Learning to Be Present to God and Others
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St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer
Christ is beside me, Christ is before me,
Christ is behind me, King of my heart;
Christ is within me, Christ is below me,
Christ is above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me, shield in the strife;
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising, light of my life.
Christ is beside me, Christ is before me,
Christ is behind me, King of my heart;
Christ is within me, Christ is below me,
Christ is above me, never to part.
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I Love Your Presence featuring Dana Masters
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Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
Letters By a Modern Mystic by Frank Laubach
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
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C.S. Lewis
‘We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.”
Tish Harrison Warren
“We are prt of God’s big vision and mission - the redemption of all things - through the earthy craft o living out our vocation, hour by hour, task by task. These are the small tasks in which we live out God’s blessing and into which we are sent; we are blessed and sent into the real ways that we spend our hours.
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Acts 17:28a
In Him we live and move and have our being.
John 5:19
So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Fatehr does, the Son also does.
Matthew 6:33-34
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Present
by Jess Boscarino
“Our body is where God meets us. It’s the only place we can meet with others. It’s the only place God can partner with us.” ~Cyd Holscaw
When I heard this during my Introduction to Spiritual Direction course, I remember thinking - this seems obvious, but it feels profound. Regardless of how obvious it seemed, ever since, I’ve been on a journey of growing in awareness of my own presence in hopes of connecting to God’s more easily in times of distress.
I graduated in May from Friends University with a Master’s in Spiritual Formation andLeadership. In September, I began a program to pursue certification in becoming a spiritual director. ‘Presence’ is a constant topic of conversation. We discuss what it means and what it feels like to be present. We practice noticing presence around us, in us, and between ourselves and others. This helps in discerning God’s presence.
What do I mean by presence? It’s not easy to define on its own. It’s who and how we are. Not necessarily what we do. And when considering presence, it’s essential to connect it to ‘who and how’ the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in fellowship with one another and creation.
I love the Message translation of Colossians 1 when Paul is describing God’s presence in and through all of creation, and how His presence holds all things together.
“…From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe – people and things, animals and atoms – get properly fixed and fit togetherin vibrant harmonies…”
The reality is God’s presence is everywhere, but the challenge we have is that God’s presence can seem arbitrary or ambiguous. Generally speaking, ‘God’s presence’ is often talked about with the assumption that others know what is meant and what it’s like to experience it. However, this is not always the case. Therefore, I’m learning the importance of ‘noticing’ when I’m connected to God’s presence and the details of my experience so I can have the confidence to access it in my distress and help others do the same.
On my journey of awareness, I’m beginning to think of presence as a sacrament. According to my former Bible Formation professor, Paul Hill, “A sacrament is a sign that both points toward what it signifies and also participates in that to which it points.” In other words, being attuned and connected to each other’s presence while experiencing the Fruit of the Spirit, illuminates being attuned and connected to God’s presence. This notion exemplifies what Cyd said about our bodies - “Our body is where God meets us. It’s the only place we can meet with others. It’s the only place God can partner with us.”
Jesus, God in the human body, has fully attuned to us so that we can become fully attuned to his divine presence. Heaven invaded earth through the body of Jesus in order that the same can be true of you and me.
When I think about what attunement and connection feels like, I think about people who have invited me to bring my whole self to the table. In other words, a time when I have felt safe to let my guard down and feel the emotions beneath the surface. This brings to mind what I experience when I’m with my cousin, Julie. She radiates joy and is delighted to be with me. She asks me questions about areas of my life I’m excited about and extends kindness and empathy towards my fear and pain. When I’m with her, there is often an absence of agenda in my heart, a surrender to the moment, a sense of abundance, and underlying joy and playfulness.
Who in your life invites you to bring your whole self to the table? How do you feel when you’re around that person? Has time spent in their presence changed you?
When we are invited to come as we are into the presence of those who love and delight in us- who help us feel, seen, heard, and understood – it sharpens our ability to identify God’s presence. Moments like these are sacred. It’s holy ground.
