Lectio
“The Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the lowest part of our need.”
— Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
Meditatio
God does not wait for us to come to Him before coming to us. Rather, even while our faces were turned away from Him in pursuit of idolatry and wickedness, in all of His goodness, He descended from Heaven, taking the form of a man, to show us His face that we may encounter God in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, to know that we are not alone, we are not abandoned, and that, in spite of ourselves, we are invited to join Him in His ascension to the Father who has already forgiven us before we ever repented.
God does not wait for us. He reaches down to touch us, to heal us, and to pull us up out of our self-chosen hell. But we have to reach back. We have to take the final step. Even if only to touch the hem of His garment, we have to extend our hand out in faith and to tell Him what we need, even if He already knows. But even this reaching back is not done on our own — of our own power or initiative — for the Spirit of God within us is who reaches through us, by way of Christ, to the Father. Our part is to trust. Our part is to believe that, even in our flailing, even in our drowning, He will pull us up into His boat.
He does not wait for us to pray before prompting us to do so with the gentle nudge of the Spirit in our hearts. And though we do not always listen to the Spirit’s whisper, God allows us to experience the pain we have chosen until, like a fire beneath our feet, we are motivated by it to move toward Him — toward His Goodness — in prayer, even if we do not, at the time, know that our cries are prayers, or to whom we are crying, let alone that they are being heard.
God does not wait for us to cry out before He listens. He comes down to the lowest part of our need and stirs within us His own Goodness so that His prayers for us become our prayers to Him. He knows our hearts’ deepest longings. He knows our anguish without Him. He knows the love that cures all pain and suffering because He is the love that cures all pain and suffering, and He gently, lovingly invites us to know that love as well — to know Him as He knows us. This communion, this recollection of God-in-us into God Himself, this assent to the Love and Goodness that is God, is the highest form of prayer because it is to become, through Christ, God with God, which is His greatest desire, and, by His grace, even if deep down and hidden beneath the hardness of our hearts, ours as well.
Oratio
Reach Out To Me
Almighty God
He loved me first
by revealing Himself
to me
I would not have
known His love
had He not come
to me
nor would I know
even myself
had He not shown me
to me
drowning in sin
no hope nor life
until He reached out
to me
Contemplatio
You did not have to find your way to Him. He was already reaching toward you before you had words for your need, before you even knew it was Him you were drowning without. All that is asked now is your hand, open. Sit with this in silence, consenting to His presence, and let Him move in you however He wills.
Related Scripture
“Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.”
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Say the Words: A Father’s Prayer, St. Jerome, and the Love in Our Midst (Lectio Divina), which turns to a father’s own late-night confession that love was never contingent on being there at all.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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