In prayer it is most common to ask God to be with us. In the Liturgy of the Hours we begin our morning prayer and evening prayer by asking God to "come to our assistance" and "make haste to help us."
This evening, in prayer alone in our chapel at St. Michael Friary, I was filled with a desire that turned the direction of petition around. For every prayer to God to be with the people, I asked the Holy One to help us be with God. Let the people more boldly offer companionship to God; to come to the assistance of the one who assists us; and to make haste to help the one who lives forever to help us.
This prayer arose from a felt experience of gratitude for the day of rest I had with my brother, Nicholas. We met shortly after noon at the friary and departed for Manhattan at one o'clock. We walked for an hour in Central Park, wandered the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for two, and shuttled across town for dinner at an Italian restaurant near Lincoln Center and gelato on the way to Columbus Circle. A perfect afternoon and evening of fresh air, fresh views, and fresh food, sealed into sacramentality by the bonds of brotherly love.
In those several hours together, Nicholas and I shared with each other, in faith, the merest derivative of what we imagine, by belief, that the Father, Son, and Spirit share in pure infinitude through their mutually indwelling love. And whereas the life our persons generate we tend to conserve between us, their Life the divine Persons give graciously from their overabundance to all creatures.
How God had been with us today! But that is not enough. Would that the selfless ones my brother and I become in our exclusive fraternity be made manifest wherever the lowly, most beloved of God, go begging for brothers! To be with God is not only to be filled with God, but also to be the vessel poured out. Would that my formation into religious life will shape me into a channel for divine love, not a cistern.
My experiences with Nicholas of trinitarian delight -- clean, cheerful, creative, and joyful -- lead me to seek all the more the author of this delight, who has already autographed my very person. If ever again I encounter the author, I pray this giver of the Word will do more than this, for the imprint, once given, is indelible. No, let the author fashion me into a type of the Word itself, that the imprint left upon me may imprint itself on others.
Pray that it will be done according to the holy will, and not my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment