Starving for the Sacred

Path of Flowers

People are starving for the sacred.…They want to touch, see, and feel the sacred. They want to be bound to the sacred by a ceremony or vow. They want some type of link to God that cannot be acquired by meditation alone.…

This is why mystics insist that you have a spiritual practice, a discipline in which everyday something is expected of you as an individual. You are not left to your own devices, your own schedule. You maintain rituals that invoke grace and generate a connection with the sacred in your daily life. Caroline Myss Entering the Castle Page 46

Many people are finding their lives empty of meaning. They may have jobs that are satisfying; they may go to church regularly; they may try to live good and responsible lives; and yet they still yearn for something more.

They have lost touch with the sacred in their lives.

In order to get in touch with the Sacred One you have to pursue a daily spiritual discipline in your life. The first step to take is to put aside a time each day to be apart from your regular life and be in the presence of God. At this stage, you do not have to know what is expected of you, you just have to come to a quiet place and wait in the silence.

As you spend time each morning before beginning your regular daily routine you will be led to a meaningful ritual that will bring you to a way that you can connect with God.

It is all important to have this time in a quiet and private place where you will not be interrupted by sounds of chatter, telephones, television, or radio. This may require that you get up a half hour earlier than you would normally rise so that you are up before others in the household.

Your ritual may eventually include prayer, Bible reading, journaling, and meditation. But, probably, the most important thing is to listen for God’s voice and guidance so that you can find your way back to the Sacred One.

© Judith Lawrence

Listening to the Still Small Voice

Quiet Pathway in June

We are made by the Great Creator and we are intended to be creative ourselves. As we seek to cooperate with that intention, the still, small voice that all spiritual paths speak of becomes an ever more present reality. When we “go within,” there is someone or something there to meet us and it is not mute as to our identity. Julia Cameron. Walking in This World Page 39

Those of us who try to practice contemplation and go within to the deepest part of ourselves where our soul is one with God will hear, or see, or know the presence of our Great Creator.

We will be given guidance as to what God wants us to do—our identity and calling will be made clear to us, not necessarily in words but, perhaps, by an overall sensation of what we are intended to do.

Those of us who are writers may be called to various branches of this calling within the all encompassing call of writing as our creativity given to us by God. Some mornings as I practice my quiet time with God I find myself called to write a poem, sometimes God gives me an insight for a blog to write on this site, at other times I get an idea for a monthly meditation on my website. www.judithlawrence.ca/monthly.php 

Listening to the still, small voice is very important and this means finding a time and space to meet with God daily.

© Judith Lawrence

Birth of God within Us

If I understand what Meister Eckhart says, the birth of God within us, within our souls, needs our passivity. No amount of our doing, asking, or pleading for God’s birth within us makes any difference; only our total passivity—being quiet in our inner selves—allows God to be born within us.

The Holy Spirit needs us to be quiet and waiting, in order for the divine being to come and reside within our souls. It is through our daily waiting in stillness, quiet, and silence that the divine will be born in us. It is not of our doing that God comes to us, but of our waiting. Even when we withdraw from the world and wait for God, it is still God’s doing whereby God is born in us.

God searches us out and knows us. God comes to us, and we allow God’s coming by our passivity. The Holy Spirit moves the waters of our passivity so that God is born within our souls. In our silent waiting God comes to us.

The divine seed is born within the soul and matures in holiness through the breath of the Holy Spirit. The daily silence is important and should not be rushed or hastened but peaceful and calm. In order to hear the voice of God we must be still, quiet, peaceful, and attentive.

In the morning stillness God’s presence is to be found. Too much hustle and bustle, too many things to do, or too many people around, gives rise to the divine life not being consummated within us. God desires to be with us. Time must be put aside for quiet where God can come and be born in us.

Lord, I desire to know your sweet presence within my soul; I am yours. Unite yourself with me; be born in me that I can be holy as you are holy.

©Judith Lawrence

First Published as Meditation for February 2011 www.judithlawrence.ca