Kirkepiscatoid

This set of readings is about the human need for contemplation....about the business of “seeking God, not where God lives.”

Reflective questions:

1. Meditate on the influences in your life that distract or impede your desire to be more contemplative.

Simple impatience is one of my impediments. If something else is going on in my life or in my head, it can really mess with me in terms of distracting my focus in contemplation. Anger over some frustration of the day is another. Worry is another one. I can never “settle down enough to be calm” when I am actively worrying.

2. Would you say your life is “full of light?” Why or why not?

I would say I have moments when my life is “full of light” but it is not constant. I think I am getting a little more “light filled” all the time but impatience and worry definitely mess with it. But when I feel these moments, they are joyful and intense, and I do like them!

3. Explore ways in which you might develop contemplative focus and spiritual determination.

One of them I am already doing—I am setting aside regular time for prayer and study and contemplation. I think of it as a “tithe” of my mind. (Yeah, it’s not 10% either ). But the point is that I need to treat my prayer time as seriously as I treat my pledge to my church...and, as with my financial pledge, I deliberately set it at an “I can do this 100% no problem” level and then end up giving over my pledge, so to speak. I often find I have given more of my time to prayer and contemplation in a day than I said I would “tithe.”

One I need to work on better is to let go of anger and worry. I still need to feel better about leaving things I cannot control on the altar. I have to remember that I cannot “control” my environment for contemplation—in fact, control has the opposite effect—but that it has to come to me through grace, not through my efforts!