Seamless Presence

Sometimes I let my busy mind make things more complicated than necessary. One quiet day I was trying to “uncomplicate” my description of God and God-ness. I kept hearing God’s self -title, given to Moses from the burning bush, “I am Who I am” i.e. I cause to be, I create presence [Exodus 3:13-15].  I said, “That’s it!”  God is Infinitely Creating Presence.  Yet somehow, that doesn’t quite describe the dynamic God I experience around me.  The God I know is an ever-present compassionate and loving presence.  This God I meet in breathtaking scenes and hope-filled stories, as well as in situations of human dignity lost and cancerous self-centered greed.  All of these carried in the compassionate womb of God-Present, birthing us by love and forgiveness into our eventual fullness.  And so I pray.

Father, Infinitely Creative Wisdom-energy, manifest your presence, especially when you seem absolutely absent.  Create yet another way for me to experience your presence in the discomforting voice of prophets scorned for their acts of humble inclusiveness.  And help me see your face each time others open my self-protective wounds, igniting defensive anger.  Because you sustain both them and me with life, let your vision of our hidden “sweet soul”, soften my gaze and allow me to whisper a blessing on the other.  For I know that in your compassion, you always allow a blessing  to spark God-ness in both sender and receiver, so that mutual-God-ness can burst into flame, and manifest as “Children of God”, “Thy kin-dom come”.  I ask this in the name of your Son, Embodied Wisdom-energy, and your life-giving Spirit, Transformative Wisdom-Energy.
                                                                                                                                Amen

Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB