Monday, January 12, 2009

The Sacrament of the Present Moment

 

We had another inch or two of snow by this morning. It covered the ice that we had Saturday and Sunday and made it a little safer to walk. So I put on my boots and stayed in the deeper snow on the side of the road. The quiet that comes with freshly fallen snow carries the Holy One and brings me to stop at times in silence and just be in the moment.
I recently started going through again Thomas Keating's "Manifesting God," a book I read a while back. As far as I know it is his newest book on Centering Prayer. It is very helpful. This morning I came upon this passage in chapter eleven:
"We are normally aware of ourselves all the time and in every situation. Consciousnesss of self is the last bastion of the ego. Under its influence, we never quite experience the present moment. The ego acts as a kind of bridge from the past to the future, hindering us from ever being where God actually is, which is in the present moment."

No comments: