Lectio
“We must constantly enliven our faith. It is so pitiable that we have so little faith. Instead of taking it as our rule and guide, we amuse ourselves from flitting from one little devotion to another, changing day by day. But the way of faith is the spirit of the Church, and it suffices for reaching lofty perfection.”
— Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God
Meditatio
Where God asks us to have faith and steadfastness — to take a vow of stability, rooting ourselves in one place long enough to be sustained and to be changed — we seek, instead, novelty and self-gratification. We are unwilling to wait for the slow work of God to unfold in our lives, and so we chase the finite and fleeting over that which is forever true.
Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we are surrounded by manna — the daily bread of His presence, given freely, given without condition, given again in each moment whether or not we have learned to receive it. The invitation is not to earn this provision but to trust it, to resist the anxious reach for something different, for something novel, and to discover that what God gives in the ordinary and the unglamorous is already His very self. The desert, it turns out, is not the absence of Paradise — it is Paradise thinly veiled, His presence hidden in plain sight, sustaining us in ways we are too restless to notice.
This is precisely what the Church, at her best, embodies. She is not a spiritual novelty — she is manna. The same Word proclaimed, the same Table set and sacrifice given, the same waters of baptism flowing, generation after generation, whether or not we have arrived ready to receive. We do not come to her to be entertained or elevated or given something new.
We come to be fed, returning to her day by day. And what she offers, in the ordinary rhythm of her prayer and her sacrament, is nothing less than the presence of God hidden in plain sight — the same gift, given again, sufficient for this moment, sufficient for the journey. Over time, we discover that her bread, although appearing the same in form from day to day, is the very essence of Life given over for our sake — never novel, yet always new.
Oratio
Landing To Rest
as butterfly’s wings
flit and flutter
so my mind
wanders and wonders
never landing to rest
in the presence of You
and yet Your wings
carry me onward
without effort
I faithfully sit here
grace give me over
to the presence of You
Contemplatio
In what ways are you seeking through novelty that which God is already giving you if only you would receive it in faithful stability?
Related Scripture
“He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
— Deuteronomy 8:3 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Solitude That Connects Us: Communal Aloneness in Christ, which explores how the same Love meets each of us in the unrepeatable particularity of who we are and calls us together into the Body of Christ — the community of those who keep returning to be fed by the one Teacher whose sole teaching is Love.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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