Christian mystics describe it with rich metaphors: "resting in God," "divine wakefulness," "loving presence to what is."

Beyond words and thoughts. Contemplative prayer is not about eliminating thoughts but detaching from them, offering our consent to God's presence and action. Practices like the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner") or Centering Prayer (using a prayer word to gently return to God) use words to communicate intent, not content, guiding us into wordless stillness. The goal is simply to be totally open to God, allowing God's grace to work within us.

8. All of life can become prayer by finding God in every experience and practicing surrender.

All of life is, in fact, lived in relationship to God.

Relationship, not ritual. Prayer is fundamentally a relationship with God, a friendship where we are intimates. This relationship is not something we do but something we are. Cultivating conscious and unconscious knowing of this constant relationship allows all of life to become prayer, moving beyond compartmentalized spiritual practices.

God in all things. God is immanent, present in every experience, not just religious ones. Even in suffering or injustice, God is present, though often hidden. Spiritual discernment, aided by practices like the Examen, helps us "God-spot" in daily life, revealing divine presence and gifts even in unwelcome circumstances.

Welcoming prayer and openness. The "Welcoming Prayer" offers a practical framework for surrendering to emotional upset:

• Focus: Be present to the emotion as a bodily sensation.
• Welcome: Greet the emotion as a guest, removing its power to disturb.
• Letting go: Release the emotion and the desire for control, entrusting it to God.
  This practice cultivates a core posture of openness, allowing God's love to flow through us to the world, making our lives a continuous act of prayer.

9. Prayer, especially contemplative, offers profound inner transformation and divine healing.

To be open to God is to be open to the Infinite, and this means to be open to infinite possibilities.

Inner metamorphosis. While personal change often feels incremental, truly opening to God, especially through contemplative prayer, holds immense potential for inner transformation. This is not mere self-improvement but a profound reorganization of our interior landscape, changing how we perceive ourselves, others, the world, and God.

Divine therapy. Contemplative prayer, by fostering stillness and detachment from thoughts, creates space for an encounter with both God and our deep self. This can bring old anxieties, conflicts, and unhealed wounds to the surface. This "unloading of the unconscious" is a sign of God's healing work, a "divine therapy" that, when met with gentle release to God, leads to increasing inner freedom and vitality.

Freeing logjams. Transformation involves removing "logjams" that block our openness to God. These can be:

• Psychological: Addictions, anxieties, unresolved trauma, fears that keep us self-preoccupied.
• Theological: Distorted "functional theologies" (e.g., seeing God as capricious) that contradict formal beliefs.
• Spiritual: Rigidly clinging to practices that no longer bring life, hindering fresh encounters.
  Prayer, sometimes combined with professional help, allows God's grace to flow into these wounded places, transforming obstacles into means of grace and leading to the fullness of life in God.