Reflective points for personal prayer in our community: God's presence is not something you attain, but something that's already there. You just become aware of it. You realize it... often through unlearning and getting rid of obstacles. That's why the journey of true spirituality is often referred to as a path of descent. You have to become less.
Here we are asked to make space for another presence. At this moment you are just asked to be present. Your “doing-something-about-it” will not change this real presence. Your “allowing-it-to-be” will transform you. As St Theresa of Avila says: “No one will enter into God’s presence and remain the same.”
God is here for you - “In solitude, at last, we’re able to let God define us the way we are always supposed to be defined—by relationship: the I-thou relationship, in relation to a Presence that demands nothing of us but presence itself. Not performance but presence” – R. Rohr.
Being present to God’s presence is also a new way of seeing, it’s a mode of awareness, it’s learning to live in the felt presence of the God who is always present, always loving, whether we know it or not. What makes all the difference is that you chose to know it.
If we don't know how to be present to another presence there is no Real Presence—for us! There must be an opening from both sides for presence to exercise its transformative effect. In God’s presence we are learning, quite simply, how to be present. That is the only way to encounter any other presence. The change is all and always on our side. We chose to allow this presence to transform us.
God is here. Our problem is that we are not ready to receive. So, fully, allow this present moment.
God comes to us as bread in Jesus. All I need to do is to be hungry and make space for another presence. In my sinfulness my hunger is great, and I come to Him.
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