It's relatively easy to meditate or pray when life is good. It's difficult when you're worried, stressed, and afraid. So tonight I am thankful for a prayer tradition in which it's ok to go through the motions sometimes. To say prayers that have already been prayed. To use words already spoken that have proven, time and time again, to comfort.
Pax et bonum
Just keep going - God never fails even though we do.
ReplyDeleteI would piggy-back on Davis' statement with a caveat. Nowhere are we promised that our lives won't be hard, scary or stress-filled. Instead, Dad says to trust him and everything _will_ work out. Yah, no timelines, hints or inklings of how it will happen. My experience is that there are lessons to be learned along the way, which is why it's hard, scary and stress-filled.
ReplyDeleteAlso? It does all work out. Every time.
Far more nuanced than my poor words. Thanks, Tim.
ReplyDeleteYes I am scared a lot of the time! But I also know that that fear is a byproduct of my fallen nature. Yes it works out every time - but I may well not live to see that in this life. "Going through the motions" can be simply like praying the Holy Rosary. Rarely do we envision and fill each petition with faith, but rather the mantra itself has value.
Thanks, guys
ReplyDeleteA good observation Thom, thank you. It makes me think of the foot of St. Peter in St. Peter's Basilica. The foot has been touched so many times that it's completely smooth, and people still touch it today. Think of why we are drawn to those stones on the beach that the ocean has made smooth. They are, in a way, made beautiful and venerable by time and we are intuitively drawn to them. That's how I like to think of those prayers, the Hail Mary, Our Father, Apostle's Creed, ect. They are made "smooth" by the lips of the faithful over time.
ReplyDeleteThat's a wonderful observation.
DeleteI agree.
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