Holiday Spiritual Practices

Holiday Spiritual Practice: Being Present to God and Others

• Reflect on what you can let go of so you have more space for God and others this holiday season.
• Make time to sit in silence for 5-10 minutes each day and let God love you. If helpful, you can start by reading a Psalm or a passage of scripture.
• Make time to be present to as many of the people around you as possible – family members, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else God puts in your life. So many people are lonely and struggling, and so few people have time to be present to others and listen without interrupting or responding.

Thoughts on Being Present

By Roger Wilson | St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul

I am exploring spiritual practices which have been foreign to me including centering prayer. Lectio Divina, an ancient and more involved form of Dwelling in the Word has been meaningful. More recently, I have been reading and practicing mindfulness which is grounded in non-Christian practices from the Far East. My processing ways lead me to sort out how I might use mindfulness from a Christian perspective. What would my “mantra” be while breathing? There is no one answer for this, for me breathing in “The Holy Trinity” involves receiving all that is for me, and breathing out all God has for the other. 

As I reflected on the benefits, the value of just being in the present, these thoughts came to me.

“As a Christian, only by being in the present can I (we) possess all time. If I dwell in the past, I am in bondage to the past. If I dwell in the future, I choose anxiety and fear, which also hold me in bondage.”

Possessing all time means I am with Jesus when he is baptized, at the last supper, crucified, and ascended. I am also with Old and New Testament events, persons, and writers, our many saints over the ages, and can experience Jesus’ indwelling now. Only by being present when I am with another do Jesus and the Holy Spirit have the freedom to flow through me to the other.

An ancient tale from another tradition tells that a disciple asked the Holy One,

“Where shall I look for Enlightenment?”

“Here,” the Holy One said.

“When will it happen?”

“It is happening right now,” the Holy One said

“Then why don’t I experience it?”

“Because you do not look,” the Holy One said.

“What should I look for?”

“Nothing,” the Holy One said. “Just look.”

“At what?”

“Anything your eyes alight upon,” the Holy One said.

“Must I look in a special kind of way?”

“No,” the Holy One said. “You don’t.”

“Why ever not?” the disciple demanded.

“Because to look you must be here,” the Holy One said. “You’re mostly somewhere else.”