{"id":16187,"date":"2017-11-24T08:20:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T13:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16187"},"modified":"2017-11-24T08:20:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T13:20:14","slug":"living-in-the-now-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16187","title":{"rendered":"Living in the Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living in the Now<\/strong><\/em>
\nFriday, November 24, 2017 Richard Rohr
\n12
\nThe presence of God is infinite, everywhere, always, and forever. You cannot not be in the presence of God. There\u2019s no other place to be. It is we who are not present to Presence. We\u2019ll make any excuse to be somewhere else than right here. Right here, right now never seems enough. It actually is, but it is we who are not aware enough yet.<\/p>\n

All spiritual teaching\u2014this is not an oversimplification\u2014is about how to be present to the moment. When you\u2019re present, you will experience the Presence. But the problem is, we\u2019re almost always somewhere else: reliving the past or worrying about the future.<\/p>\n

As a Franciscan, I have many opportunities to go away for long periods in solitude. When I\u2019m in a hermitage, there\u2019s no television, smart phone, computer, or radio. There\u2019s pretty much nothing but the natural. You\u2019d think it would be easier to be present to Presence in this setting, and in some ways it is\u2014watching the snow fall, listening to a hawk\u2019s cry, walking slowly without any particular destination or deadline. But I can\u2019t escape my monkey mind even on retreat. Daily contemplative prayer is crucial to helping me live in the now. It takes constant intention and practice to remain open, receptive, and awake to the moment.<\/p>\n

We live in a time with more easily available obstacles to presence than any other period in history. We carry our obstacles in our pockets now, vibrating and notifying and emoji-ing us about everything and nothing. And let\u2019s be honest: most of our digital and personal conversation is about nothing. Nothing that matters, nothing that lasts, nothing that\u2019s real. We think and talk about the same things again and again, like a broken record. Pretty soon we realize we\u2019ve frittered away years of our life, and it is the only life we have.<\/p>\n

We have to find a way to more deeply experience our experiences. Otherwise we\u2019re just on cruise control, and we go through our whole life not knowing what\u2019s happening. Whether we realize it or not, the divine energy of God is flowing through each one of us. When we draw upon this Source consciously, our life starts filling with what some call coincidences or synchronicities which we can never explain. This has nothing to do with being perfect, highly moral, or formally religious. I wish someone had told me that when I was young. I would still have been religious, but now in a whole different way\u2014and all the time.<\/p>\n

Gateway to Silence:
\nGod is right here right now.<\/p>\n

————————<\/p>\n

Direction of Focus
\nBy Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters\u2026, so our eyes look to the Lord our God\u2026 \u2014Psalm 123:2
\nThis verse is a description of total reliance on God. Just as the eyes of a servant are riveted on his master, our eyes should be directed to and focused on God. This is how knowledge of His countenance is gained and how God reveals Himself to us (see Isaiah 53:1). Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to Him. Our stamina is sapped, not so much through external troubles surrounding us but through problems in our thinking. We wrongfully think, \u201cI suppose I\u2019ve been stretching myself a little too much, standing too tall and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person.\u201d We have to realize that no effort can be too high.
\nFor example, you came to a crisis in your life, took a stand for God, and even had the witness of the Spirit as a confirmation that what you did was right. But now, maybe weeks or years have gone by, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion\u2014 \u201cWell, maybe what I did showed too much pride or was superficial. Was I taking a stand a bit too high for me?\u201d Your \u201crational\u201d friends come and say, \u201cDon\u2019t be silly. We knew when you first talked about this spiritual awakening that it was a passing impulse, that you couldn\u2019t hold up under the strain. And anyway, God doesn\u2019t expect you to endure.\u201d You respond by saying, \u201cWell, I suppose I was expecting too much.\u201d That sounds humble to say, but it means that your reliance on God is gone, and you are now relying on worldly opinion. The danger comes when, no longer relying on God, you neglect to focus your eyes on Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden stop will you realize that you have been the loser. Whenever there is a spiritual drain in your life, correct it immediately. Realize that something has been coming between you and God, and change or remove it at once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living in the Now Friday, November 24, 2017 Richard Rohr 12 The presence of God is infinite, everywhere, always, and forever. You cannot not be in the presence of God. There\u2019s no other place to be. It is we who are not present to Presence. We\u2019ll make any excuse to be somewhere else than right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16187"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16189,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16187\/revisions\/16189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}