Lectio
“God talks in the trees… Every minute life begins all over again. Amen.”
— Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas
Meditatio
Every morning I sit in the same chair facing the same window that looks out at the same sunrise over the same woods. In this chair, as the birds sing their song, I read from Scripture and the saints and mystics before sitting in silent prayer, praying to and listening for the same God each day, for the same amount of time, if not longer.
But each morning it is a different morning. Each morning I am a different person sitting in a different chair. Each morning it is a different time and my prayer hour is a different prayer hour. Each morning the sunrise is a different sunrise and the woods into which I cast my gaze are a different woods, and the birds are different birds, and their song a different song. And even though each morning I pray to and listen for the same God, each day’s prayers are not the same, each day I am not the same, and each day God’s face is not the same.
And as I sat this morning, looking out into the woods, I could see the sunlight peeking through the trees whose green leaves danced in its warmth, and last week it was dark and rainy. And a few months ago the buds on the branches were just beginning to form. And a few months before that, the branches were bare and the sun slower to rise. And a few months before that those bare branches bore the beautiful colors of autumn upon them. And before that there were green leaves, but they were not these green leaves, and they were not even these trees.
Within this season of this moment that is different from the moment before and the moment that will follow, what was is dying, reborn into what will be. The I of this moment — different from the I of the moment before and the moment that will follow — speaks to God and listens for the God of this moment who is the living God, both different in each moment and the same God eternally. And even though God sometimes seems silent, he is speaking in and through this moment. My very life, my prayers, this morning, the sunrise or the rainclouds that block its view, the trees and their leaves or lack thereof, the birds and their songs or the echoes they leave in the air — all of this is God speaking. And the word of God in all of its iterations, and the Word of God with all of its many voices and faces, are God speaking to and through us all, showing his face and lending his voice in and as every moment.
And so in our listening for or looking for God, we come to realize that we are, in fact, listening to and looking at God. That in every season of every moment, God is revealing Godself to us and as us in that very moment — in this very moment. That the very thing we so often overlook or deny or reject because we are seeking and striving and searching elsewhere for what is right in front of us — for what is in us and is us — is the very thing for which our heart longs in its seeking and striving and searching. That the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of God is within. The Kingdom of God is this season, this moment, and this prayer.
Amen.
Oratio
I look for you
and yet look past you
searching for you
I cannot see you
but I am within you
looking right at you
my longing for you
drawing me to you
until through you
I become you with you
Amen
Contemplatio
In the season of this moment, what face of God do you see and what voice of God do you hear?
Related Scripture
“Because of him each of his messengers succeeds, and by his word all things hold together. We could say more but could never say enough; let the final word be: ‘He is the all.’ Where can we find the strength to praise him? For he is greater than all his works.”
— Sirach 43:26–28 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Stillness Upon The Altar Of Time: An Invitation To Contemplation, which traces the four movements of lectio divina as a single unfolding act of love — and invites the reader into the contemplative silence where God’s voice is most clearly heard.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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