We are all called to be contemplatives in action. Our individual lives, our communities and our era in time continue to strain toward or yearn for grounding in the Divine that guides us in action.
Jesus chose an extended Sabbath in the desert as preparation for his ministry (or as Mark says “was driven into the desert”) and then chose daily breaks for prayer away from the crowds who demanded his presence.
Dr. Joni Carley, an economic and social council consultant at the United Nations, urges us as a human people to shift toward greater equanimity between our modern cultural values of money, data, militarism and tangible results and our spiritual values of relationship, happiness and wellbeing. She thinks spirituality is a victim of our dominant cultural thinking and strongly suggests that a change of consciousness is needed.
Perhaps during Lent, we could accept what I hear as Dr. Carley’s invitation to shift the balance in our lives toward a spirituality that includes prayer as an action for a change in consciousness.
Prayer, meditation and kindness are the best ways of bearing the challenges of our times.
Dr. Joni Carley
Prayer, of course, is as varied as we are as individuals. Study, spiritual guidance and prayerful community give us some of the tools that help to develop our spiritual lives. Dr. Carley also offers her ideas for grounding: “anything that connects us to the temple of the body – yoga, singing, dancing, creating something, and taking time in quiet to process insights and information. Also, staying in the sacred space of not-knowing because once we feel we know, we risk compromising the sacred space of Mystery.”
A Lenten practice might include taking the “cave time” Dr. Carley suggests – dedicating time and space to reading, reflecting, meditating, praying “because they prepare us to be who we need to be when it’s time to do what we need to do…Prayer, meditation and kindness are the best ways of bearing the challenges of our times.”
A wonderful quote from Teilhard de Chardin fits here: “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, [humans] will have discovered fire.”