Fifth Week of Lent (26 March to 31 March)

Sacred Space

Prayer is a spiritual place, a place where we go to get out of ourselves, a place inhabited by our God, a place to which he invites us. We should therefore embrace whatever disciplines can bring us to the sacred space where we can encounter God's reality.

Prayer is not harnessing God's power in order to get the things we want or convincing God to see things our way. Prayer is deeply relational. It is an encounter in love with the One who has loved us with an everlasting love.

In order to relate lovingly and honestly with God we are called to detach from our own ego, our fragmented selves and from our own compulsions and addictions where we are trapped. In prayer the Spirit invites us out of the narrow place where our false security lies into the wideness of God's loving embrace.

As we approach the end of Lent, we may wish to spend this week considering what prayer as 'sacred space' might mean for us. Am I comfortable with the idea? Do I usually rush in and out of God's presence because I take for granted that he is there everywhere and always? How would I feel if a family member treats me that way every time she is at home: briefly acknowledging my presence but mostly engrossed doing her own thing? Is that the way I treat God?

Prayer as 'sacred space' is uncomfortable because we are called to enter God's reality, where he is in charge. Most of the time, we wish to remain in control, even when we 'pray'. We continuously utter words to God, sometimes indeed very lofty words, but often not really connecting with our deepest selves where God speaks. So we often say that we never hear God speak, or at most his voice is a distant echo. We may think we have to wait for those moments when God 'shouts' to us, as indeed he sometimes has to do to get our attention. But would we consider that he does convey much more to us on a ordinary level....if only we would stop and listen?

In my own journey, the light dawned in the mid-90's, after I read a book called Listening to God by Joyce Huggett. The thoughts and feelings of the author helped me articulate the sense of restlessness within, the sense that there was something more to my relationship with God. I am thankful that during those years, I had started working part time and I could take on the discipline of spending an hour with God almost every day, and journaling the experience. Those were the early days, through much by trial and error, that I embarked on this journey of be-ing and becoming the Beloved. It is not as some people imagine, a blissful journey filled with wonderful 'spiritual' experiences. To claim such an experience would be self-deception. There are many 'deserts' filled with snares and 'wild animals' to encounter along the way. These are the compulsions and addictions and egocentricity of our fragmented humanity. Along this journey I have sought out guides who have travelled further to point the way and to keep my enthusiasm going as I struggled through the rough terrain.

What might prayer as 'sacred space' mean for us this Lent? What can we do for a start? Perhaps the following prayer discipline would help. (Remember that it is a discipline, an exercise, and not a technique that guarantees instant spiritual experiences)

Silence

As you begin to pray, spend 10 minutes in silence before God. Do not rush into words right away. This time of silence helps us to be in touch with who we truly are before God. Who or what am I really when I am not filled with noise, not producing, pretending or filling up my life with many things? That self is the external 'I' , often a mask that I allow people to see and that perhaps I too want to believe I am. What does God see? (Remember that God loves us unconditionally) What does he want to show me?

After the prayer (not during), spend a few minutes to review the time. What did you sense within you? Was there a restlessness and a desire to get busy and 'filled' again with noise or activity? Are you comfortable just be-ing? What does all this tell you?

We often do need to practice this discipline consistently for a few weeks before we even begin to sense anything. At the start it will be all distractions, especially if we live highly busy lives.

The reason we practice this discipline is to allow ourselves to be lovingly attentive to God who has called us his beloved ones. We offer this time to him as a gift of ourselves.