Pray. Love is Endemic.

Love surpasses all understanding. How is that? If you know the power of love; not sentimental warm feelings, but truth, justice, righteousness—the things that define God’s love–then you know that love surpasses all understanding. God pours love into our hearts so that we might give love out through our own love of life building it up until the whole of creation sings with joy.

As indeed it is doing right now. The rhododendrons are blooming gloriously, shortly it will be warm enough to plant vegetables for the summer, the peonies are swelling to blossom, after some dry spells the spring rain is gloriously back in Oregon giving us the opportunity for short drives in the rain, for in-between sunny day glimpses of Mount Hood glistening with new snow. Love is endemic.

There are two broad categories of prayer, or maybe I should say, approaches to prayer. Kataphatic prayer is the kind we find in liturgies, precise words repeated over and over in specific patterns. Apophatic prayer is the kind used in “centering” prayer, in which there is no content, only the job of being still and listening for what God brings (here is a tutorial).

I have always been more attracted to kataphatic prayer. Indeed, I find it apophatic in its repetitive nature. That is, as the prayer is recited over and over, consciousness shifts from the foreground to the back, where indeed there is silence, and room for God to enter in. But that’s just me I guess.

I thought of this when I saw this week’s story from Acts [10:44-48] where it says “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” LOL, his kataphatic voice lulled them into apophatic presence. They were lulled into a trance by Peter’s voice and in the trance the Holy Spirit occupied their hearts. The listeners were converted by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Fascinatingly, the story ends by telling us they invited Peter to stick around for awhile.

But there also is a story here about the spiritual welcoming of those were were outcast. The crowd Peter was preaching to was a mix of insiders and outcast; the insiders were “astounded” that the outcasts could get it, not just that they heard and understood but that they received the Holy Spirit.

It reminded me of church conventions, where of necessity everyone is together in one place and in worship the divisions must cease. It is in such arenas that LGBTQ+ people are at their most powerful just by their presence, especially their visible presence among the faithful. Sing a new song, indeed [Psalm 98]. This past week after decades of division our United Methodist kin, in convention, used the joy and love in their hearts to bring LGTBQ+ people into full membership. The insiders embraced the formerly outcast and all of the faithful received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

John’s first epistle of love [1 John 5:1-6] continues to explain how all of us who know God’s love must be (as there can be no other possibility) children of God. We know God’s love because we know love as we know gravity. We know love as we know rain and sun and hugs and tears. We know love because we are love because we are people of love.

In John’s Gospel [15:9-17] Jesus tells his disciples about the transcendence of love: “As [God] has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Joy must be in us for us to make love complete. But God’s love brings us such joy that we have the capacity to make more love. Love builds up. If we love one another creation will bring everything we need.

Let us embrace the Holy Spirit, rejoice in inclusiveness, and pray however we can for peace in the Holy Land.

6 Easter Year B 2024 RCL (Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98 Cantate Domino; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Sustaining, Connecting, Present Prayer

We are asked to pray. In Luke 18:1-8 “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

We tend to think of prayer as “asking.” We forget, that prayer, really, is about “connecting.”

I remember one particularly sweet moment in my ordained life, after 15 years or so of regular prayer at specific times, after 3 years of seminary with prayer at regular specific times throughout the day, after my ordination as deacon and then as priest … I took a break.

You know, you get to have a break once in a while.

And one morning, I was sitting at my computer, it was a sunny day and I was looking out the window and there was suddenly a unitive moment.

Now, these are the moments when you “know” God is with you. Usually, they happen when you ask for them. Sometimes they happen when you are in a time of trial and God just wants to let you know you are not alone. But this was different, and as I pondered what God wanted I realized it was prayer time and I had not prayed in over a week. God missed me!

I laughed out loud. And then I said “thank you.” And then I learned at last to pray, not in “gimme-gimme” style, but rather in “I’m here” style.

This is what God wants—God wants us to be present not only with God but also with each other. In other words, love, always.

LGBTQ people are particularly good at this; it is our call after all, it is why God created us so we might be witnesses to love. And the best way we can be witnesses to love, which is God, is to live fully, at all times, into God, which is love.

In Jeremiah 31:33 God says “I will put my law [of love] within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” In Psalm 119:97 the psalmist responds “Oh, how I love your law!, all the day long it is in my mind.” In 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Paul preaches to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed” and “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.”

In other words, pray always and do not lose heart.

On Thursday October 14 Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez (Bishop of Pennsylvania, where I am canonically resident) sent a message to the diocese about beauty asking “What did you see today that was beautiful? Or, what did you hear that was beautiful? Beauty has the power to change our hearts and the world. In that beauty, we find joy ….” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq1vGxiS0A ). Seeking beauty, recognizing beauty, is itself a form of prayer. Sharing beauty—such as the beauty I see in my husband’s heart—is a form of active prayer, a sustaining, connecting, present prayer.

Proper 24 Year C 2022 RCL (Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119: 97-104 Quomodo dilexi!; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8)

©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.