Bono' s Journey

from YouTube at the national Prayer Breakfast

A Question for 2008

"How can I grow deeper in love with God this year?"

Jesus' command to love God first among all other things in this world is a compelling call to create our lives with Him at the center. This is an active decision of the will to reach for God first in every situation and to value Him above all the other beauties that call out to our hearts. This first effort, reaching for God in every situation, may seem simple enough. But the second effort, valuing Him above all else, is much harder. Many things, people and ideas compete for our attentions and affections. Many treasures sparkle and shine, calling us to value them and adore their beauty. But only one treasure, God Himself, is most brilliant. So how do you live this out? How do we cherish Him daily, returning God moment by moment to the rightful place in our hearts as most beautiful and lovely?

That's the big question.

Letting go of yourself is the path to letting God in.

Fr. Thomas Keating and Centering Prayer

Fr. Thomas Keating's long life of dedication to contemplative prayer has given us the Contemplative Outreach ministry among its many fruits. This site is an excellent guide to contemplative prayer and connecting with groups, retreats, books and other resources for the contemplative life. Keating invites us to join with these people who are seeking to join with God.

For an armchair introduction to Centering Prayer I recommend Keating's book Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel. This slim book provides a thorough introduction that can get you started on centering prayer right away. And starting is probably the most important thing you can do. Keating is more about 'embodied' theology than abstract analysis. You learn centering prayer by doing centering prayer and we grow in prayer by praying day in and day for a lifetime.

A Communion Throught

Our modern, materialist view of life has taken much of the sacred out of our view of the physical world. For example, desanctification of the material world has resulted in us seeing the Communion bread as 'only bread' and the Communion wine as 'just some juice'. These traditional elements cease to be the miraculous evidences of God's healing work and have become instead merely a dry crust and a token drink. But if God does indeed invest every molecule of this world with vibrant, powerful presence then why could a piece of bread not become the body of God? And what prevents a glass of wine from transforming into the living blood of Jesus?

If God can transform us by His presence, He can tranform the world too.

Christ is the sweetness of every moment. The trick is to enjoy him!

How People Grow : Henry Cloud and John Townsend

How People Grow is a book that came and went on the Christian bookshelf with little notice by most readers. Cloud and Townsend's other more popular titles seem to have eclipsed this seemingly mundane work in the public eye. And yet this substantive book provides us with the deeper foundations for their forays into Christian psychology and the unique ways that God calls us to grow spiritually. This is the deep work of God below the surface of the soul that brings forth fresh, new transformation of the spirit. This book also skillfully weaves the worlds of modern psychology together with the richer, deeper work of Christ-language to explain the process of soul transformation in ways that modern, psychologically minded readers can understand. We live in a psycho-therapeutic age where everyone has a therapist. Cloud and Townsend want you to know that Christ is the best therapist we have and he works in unique ways on our souls.

Seperation from God

The biggest thing that seperates us from God is the worry that we are seperated from God.

- Thomas Keating

Spending Time with Jesus.

I've been thinking about how Jesus shaped His disciples while He was here on earth. There was teaching, practical examples of ministry and lots of travel. But the main teaching tool he used was spending time together. Lots of time. Three years of full time living life together. Jesus' followers ate with him, talked with him, walked with Him and slept with him. They followed Him every where He went and stood nearby as He worked. He was with them every moment of every day for three years. That's 17,472 waking hours of contact time with Jesus. If you had to go to school for this you would have to attend for 16 years full time to get the same amount of contact time.

In the book of John chapter 15 Jesus is preparing His followers for a time when He will no longer be physically present with them. He is getting His disciples ready for Hi exit. What does He tell them? Keep doing what we have already been doing. Keep spending every moment of every day with Him. He calls it 'abiding in Him'. Abiding is Jesus prescription for life today. A life where He is not physically present ubt is spiritually integrated into every moment. Jesus teaches that we should spend every waking moment of every day with Him. That's how Jesus shapes us today.

When God is Silent

Sometimes I have experienced times of odd silence from God. To this day I honestly still do not know what to make of these times. When they happen I continue to pursue what I know He has already told me in the hopes that His voice will return again soon. If He has told me to work then I work. If He has told me to wait then I wait. I also work to delve as deeply as I can into the Word and hope to hear His voice through that. And through it all I seek to retain a child like sense of a dependence on Him. I seek to relax and trust. I am learning that child like dependence takes effort. It requires a daily, moment by moment choice to live in simple reliance on the reality of Jesus. Simple dependence is anything but simple.

Conversations Magazine

Recently I came across Conversations Magazine which bills itself as "A Forum for Authentic Transformation". Their editorial staff looked good so I sent in a subscription. I look forward to seeing my first issue and their most recent conversation along The Way.

Podcast Meditations

Thanks to Jesuit Media Initiatives for their creative and gentle Podcast called Pray As You Go. This daily 10 minutes of prayer brings soothing music and piquant scripture together for a quiet moment of reflection in the middle of your busy day. I often wonder what people are listening to inside of their "ipod bubbles". Perhaps they are meditating on Christ.