Above:  Christmas Gifts

Image Source = Kelvin Kay

The Presence of God

JANUARY 18, 2024

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Ezekiel 40:1-4; 43:1-12

Psalm 130 (Morning)

Psalms 32 and 139 (Evening)

Romans 8:18-39

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For I am certain of this:  neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nothing in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

–Romans 8:38-39, The New Jerusalem Bible

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I recall that, when I was very young, I heard my father speak of the presence of God.  At the time my age had only one digit and my Piagetan stage of cognitive development reflected literal, concrete thinking.  So I wondered where the presents of God were.  They might come in boxes wrapped in shiny paper, I thought.

The “Presence of God” figures prominently in the readings from Ezekiel.  The people have sinned yet the divine Presence will return to the site of the Temple at Jerusalem, the text says.  And we read in Romans 8:18-39 that God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, intercedes for us.  Furthermore, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

We are always in the presence of God, who is everywhere.  Yet many of us do not live accordingly.  And others of us need to live accordingly more often than we do.  (I count myself among the latter.)  Being aware  of being in the presence of God and responding to it positively is the best definition of prayer I can muster.  Such a response is far better than any number of gifts in boxes wrapped in shiny paper.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR B

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-presence-of-god-2/

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Above:  The Annunciation, by El Greco

Reconciliation, Divine and Human

DECEMBER 30, 2023

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Isaiah 58:1-59:3, 14-21

Psalm 93 (Morning)

Psalms 89:1-18 and 89:19-52 (Evening)

Luke 1:26-38

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Some Related Posts:

The Hail Mary:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/the-hail-mary/

O Blessed Mother:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/o-blessed-mother/

Prayers for Forgiveness, Mercy, and Trust:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/prayers-for-forgiveness-mercy-and-trust/

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…But your iniquities have been a barrier

Between you and your God….

–Isaiah 59:2, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

The Lutheran daily lectionary I am following takes me to the Annunciation of Jesus today. And the reading from Isaiah matches that event well, for Third Isaiah writes of piety, sin, divine rebuke of the people, and reconciliation.  The sins include dishonoring the Sabbath and engaging in economic injustice.

It is reconciliation that I choose to write.  If is something which God has initiated and to which each of us has an obligation to respond positively.  Being aware of being in God’s presence and responding to it positively is as good a definition of prayer that I can muster.  This positive response entails personal, public, and social elements.  The love of God requires us to engage in economic justice, for example.  (See Isaiah 58:3f).  Loving one’s neighbor as oneself is an inherently social act, one which makes the world a better place.

Reconciliation between God and human beings, I am convinced, mandates, when possible, reconciliation (or just conciliation, if no re- is involved) between we mere mortals.  This hits home with me and reminds me of some of my shortcomings.  The best path I know to pursue in this matter is to forge ahead, confess my weakness, and trust God to help me become what I should be spiritually.  I am but dust; God knows that.  But this is not an excuse for not trying.

Whatever your reconciliation-related struggles are, O reader, I invite you to seek divine assistance in correcting them.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 22, 2012 COMMON ERA

ASH WEDNESDAY

THE FEAST OF ERIC LIDDELL, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY TO CHINA

THE FEAST OF SAINT PRAETEXTATUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ROUEN

THE FEAST OF RASMUS JENSEN, LUTHERAN MISSIONARY TO CANADA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS THALASSIUS, LINNAEUS, AND MARON, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONKS

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/reconciliation-divine-and-human/

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Above:  The Praying Hands, by Albrecht Durer

The Imperative of Prayer

JANUARY 11, 2024

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1 John 5:5-12 (New Jerusalem Bible):

Who can overcome the world

but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

He it is who came by water and blood,

Jesus Christ,

not with water alone,

but with water and blood,

and it is the Spirit that bears witness,

for the Spirit is Truth.

So there are three witnesses,

the Spirit, water and blood;

and the three of them coincide.

If we accept the testimony of human witnesses,

God’s testimony is greater,

for this is God’s testimony

which he gave about his Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God

has this testimony within him,

and whoever does not believe

is making God a liar,

because he has not believed

the testimony God has given about his Son.

This is the testimony:

God has given us eternal life,

and this life is in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has life,

and whoever has not the Son of God has not life.

I have written this to you

who believe in the name of the Son of God

so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Psalm 147:12-20 (New Jerusalem Bible):

Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem,

Zion, praise your God.

For he gives strength to the bars of your gates,

he blesses your children within you,

he maintains the peace of your frontiers,

gives you your fill of finest wheat.

He sends his word to the earth,

his command runs quickly,

he spreads the snow like flax,

strews hoarfrost like ashes,

he sends ice-crystals like breadcrumbs,

and who can withstand that cold?

When he sends his word it thaws them,

when he makes his wind blow, the waters are unstopped.

He reveals his word to Jacob,

his statutes and judgments to Israel.

For no other nation has done this,

no other has known his judgments.

Luke 5:12-16 (New Jerusalem Bible):

Now it happened that Jesus was in one of the towns when suddenly a man appeared, covered with a skin-disease.  Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored him saying,

Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me.

He stretched out his hand, and touched him saying

I am willing.  Be cleansed.

At once the skin-disease left him.  He ordered him to tell no one,

But go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering of your cleansing just as Moses prescribed, as evidence to them.

But the news of him kept spreading, and large crowds would gather to hear him and have their illnesses cured, but he would go off to some deserted place and pray.

The Collect:

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Jesus needed to find solitude and to pray.  If this was a requirement for him, much more do we need to do this, too?

I have lived without cable television voluntarily for years.  This was partially a financial decision:  Why should I pay a bill for a service I barely use and really do not want or need?  Yet it was a spiritual choice, too.  I have chosen to read more books, listen to more Canadian radio online, and play more classical music and jazz.  And I have discs when I want to watch something.  What I watch then is probably better and more interesting than what I could find on cable TV at the time.  And I have thrown myself into blogging, of course.  To think that what I do in private can help others whom I will never meet is gratifying.

Yet I can still distract myself from the imperative of prayer.  I am no spiritual giant.

Prayer can assume many forms, the greatest of which (I am convinced) are non-verbal.  Ultimately prayer is a state of being in which we crave to be conscious of the presence of God and in which the desire for more of this oozes from our pores, so to speak.  Frequently this entails solitude and silence, or at least a suitable environment we create with music.  I have encountered God in silence, classical music, and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, for example.

We are always in the presence of God.  May we become increasingly conscious of this reality, and recharge our spiritual batteries so that we may serve God better.  In so doing we will realize that we have eternal life–knowing God via Jesus–in the here and now.

KRT

Written on June 9, 2010

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/the-imperative-of-prayer/