My hope is through practicing awareness, I will become more conscious of myself concerning whether or not I’m fully present and help others do the same! I’m learning when we hold parts of ourselves back, most of the time, we do so subconsciously. Our bodies process information much faster than our conscious minds. Some of the information is from past experiences. This can be helpful, but also unhelpful depending on the circumstance. The goal is to not always connect and engage fully with others, in some situations, it’s wise to hold back. Practicing awareness helps us grow in our ability to discern the difference. However, we want to notice when we are holding back with God because this signifies belief that keeps a part of us from approaching God, and that part needs to experience the loving presence of Jesus. Practicing awareness of presence helps us develop agency to bring our whole self to the table with God.
God meets us where we are. Not where we think we should be. He meets us with patience, love, and mercy. The challenge is to hold this same nonjudgmental, loving presence for ourselves and others.
“Immanuel, God with us.” Matthew 1: 23
If you’re willing, I want to invite you into a self-guided awareness practice. Give yourself 10 to 20 minutes. This is a practice I have learned from my teacher, Cyd Holscaw. It’s an exercise in gathering our senses and attention to the here and now. I hope you enjoy it!
Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Take a couple deep breaths - In through your nose, out through your mouth.
Begin to notice what catches your attention through your five senses… as you are breath through your nose, do you notice a smell? What do your eyes fall on? If you would like, feel free to close your eyes. What do you hear in the distance? What do you hear nearby?
Do you notice a lingering taste in your mouth? Maybe from brushing your teeth or a sip of coffee-
Move your attention to how your hands feel where they are placed. How do your clothes feel against your skin?
When you are ready, direct your attention to the inside of your body. Notice the movements within. Maybe you feel the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe in and out, or your heart beating subtly-
Is there anywhere on your body that feels tension? Your neck or shoulders? Notice the muscles in your face. Are you clenching your jaw or furrowing your brow?
Is there anywhere on your body where you feel a difference in temperature? Maybe your ankles are exposed and feel cooler than other parts of your body-
Now notice your mental activities. Notice what you are noticing, becoming aware of being aware. Pay attention to the activity of your mind – even what it’s like to be aware of yourself. How do you feel as you practice awareness? You don’t need to pursue or further explore the whys or meanings, just notice them and let them move through you.
Now consider how the Holy Spirit lives inside of you - like a well of living water bubbling up from the inside giving new life, filling you up, overflowing-
When you are ready, notice your position in space, the nearness of the walls, other living things nearby. Notice what it’s like to be where you are at this moment.
Consider the loving eyes of Jesus gazing upon you and delighting in you as you practice awareness.
As you end this time, share some things you appreciated with Jesus about this practice of awareness.
I want to leave you with the following poem by John O’Donohue. My hope is it expands your experience of Jesus loving gaze upon you.
The Eyes of Jesus
I imagine the eyes of Jesus
Were harvest brown,
The Light of their gazing
Suffused with the seasons:
The shadow of winter,
The mind of spring,
The blues of summer,
And amber of harvest.
A gaze that is perfect sister
To the kindness that dwells
In his beautiful hands.
The eyes of Jesus gaze on us,
Stirring in the heart’s clay
The confidence of seasons
That never lose their way to harvest.
This gaze knows the signature
Of our heartbeat, the first glimmer
From the dawn that dreamed our minds,
The crevices where thoughts grow
Long before the longing in the bone
Sends them toward the mind’s eye.
The artistry of the emptiness
That knows to slow the hunger
Of outside things until they weave
Into the twilight side of the heart,
A gaze full of all that is still future
Looking out for us to glimpse
The jeweled light in winter stone,
Quickening the eyes that look at us
To see through to where words
Are blind to say what we would love,
Forever falling softly on our faces,
His gaze plies the soul with light,
Laying down a luminous layer
Beneath our brief and brittle days
Until the appointed dawn comes
Assured and harvest deft
To unravel the last black knot
And we are back home in the house
That we have never left.
~ John O’Donohue
