The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on July 20, 2022 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
In between the deep sighs that come with purging and the rutted valleys that come with the desert, there are also wonderful lights and abundant consolations. The larger tradition calls these periods “illumination.”
These are the times when prayer feels pregnant. One’s whole being feels fully alive, and seeks more potential, more life, further transformation. Sensations of peace, joy, love, care, and concern for others wash over one’s entire being. Grand ideas, far-fetched hopes, & delightful desires arise in the mind, heart, and will. Prayer comes easily. Graces abound and are recognized everywhere.
Early on in the journey, the fervor of illumination is strong when we encounter these periods. The sensations are new and one can feel inebriated by the possibility of the unknown. Much like the early months of pregnancy, when a person knows she is pregnant yet does not feel the heaviness and strain of the fullness of the child, the illumination feels light and easy.
Over time, as the seasons cycle between light and dark, the illuminations grow rich with heaviness. The deepening and widening of the “child within,” with all its straining and potential, becomes a delightful burden to bear.
Therefore, when the labor of birth comes, it is welcomed as a sacrifice worth bearing for the sake of the potential and fullness of light that comes when the child is born. When our prayer is pregnant, may we bear the burden with strength and bring the light into being with delight.
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