presence - Related Content

Have you enjoyed FSPA's Six Word Stories about vocation? Check out our new series, Six Word Mission Stories.

We invite you to share (post a comment below) your own Six Word Mission Story!

“Yipes! What’s happening?”  

Startling, surprising and scary … that’s when I pray fastest. I make a fervent request to get me out of this. I’m counting on a presence that I know is there, but I don’t always pay attention. When the helping hand comes, that’s my answer.

Image courtesy of freeimages.com

It is the reality in which I am surrounded. It’s the community I am a part of. Scripture says that when Jesus was touched, power went out from him. It doesn’t make things perfect but it sure helps and I am a part of it.  

That’s how I pray.

Franciscan Way is a series featuring original prayer by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Image courtesy freeimages.com

I pray outside when I can. Being in nature is prayer for me. Whatever brings me closer to God — feeling God’s presence and love — is prayer for me. I prefer to take time in the morning to help ground and center me for the day; remembering all is gift from God. Being in nature (creation) is a reminder of God’s omnipotence, grandeur and beauty. The many flowers remind me of God’s love, beauty and fragility. Watching rabbits is always prayer. I am mesmerized by their actions, doing what comes naturally, yet showing energy, joy and beauty. Their twitching noses take me close to God. Instantly, creation is a small footprint of God’s capacity.

Franciscan Way is a series featuring prayerful reflection by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Sit, walk
Listen, speak
Mind, spirit
Body, heart

Three-second focus
Come to peace
Three-second wander
Home to self

Loving Source of Life
Tender font of love
Turn to light eternal
Live in loving presence

Franciscan Way is a series featuring prayerful reflection by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

A lake as calm as glass;

A circle of pine trees enjoying a near-perfect reflection in the fragile lake mirror;

And I am privileged to contemplate both from my aqua cycle perspective on the lake.

In this deeply contemplative moment, startling questions emerge within me:

- How could I know the mystery of "treeness" if all I ever experienced was its reflection?

- How could I feel, smell, throw my arms around a tree if all I knew was its reflection?

And I notice how the subtle and/or turbulent movements of the water affect this reflected image.

Photo by Sister Amy Taylor, FSPA

Then the soul-searching question:

Is this not the way that I know God and God Presence -- through God's reflected images? And how does my inner quiet or lack thereof affect the mirror of my life to reflect God Presence?

This, for me, is prayer: to invite my inner spirit into the quiet of God's Spirit so that in my inner quiet I may listen to find the courage and RESPOND.

Franciscan Way is a series featuring prayerful reflection by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. 

I am fascinated by “Who Do You Think You Are?”, a cable television show on the TLC network. Each episode features a media icon who, through the assistance of genealogy experts, professors, librarians, historians, Ancestry.com and others, delves into their family history. No stone is left unturned as a camera crew follows the individual searching for their roots throughout the United States and, in some cases, around the world. Narratives of long-forgotten relatives leap from pages of documentation, becoming next clues in the ongoing quest for information; identity.

Story-by-story, the truth is revealed. While not all chronicles are happy or full of pride, knowledge of where they came from—documented on paper—gives a sense of connectedness far beyond a code of DNA.

Today’s first reading recalls one of our familial stories of faith; a touchstone of generations that came before us. Through other stories of Abram (who is renamed Abraham) we know he is advanced in age, at what seems to be the end, when he is promised generations and land. From this, a new life emerges for him. This is not a one-way contract: Abraham is asked, on behalf of himself and his descendants, to uphold the covenant—placing God as the center of his life and for all those to come.

It is in the quiet moments of prayer that Abraham receives the news that shapes not only his living years, but those spanning far beyond his death as well. And God keeps his promise: we see the fruits more than 2,000 years later each time we hear the genealogy of Jesus proclaimed from Matthew 1:1-17.

Deep moments of prayer are crucibles in which we enter into conversation with God about our life’s direction. Discernment calls each of us to make God the priority in our lives and to listen. Our covenant with God requires focus and determination to set aside anything that will distract or become a stumbling block to our full attentive presence. By choosing to distract ourselves from listening—particularly when we are called to rise to the potential already within us—we can hide from God.

As we prepare for Palm Sunday and the liturgies of Holy Week, may we remember our commitment to prayer and presence. Placed before us in the next few days are the stories that form who we are and what we believe.

In your prayer this week ponder …

What is the everlasting promise God is offering as you discern?

What will your “Yes” mean for you and generations to come?