{"id":25731,"date":"2025-08-31T20:06:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T00:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25731"},"modified":"2025-09-01T10:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:37:22","slug":"25731","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25731","title":{"rendered":"Choosing to Become Present"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Leonard Cohen - Anthem\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mDTph7mer3I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr describes prayer as a practice of being present before the mystery of God.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone familiar with my writing knows that I believe that <strong>immediate, unmediated contact with the moment is the clearest path to divine union<\/strong>. Naked, undefended, and nondual presence has the best chance of encountering the Real Presence. I approach the theme of contemplation in a hundred ways, because I know most of us have one hundred levels of resistance, denial, or avoidance. For some reason in our complicated world, it is very hard to teach simple things. Any mystery, by definition, is pregnant with many levels of unfolding and realization. That is especially true of the \u201ctree of life\u201d that is contemplative awareness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my novitiate I was exposed to an early method of silent Franciscan contemplation called&nbsp;<em>pensar sin pensar&nbsp;<\/em>or&nbsp;<em>no pensar nada&nbsp;<\/em>as described by the Spanish friar Francisco de Osuna. I didn\u2019t totally understand what I was supposed to be doing in that silence of \u201cthinking without thinking\u201d and probably fell asleep on more than one occasion. Yet it had the effect of moving me away from the verbal, social, and petitionary prayers I had been taught almost exclusively up to that time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prayer is indeed the way to make contact with God\/Ultimate Reality, but <strong>it is not an attempt to change God\u2019s mind about us or about events. It\u2019s primarily about changing&nbsp;<em>our mind<\/em>&nbsp;so that things like infinity, mystery, and forgiveness can resound within us<\/strong>. A small mind cannot see great things because the two are on two different frequencies or channels, as it were. The Big Mind can know big things, but we must change channels. Like will know like. [1]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of all the things I have learned and taught over the years, I can think of <strong>nothing that could be more helpful than&nbsp;<em>living in the now<\/em>. <\/strong>It\u2019s truly time-tested wisdom. So many leaders in so many traditions have taught the same thing: Hindu masters, Zen and Tibetan Buddhists, Sufi poets, Jewish rabbis, and Christian mystics, to name a few. In the Christian tradition, we have heard it from Augustine, the&nbsp;<em>Cloud of Unknowing<\/em>, and the Carmelite Brother Lawrence. Contemporary teachers like Alan Watts, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Eckhart Tolle have done much to help us understand the importance of living in the now. It\u2019s a shame that this real and deep tradition of the present moment has been lost to so many.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade called this type of prayer the \u201csacrament of the present moment.\u201d In his book,&nbsp;<em>Abandonment to Divine Providence,<\/em>&nbsp;the key theme is: \u201cIf we have abandoned ourselves [to God], there is only one rule for us: the duty of the present moment.\u201d [2] <strong>To live in the present is finally what we mean by&nbsp;<em>presence<\/em>&nbsp;itself! God is hidden in plain sight, yet religion seems determined to make it more complicated.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC\u2019s&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-glhdko-dkgktyktu-j\/\">We Conspire<\/a><em>&nbsp;introduces the life and teachings of Brother Lawrence (1611\u20131691), whose simple guidance and humble life inspired countless people to \u201cpractice the presence of God.\u201d His wisdom reminds us that <strong>Divine connection is available in every moment if we learn to quiet our minds and surrender our hearts<\/strong>.<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the mid-17th century, a man named Nicolas Herman joined the Carmelite monastery in Paris, France. Wounded from fighting in the European Thirty Years\u2019 war, and suffering a sustained leg injury, he took the monastic name \u201cBrother Lawrence of the Resurrection.\u201d He worked in the monastery kitchen and eventually became the head cook. Amid the chaos of food preparation and the clanging of pots and pans, Brother Lawrence began to practice a simple method of prayer that helped him return to an awareness of Divine presence. He called it the practice of the presence of God and described it as \u201cthe most sacred, the most robust, the easiest, and the most effective form of prayer.\u201d [1]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brother Lawrence\u2019s method of prayer is so simple that it might seem misleading. It is to cultivate and hand over one\u2019s awareness to God in every moment, in whatever we are doing. Brother Lawrence recommends that newcomers to the prayer<strong> use a phrase to recollect their intention toward the Divine presence, such as \u201c\u2018My God, I am all yours,\u2019 or \u2018God of love, I love you with all my heart,\u2019 or \u2018Love, create in me a new heart,<\/strong>\u2019 or any other phrases love produces on the spot.\u201d [2] Practice of the Divine presence sometimes simply means taking brief pauses \u201cto love God deep in our heart\u201d and \u201csavor grace.\u201d [3] I<strong>t involves a surrendered and resting trust in God to which one returns at all times.\u202f\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brother Lawrence might be a surprising teacher of enlightenment. He lived through war, plague, and poverty. He suffered anxiety, injury, various humiliations, and even called himself a \u201cclumsy oaf.\u201d His leg pain became so great that, after twenty years in the kitchen, his monastic superiors transferred him to work repairing sandals. Yet translator and CAC core faculty member Carmen Acevedo Butcher commends him to us: \u201cHis exceptional calm and responses to life\u2019s hardships make this unassuming friar an accessible and humanizing mentor of the time-tested practice of the presence prayer.