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 January 31, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Every religious tradition refers to light when referencing the sacred. Like wind, fire, earth, and water, light is such an elemental feature of human experience that it is bound to appear in our expressions of Spirit. In Greek mythology, light is a symbol of power in the form of Zeus’ lighting bolt staff. In the Abrahamic traditions, the the Creator creates light as part of the beginnings of all things. In the Christian tradition, Jesus self-identifies as the Light of the World. In popular theology, it is common to understand death as a return to the Light.
We experience prayer in light in both ordinary and extraordinary ways. Every 24 hours, we see the world under the shifting of light between the moon and the sun. We are often swept up in inspiration though the light of insight. We are comforted by light, such as in warmth of a fire and sunlight on skin. We are able to see Reality more clearly because of the clarity that light offers. Sometimes light burns too bright, and we are reminded of the need to rest or tuck ourselves away. At other times the light has gone missing for too long, and we are encouraged to come out and play.
Spiritual writers such as Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton remind us of the light within through their references to shining diamonds at the core of who we are. John of the Cross also points to light as a reminder of God’s pervading Presence. Using the image of light that shines through a window, he teaches that all of the obstacles in our lives can serve to assure us of God’s company. Just like the particles of dust in air are invisible to us until the light shines on them through the glass, so too, the pesky dust obstacles of our daily lives become objects off of which the Light of God’s Love can bounce off, refracting the shards of healing that lead to wholeness.
