The Unchangeable God in the Changeable World

Some months back a few of us were loading up a giant U-haul trailer preparing to make the move to San Antonio to begin yet another journey. A new journey of faith, formation, studies and fraternity that is. I guess in the midst of all of the moving, the transitioning, re-settling and adapting, it was easy to forget of the graces that can come from one thing: change.

Since July, I've been experiencing a crazy, weird and amazing excursion of change, both externally and internally. You come to a new place, move to a new city, begin adapting to the weather, the traffic, the streets, new people, new school, a new schedule of prayer and ministry, etc. Internally, there's emotional change, intellectual change (I hope) and even spiritual changes of learning new ways that God presents himself. Nonetheless, I've enjoyed the change and I think it's brought me to understand another very beautiful attribute of God: That in all of what has been happening, God is the one thing that does not change.

If there's one thing that I've been reminded of in these last few months its that God is the one and only constant. Through all the change that happens in life, in the day, in circumstance and situation, there is one thing that is certain and it can be said in three simple words: God is constant. That means God has no end, he is steady, true and forever. He remains the same in all the change. He is the steady in all the chaos, the sturdy hope in all of our full-of-doubt shakiness. He is the unchanging faithful, the one dependent friend that will always be there for us.

There are times when I might be going through every type of emotion, feelings of loss, feelings of despair even feelings of joy and amazing energy. To be able to sit with that and contemplate on God being a God who sees that, or witnesses that within me is amazing. A good reflection question might be what am I doing at the end of every day that allows God to enter into all of that change? I'm often fascinated at how God can be the one who enters into our world of change, my life of change. In all of that, whatever life brings me there is one incredible thing and that is God is there, as the one who never ever changes. He loves always, he guides always, he listens always, forever. To me that's amazing to think about.

In scripture, we learn of God's faithfulness and his continuous, steady presence within the lives of the Israelites. God remains faithful to his promise, to his people and he gives us a sign of his everlasting love by making a covenant with his people. In the book of Isaiah, the voice that we hear during every Advent season reminds us that God is everlasting.

"The grass withers, the flower wilts when the breath of the Lord blows upon it." Yes, the people is grass! The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever."  -Isaiah 40: 7-8

With all the changes that occur in our lives, everything can seem to happen so fast. We are moving, life is changing, people are changing, we ourselves undergo change! However, God is not and he reminds us of that. "For I, the LORD, do not change." (Malachi 3:6) He reminds us to turn to him, to seek Him who has been our foundation for all these years. We know this to be true from the Gospels. During the strength of the storm, Jesus presented himself as one who calmed the sea when fierce waves and strong winds threatened the lives of the disciples. He made himself known during the tumult and shaking sea!

"...He got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm." -Matthew 8:26

It was Christ himself who was Transfigured before the disciples, reminding them that the Glory of God, the Glorified Christ, will be in their midst even when frightening changes take place! Let's not forget the Eucharistic feast, when ordinary bread and wine become the very Body and Blood of Christ through transubstantiation. God makes himself known in these special changes. So too within our lives and the things that we experience, the changes that we are afraid of, the changes that we have trouble accepting. If we give God our time and give him the opportunity, He will present himself to us. With every change comes a chance to see God active in our lives. Not only is He inviting us to hold fast to Him every moment, but most especially when we experience change. By turning to God in prayer, and giving him of ourselves in silent meditation we are clinging to God, we are holding to his truths and we are allowing him to be our surety and our stability.

+Br Vince Mary

The Mountain Journey of Prayer

The following is from a recent presentation given to a local youth group on Prayer & Friendship with God.

Mt Princeton, Elv. 14,197

It’s evident within the life of the Church that prayer has been around for quite some time now. It’s not a new thing, nor is it perfected in any particular way. Since the beginning, it has involved connection, intimacy and unity with God. Take a look at some of the prayers from Old Testament figures like Moses, who cried out to God on behalf of the people he was leading out of slavery. Or David, who desperately asked God for help in the Psalms. In these prayers, emotion and affectivity is portrayed. Sorrow, intimacy and longing is what many of these figures went through and for them, that was a prayer. Now the Church has many different types and expressions of prayer that can help one grow in grace and relationship with God and every one of them is a great thing! Prayers of Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving or Service (ACTS). There’s blessing prayers, petition prayers, intercessory prayers, the list goes on and on…Religious orders have different expressions of prayer that fall under their charisms. Vocal, meditative and contemplative are the most common. What I’m getting at is that prayer is not a walk in the park. It involves work and it involves presence. It doesn’t matter which type or expression fits you best, if its done without any intention or whole-heartedness then we are preventing our prayer from being the fullest expression that it was meant to be. 

So what should happen in prayer? What’s necessary?

I remember one Monday morning one of the brothers came up to me. He was tired, looked exhausted, and as he was looking around for something to eat for breakfast, he turns to me in his thick Ethiopian accent and says, “You know, Monday is like climbing mountain” There’s truth to that, and I think the same can be said about the prayer life. Similar to climbing a mountain, It involves work and sweat. We have baggage, things that should be thrown out along the way. We experience doubts and fears, even temptations to turn around. But in the midst of it all we are being led to a peaceful, serene and breathtaking place where we are able experience the sublime presence of God: the Summit

What I’ve noticed throughout my personal experience of prayer is that it really involves four components. Without these four things, my prayer life is nothing. Think of climbing that Monday-mountain.

