Pater Noster: Doorgrooving

Jesus invites us to experience prayer in secret and behind a closed door. It is the path of silence that leads us out of our ordinary thinking into the beautiful interior landscape of God. Jesus helps us to understand that prayer is to be convinced that God is not far away but very close. He can be called Father or ‘Daddy’ and not only Jawhe.

God is at home within us (John 14:23).   

The most difficult thing is to keep the door closed. My struggle in prayer is not to go into silence but to stay in silence long enough. It is difficult to keep the door closed - our problem will always be doorgrooving... Surrender and letting go helps us, to slowly close the slot.

It is hard to surrender in a world were fixing, managing and control are values and even religious aspirations that we seek. We do not want to surrender. We only surrender when there is no other way out. Like a country at war when facing a definite defeat. Surrender feels like defeat and that is why the human ego will always resist and fight the path of surrender and letting go. Our journey from childhood to adulthood is to master control. Every child’s eating, sleeping, walking, talking, and decision-making must end in in autonomy. We are controlled-programmed.

Dying is the heart of the Christian path. Jesus talk about seed falling and dying in the ground. Paul and Jesus talked about ‘kenosis’ or ‘self-emptying’. Surrender does not mean to roll over and play dead, but to relinquish that which I am clinging to and give God the space to be. It is an inner posture where this interior act will align your authentic self (Imago Dei) with God.

It leads to a deep recognition of God, Who Is.

Lectio Divina

Matthew 6:5-15

The Message (MSG)

Pray with Simplicity

 ⁵"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

 ⁶"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

 ^7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

   Our Father in heaven,
   Reveal who you are.
   Set the world right;
   Do what's best— as above, so below.
   Keep us alive with three square meals.
   Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
   Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
   You're in charge!
   You can do anything you want!
   You're ablaze in beauty!
      Yes. Yes. Yes.

 ^14-15"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.

Notes:

Fatal surrender

1. Ignorance

Surrender is transactional - to ‘hands-up’ before God. It is not passive but it is yielding ones will - consciously. It is to know and accept what is.

1. Resignation

Resignation is giving up and surrender is accepting.

1. Willfulness

It is willingness. Saying yes to life and to trust God to lead you to the fullness of life. It is about inner nonresistance.

What does it mean to surrender?

Laat U Naam geheilig word…Matt 6:9

Whoever tries to gain his own life will lose it; whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it. Matt 10:39

Surrender is the giving of one's personal will to another. Gerald May

Surrender, from the Old French surrendre: sur (super) + render (give). A super-delivery.

Focus

Moving from ignorance to accepting of what is. It is not about analyzing or judging or justifying any feelings. It is to become present before God.  

Welcome

We normally believe that emotion is the problem and the solution is to eliminate it. The Psalms teaches us to welcome our emotions. We create an inner hospitality. By embracing emotions you defended yourself against, or ran or deniesfrom, you are actually disarming it, removing its power to hurt you or chase you back into our smaller self.

Let Go

Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction. But marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again. That's why it's a sacrament: you give up your personal simplicity to participate in a relationship. And when you're giving, you're not giving to the other person: you are giving to the relationship. And if you realize that you are in the relationship just as another person is, then it becomes life building. A life fostering and enriching experience, not an impoverishment because you're giving to somebody else.

Joseph Cambell

This is part what God does.

“This act of total surrender is not merely a fantastic intellectual and mystical gamble; it is something much more serious.  It is an act of love for this unseen person, who, in the very gift of love by which we surrender ourselves to his reality also makes his presence known to us.”

Thomas Merton