A Moment Aside --- 11 May 2021
We’ve all had times when we cannot feel the presence of God
in our lives. There are actually those who have never felt that presence. There
are still others who say it is something else – an illusion, a result of
indigestion, a moment of enthusiasm.
Could we survive without the awareness of the presence of
God? I believe it is possible. It is also possible to survive with the awareness
of love in our lives… and how tremendously sad that would be. Awareness has to
be taught and the reality of it has to be accepted as a reality. To be real, a
person has to know that God is present and that the presence of God is all- pervading. God is always around us and within us for that matter.
This is not what is called “Pantheism”, the belief that nature
and all things that exist are actually the Divinity. The Divine being is
identical to all the perceived world. This is not what we are talking about
here. We could hold that it is true that all that exists reflects the goodness
and the presence of the Divine, but they are still not identical.
In any event, we would have to cultivate an awareness of the presence
of God all around us. Some of the literature of the Christian Church recommends
this. Two such writings come to mind. “The
Practice of the Presence of God” by the Carmelite friar, Brother Lawrence
of the Resurrection and “Beginning to
Pray” by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop Anthony Bloom are both
worthwhile reads on this subject. They both could be quite helpful in developing such an awareness of God’s presence.
The awareness of the presence of God is in itself prayer of a
most profound type. To be aware of God’s presence is a way of raising the heart
and mind to God, one of the classic definitions of prayer. It requires
discipline and it requires reminding as well as mindfulness. It is also
supported by the holy Scriptures with such verses as this one:
“Be still, and
know that I am God!
(Psalm 46:10)
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