Listening During Lent

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

~ Mary Oliver ~

It’s lent and I’m focused on prayer a bit more intensely than usual.  I want my time during this season to be transforming and so I am more conscious of my spiritual life….

There is nothing wrong with that, and, yet I find that my “striving” can get in the way of what I desire.

I was thinking about this as I tried to sit in silence before God today when this poem, Praying by Mary Oliver, came to my mind …

And I was reminded that prayer is not a test that I am trying to pass or a contest that I am trying to win.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or eloquent or a particular length.

A few simple words strung together, a grateful heart and some silence make a good doorway to enter through … into a place where I might hear another voice speak.

Prayer For The Week – Deep Calls To Deep

Back in the 1980’s Dan Rather, a CBS news anchor, interviewed Mother Teresa.

During the interview Rather asked Mother Teresa, “What do you say to God when you pray?”

Mother Teresa answered, “I don’t say anything, I just listen.”

The news anchor, though caught a little off guard, was determined to pursue the subject and asked, “Well, what does Jesus say to you?”

To which Mother Teresa replied, “Oh, he doesn’t say anything either. He just listens.”

Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

Psalm 42:7