Reflection on What We Want God to Do

Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (See Mark 10:46-52 NRSV).

This past week one of the greatest teachers of contemplative and centering prayer Thomas Keating went to his eternal rest. The theme of letting go of our false sense of self by accepting then letting go of all the things that possess us, so that we can be with God for no other reason than God alone; was something that Thomas Keating lived into and shared with others.

Jesus asked the man who was blind as well as all of us, “what do you want me to do for you?” Many of us have become blind to what is within us, and what is going on around us. All of us have something that we want. Are we so full of the little things that we want, that we do not see what it is we really want from God?

Much of our spiritual blindness is because God has already revealed God’s Self to us. God is revealing God’s Self to us, in the here and now. The desires of our hearts, the longing for more than what is on the surface, comes from God’s longing for us. The question to be asked is, are we paying attention to God’s desire for us, in our desire for God?

In his book Open Mind, Open Heart, Thomas Keating wrote,

“The desire to go to God, consent to His presence within us, does not come from our initiative, but from the grace of God. We do not have to go anywhere to find God because He is already drawing us in a very conceivable way into union with Himself” (p.36).

God is offering us to enter into the contemplation of our relationship with God. It is a Mysticism with its own wonder, with no conclusion to be drawn by anything else, except faith and trust in God’s grace. It is the new sight that Jesus restores for us when we answer His question “what do you want me to do for you?”

“Let is open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice that comes from Heaven that every day calls out this charge: If today you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts” (The Rule of St. Benedict in English, p.15-16).

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

Amen.

Peace be with all who enter here.

Brother Anselm Philip King-Lowe, OSB

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Reflection on Eye, Ear and Heart

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (See 1 Corinthians 2:9 NRSV).

St. John Cassian in The Conferences, quoted Abba Moses who said, “Whenever the gaze strays even a little, we should turn back the eyes of the heart into the straight line towards [God].”

Christine Valters Paintner in her book, Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings, Annotated & Explained wrote, “We often move through life skimming the surface with our eyes.  Our eyes become tired and blurry and we no longer see the sacred shimmering before us” (see pages 32-33).

In The Rule of St. Benedict, he quotes the words of 1 Corinthians 2:9 at the end of Chapter 4 On The Tools for Good Works.  St. Benedict invites us into contemplation that what God does with what we have is beyond anything we can grasp with our human senses.  When we let go of being the ones that must always determine the outcome of something we do or say; God’s plans for us still remain mysterious.  Yet, they are all that much more wonderful than anything we can “ask or imagine.” (See Ephesians 3:20, 21).

Anything that may be going on in our lives at this very moment, is an opportunity to let go and to love and trust in God.  Whether what is happening is something that goes as we had hoped for or not; God’s plans for us are extravagant.  In contemplative prayer we “listen to God with the ear of the heart.”  We do not have to have everything defined so neatly and perfectly.  Letting go of that desire is so very challenging, because we like things delivered to us perfectly wrapped up in a pleasant surprise.  God opens up our hearts to what God has for us, because of God’s love for us, and God’s desire in us is to love God with everything we have and are.  God’s mysticism is for us to open our hearts to thankfully receive; and to live into so that the world can be transformed and renewed by God’s Holy Spirit.

Where in your life are you experiencing God showing you amazing things?

Amen.

Peace be with all who enter here.

Brother Anselm Philip King-Lowe, OSB

If you feel led to buy me some coffee to help keep this ministry going, please scroll to the bottom of the right side bar and click on the Benedictine Coffee Mug.  Thank you so veyr much.