Head over heels in love

About 10 years ago I had a spiritual awakening that opened up a whole new area of experience of the divine. Some people encounter God as they are with the poor. Others see God most clearly in other people. But my most intense experience of the divine is in the silence and solitude of contemplative prayer. Maybe that is because I am an introvert--don't know! But I do know that God took over my pray-ing about 10 years ago, and my life has never been the same since then. I started with a yearning for God, and spent lots of frustrating hours trying to "meditate" (I never did figure that out too well). Then God took pity on me and drew me to herself--folded me in his arms--ravished my soul and filled me with divine delight--a delight that drives me to be completely owned by God. Now all I care about is being God's. A Sufi poem describes it well:

Slaves and cattle are branded
to name ownership
My lover has branded me so that I am not mine
but His.
His voice has branded my ear,
His touch my skin.
My eyes are blinded to all
but His Form
My mouth has been reshaped
by His Kiss
And would taste only
His Sweetness.
When I do not breathe His Perfume
the air is foul
My heart is branded with His Name
And it cries out endlessly
Having been given freedom
I burn and wait for Him to
claim His Ownership.

Praying the offices

For a long time I have been working on a rule of life--a pattern of spiritual disciplines that will sensitize me to God's presence. I confess I am not rigid. I simply try to do the spiritual practices more often than not. One daily practice I try to keep is to pray the morning and evening office. I have found it much easier to do every since I found online versions. I have discovered that if I really really want to know God, constancy is important. Teresa of Avila said "God will withold himself (sic) from noone who perseveres." And, I am not very good with constancy. But, saying the offices online has made a BIG difference in my daily practice. My laptop becomes my altar!

GodGod&MoreGod

I have a friend who once said to me: "All I want is God, God and more God"! Me too. I want God--in me, around me, through me. I have this humongous God-shaped hole, right smack dab in the middle of my heart. I want to be saturated and drenched with grace, with love, with God! So I thought I would start this blog to talk about finding God--being found by God--and maybe find other people--people who are friends of God or who want to be friends of God. I thought we could talk about searching for God, being found by God, finding God. One of my favorite spiritual writers is Teresa of Avila. This is her picture: