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 October 30, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Often, in spiritual direction sessions, or when I teach, I remind people that God is always, already present and communicating Love. There is nowhere and no time that the Holy One is not at work, powerfully creating and loving. At times, however, it feels like the contrary. God seems absent, the force of Love from the Holy One seems to have waned and the sweet droplets of grace have dried up.
During these “dry” times, I turn to the wisdom of a song by my favorite composer. Sara Thomsen, in Dry Weary Land, describes the dryness and distance and deafness of those times when God’s absence is most strongly present. Despite the chaos and darkness of these times, she recognizes a “Holy River” of deep water that runs below the ground. This river is “where she was goin’ and where she’d been,” much like the Holy One who is “always and already at work.” From somewhere, everywhere, deep below, “a deep black opens and the river runs wild.”
Her insight reminds me of those moments when I sit in silent, still prayer, and my intention to focus my attention on the Presence of the Holy One is thwarted. Distraction or discomfort grabs my attention instead…and yet! There are times when I notice both the distraction and discomfort at the surface of my attention, as well as the deep dark stream of the dynamic Presence of the Holy One, running along, constant and dynamic, despite my distraction and discomfort.
Each time I recognize this parallel between the underground stream and the ongoing, often chaotic, flow of events in my life, I better understand the angsty longing I feel for the fullness of wholeness. With this powerful Presence, always and already running through all the layers of life and creation, it is no wonder I feel incomplete and not-yet!
May each of the underground steams of our prayer honor the always and already of the Holy One at work in our lives and merge into the Sea of Union, fed by the streams of our communion with others, the many masses of holy ones held together within the banks of the Holy One!
