ENCOUNTERING GOD

 

 

As I prepare to move back to the Midwest (I’m originally from Chicago!), one of my challenges is to decide which of my many books to take with me and finding good homes for the others.  In doing so I came across one of my all-time favorites—a small book by William Barry, S.J. entitled God and You: Prayer as Personal Relationship.

 

Often we think of prayer as talking TO God, thanking God, asking for help in life’s daily struggles, etc. Fr. Barry suggests that we think of developing a relationship WITH God and think of this as similar to how we develop a relationship with another human person.  We observe them, we learn about them from others, we spend time with that person.  In the same way we can develop a relationship with God by observing how God has worked in the lives of others, especially as recounted in the bible (both Old and New Testaments), or in confessional books such as Augustine’s Confessions, the Little Flower’s Autobiography, or Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain.

 

The most important way that we develop a relationship is to spend time with that person.  So, too, with God.  We can say a rosary or say prayers from a book but we can also, says Fr. Barry, share with God a walk in the woods, listening to music, sitting in an armchair with a beer, or watching television.  “As long as you are aware of wanting God to be present, you are in conscious relationship and therefore praying.”

 

Since that first book on prayer, Fr. Barry has produced many more wonderful and inspiring books on prayer, spirituality, and scripture.  I recently saw an ad for a new one: Seek My Face (Prayer as Personal Relationship in Scripture). 

 

A place to begin in using scripture for prayer is the book of Psalms (e.g. psalm 103 or 139) or passages from the book of Isaiah. Here’s one of my favorites from Isaiah 43:

          Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

          I have called you by name, you are mine.

          When you pass through the waters I will be with you;

          and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

          and the flame shall not consume you. 

          …

          Because you are precious in my eyes,

          and honored and I love you.

                     

Sister Marie Wiedner, O.P.

 

P.S. I will be relocating to my motherhouse campus in Adrian, Michigan at the end of April.  Thank you for your many kindnesses through my years at St. Joseph’s and special blessings and peace to each of you!