Hello dear ones.
We, as a world wide community, are experiencing an extraordinary moment together. I hope you are safely sheltered in place. I pray that you are finding some peace in the midst of the fears, patience in the midst of the waiting, comfort in the midst of the grief.
I will be posting over the next many months from my book An Enduring Embrace: Discovering the Love at the Heart of Prayer. I decided to post from this book at this time because we all need to know that we are held. Especially right now. We have an urgent need for Presence, for Comfort, for the safe shelter of the Arms of Love.
in the preface and introduction of this book I invite us to imagine prayer as something other than the constricted, empty, pressured activity that we sometimes believe prayer to be. I invite us instead to ask: What if God’s unwavering love for us all is true? And what if we then began to understand prayer to be a loving conversation, a glorious song, a joyful dance, a fervent lament, a safe and enduring embrace — all initiated and sustained by our Maker? What if prayer is not something we do to try to reach a god-who-is-far-away, but is instead the endless movement of grace coming from the heart of the God-who-is-near? What if prayer is God calling to us, God singing over us, God giving voice to our groanings that are too painful for us to put into words, God offering to forgive us and change us and free us, God inviting us into the heart of Love?
May we discover again, or for the first time, the priceless gift prayer can be.
May you know yourself held in a safe, enduring embrace.