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 November 30th, 2022 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
In prayer, we often associate “seeing the light” with miraculous settings, in which the traveler is suddenly confronted with a comforting, but often blinding light. This light is so bright that light’s basic function—allowing us to see—becomes usurped.
But while big, bold, blinding light must certainly be wonderful, we can also find delight in different forms of light. One of my favorite distinctions is between sunlight and moonlight.
In sunlight, we see things clearly. Objects are distinctly defined by obvious edges. It is easy to compare, contrast, and assess our relationship to objects. Sunlight can be helpful.
In moonlight, we see things ambiguously. Objects blend into one another. We see through a lens of mystery. To perceive our relationship to objects, we must wait, slow down, and adjust. Moonlight can be beautiful.
As our experiences of light shift, our prayers also shift. Sunlight prayers are marked by the insight of intercession, the clear exuberance of praise, the warmth of gratitude for specific things. Moonlight prayers are marked by the uncertainty of longing, the blunt pain of grief, the coolness of expectancy for things yet unseen.
Across the continuum, from light barely perceptible, to light dense and dark as matter, we recognize that the mark of the Sacred, the Hand of the Holy, pervades and contains all that is. May we both find light, and be the light, through our prayer!
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