Window Rock, AZ

Longing

Our prayer life should involve a type of longing. We should desire a unity with God with all our hearts. We should long to see God face to face on this mountain journey (Deut 5:4). The psalms use the word ‘longing’ as something necessary or vital for us, like a thirst that needs to be quenched; the deer that longs for running water in Psalm 42. By longing to experience God we also make it clear that we want to experience what will give our souls true fulfillment and completion. This is only found in God and the longing for that encounter is the start of every prayer. If we aren’t longing for God in prayer, it can be very easy to dismiss ourselves. At that point prayer becomes a ritual where we get in, do what’s necessary and get out. We go through the motions, say what needs to be said and leave. It’s true that God can also work through that, but part of longing for God in prayer is also recognizing that God longs to be with us.

Ascent

Br Joe and I hiking through Kenosa Pass, Co in the Fall of 2017

By ascent, I mean a movement of the heart and mind. There’s an emotional investment involved and it’s more than words. In fact, St. Therese of Lisieux writes that for her, prayer is a “surge of the heart”. The Catechism says that prayer should be a “rising of one’s mind and heart to God” (2559). Even our very own Capuchin Constitutions describes prayer as the “breathing of love stirred into life by the Holy Spirit through whom the inner man begins to listen to the voice of God speaking to his heart.” (Capuchin Constitutions 45.1) Our prayer life needs to be an ascent toward Christ. This part of the mountain journey involves time and perseverance through pain, struggle, weakness and doubt. In order for us to make that ascent in prayer, it requires constant care, effort, faithfulness, dedication and strength. Remember, you’re climbing a mountain! it’s not going to be easy. It involves the work that St. Paul describes as praying unceasingly (1 Thes 5:16). During this ascent, we begin to realize our flaws, our imperfections, distractions become apparent, we struggle, and because of our fears and doubts we are tempted to turn around and head back. We want to check out of prayer completely. The crisis is that in the suffering and pain that we experience, God appears not in anyway present to us, we lose sight of his love, his faithfulness and we stop praying. The solution is perseverance, constant use of the sacraments, patience in prayer, time in prayer and again, remembering our longing to experience God. This leads to the third.

Br. Alex and I at the Gore Range Overlook just outside
of Estes Park, Co

Honesty

It’s important to pray with honesty. Be honest with God in your prayer and be honest with yourself. Take a look at your fears, the things that bring you shame or doubt and present that to God in your prayer. Take it to Jesus. Take it to the Cross. Honesty in prayer is about recognizing your own brokenness, admitting to it and allowing God the time to transform it. The beauty is that God knows everything that is on our hearts, He knows us through and through. But just like a father’s love, He gives us the opportunity to come to him on our own. An honest prayer, is being able to own up to our imperfections with humility. Sometimes that means admitting to ourselves that we need the help of God each and everyday. God wants us to be able to turn to him in our every need. He wants to enter into those voids and heal everything that keeps us from a prayerful relationship with him. At this point in the journey, it would be easy to give in to the voices that remind us of our brokenness. Those voices tell us that because of our imperfections and flaws, we will never be accepted nor can we ever be loved. We become dissatisfied with ourselves and we let that determine our worth. But that’s not true! God is a God of mercy who seeks to transform every one of those imperfections that we see in ourselves. All we need is to be honest, be humble and let God in on those sufferings in prayer. Honesty in prayer is where we find our identity in Christ. That discovery comes by allowing God to shed light on our lives, and admitting to the pain in our lives.

Presence

Presence in prayer is about allow God the chance to reveal himself. It is being completely immersed in the workings of God in the now. I like to compare this part of the journey with the experience of finally reaching the summit of the mountain. In that moment, you feel victorious, confident, a sense of freedom and invigorating peace. God asks us to remain there and completely surrender our distractions. It’s there that we unpack, we encounter, and experience God by simply recognizing God in our stillness (Ps 46:10). God asks that we be present to him in prayer, that we recognize his presence in our lives and whole-heartedly allow him to reveal himself to us. During the transfiguration, after Peter, James and John had experienced the glory and dazzling brightness of God, they were completely moved by the experience that they didn’t want to leave (Lk 9:28-34). In our prayer life, we should have the heart of Peter; totally moved by the presence of God that we desperately want to prepare a tent for Him within our hearts, begging him to spend the night. Recognize God’s presence in your life, and prepare a place for him to remain. God wants to reveal himself to you, he wants to speak to you. By being present in prayer, we are surrendering to the workings of the spirit and the life of grace. This takes patience, endurance, and total trust in God’s divine plan. Essentially, remaining in the presence of God in prayer is about awareness, recognition and seeing. It is recognizing with the heart, that the spirit of God is alive and active in this moment, and in this place.

Basically, what I’ve come to understand about my own prayer life is that it requires a certain type of longing; a longing for peace, maybe answers, a longing to be always united with God. It also involves an ascent of the heart, mind and soul; like incense rising up, it needs to be a movement that perseveres through any doubts or discouragements, it needs persistence. Thirdly, prayer should be about honesty with myself, coming to terms with any imperfections; an element of affective prayer that can help unveil our identity in Christ. Lastly, prayer demands a whole-hearted presence, one that involves surrender and seeks an encounter with God by reflecting on the ways he is present in the now. Try these out next time you're in prayer. 

+Br. Vince Mary