\u201d [4]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Brother Lawrence, <strong>even suffering itself becomes fodder to practice the Divine presenc<\/strong>e. We know of Brother Lawrence\u2019s kind and gentle witness through numerous spiritual maxims he wrote down, letters that he penned to others, and interviews he gave to a curious, eager-to-learn monk named Joseph of Beaufort. In one letter, written to a nun at a nearby convent undergoing health challenges, Brother Lawrence is convinced that the Divine love given to us through practicing the presence heals our wounds despite painful circumstances. Nearing death and unable to walk, Brother Lawrence nevertheless envisions God as a parent full of love, affirming <strong>when we are embraced by such a Divine friend and parent \u201call the bitterness is removed, and only the sweetness remains.<\/strong>\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/app-link\/post?publication_id=23733&amp;post_id=139427257&amp;utm_source=post-email-title&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=false&amp;r=2dkj2&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozOTkyMzY2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk0MjcyNTcsImlhdCI6MTc1NjYxNzUwNywiZXhwIjoxNzU5MjA5NTA3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjM3MzMiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.uN7vomc_98E4HZ73hLsv0qqITStFu4HAZoVd19fSCBU\">sufficiently suspicious&nbsp;<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">how to not be disappointed in community.  ( Nadia Bolz Weber)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p> I always try and remain sufficiently suspicious of two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Myself<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. Vision statements, mission statements, (even 5-year plans) when it comes to community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I know I will never win this argument &#8211; most organizations are all-in with their statements &#8211; but just hear me out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know they&nbsp;<em>feel&nbsp;<\/em>good. But they always seem a bit like lofty nonsense. (sorry sorry sorry &#8211; I know we spend an ungodly number of hours trying to get these precious things right).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But one of my readers recently posted this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8220;He who is in love with his vision of community will destroy community. But he who loves the people around him will create community wherever he goes.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such an important truth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we started House For All Sinners &amp; Saints, it was during a time when a lot of church plants had a &#8220;what we believe&#8221; tab on their website. I remember hemming and hawing about whether or not to have one ourselves (I was quickly overruled when I suggested we just post the Nicene creed). Then someone said why don&#8217;t we just say <strong>&#8220;if you want to know what we believe, come and see what we do&#8221;<\/strong>, and that felt so much better. Nothing to aspire to and then criticize each other for falling short of. I mean, honestly, we can <strong>say anything we want about what we believe, or value &#8211; but what we&nbsp;<em>do<\/em>&nbsp;is what matters. The rest is just aspiration and ego. Or spin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m generally more interested in the descriptive than the prescriptive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At one point during my 11 years as their pastor, I realized that the congregation just seemed to be really good at loving each other. It was wild. <strong>But it wasn\u2019t because LOVE was the focus. It was because GRACE was the focus. <\/strong>Some things only happen as a result of focusing on other things, and yet as Americans we want to approach everything head on. I know for a fact that, over the years HFASS was around, if new folks were welcomed with \u201cthe thing we want you to know about this community is that we love each other well!\u201d we would have failed to become a community that ended up being pretty good at loving each other, but we for sure would have succeeded at becoming a community that was endlessly disappointed in ourselves and others for everything said or done that could be deemed \u201cnot very loving\u201d. I know the following claim does not fill anyone with sparkly inspiration, but I think it is true:<strong> aspiration so often becomes the raw material of accusation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, when we would have a Welcome to HFASS Brunch for newcomers, folks were invited to say what drew them to the church &#8211; or for the old timers, what has kept them there. \u201cI love the inclusivity, or the sense of community or the singing, or the fact that I don\u2019t have to believe certain things in order to belong\u201d, etc\u2026 And that\u2019s when I would say \u201c<strong>I love all those things too! But what I need you to hear me say is this: this community will disappoint you. We will fail to live up to your expectations of I will say something stupid that hurts your feelings. We invite you to stay after that happens, because if you leave you will miss the way that grace flows in to fill the cracks left behind by our failures.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve seen it. It\u2019s real. I\u2019ve seen grace fly in with healing in her wings and fill in the cracks &#8211; and I\u2019ve seen how it softens me and leaves me with a cleaner heart than just getting it all right from the beginning (because I&nbsp;<em>aspired<\/em>&nbsp;to do so) &#8211; ever has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the best things in this terrible\/beautiful life<strong> happen without us trying, and in fact could never happen&nbsp;<em>as a result<\/em>&nbsp;of us trying.<\/strong> That\u2019s grace and it is absolutely everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe this is why my <strong>favorite thing I ever heard in a yoga class was, \u201ctry less hard\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s to trying less hard, friends.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In it with you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nadia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Richard Rohr describes prayer as a practice of being present before the mystery of God.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Anyone familiar with my writing knows that I believe that immediate, unmediated contact with the moment is the clearest path to divine union. Naked, undefended, and nondual presence has the best chance of encountering the Real Presence. I approach [&hellip;]<\/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\/25731"}],"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=25731"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25736,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25731\/revisions\/25736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}