The Wisdom of Christ: Part Two

In last week’s reflection, I wrote about the gift of our spiritual practices as a means to presence the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. I invited you to consider what spiritual practices are most meaningful to you. What did you notice about your emotions, senses, and how you feel in your body while you engaged them throughout the week?

 

I have long been drawn to spiritual practices that help me get out of my head and more into my body because my mind is an extraordinarily noisy place. As I mentioned last week, our beautiful, amazing minds can also be quite treacherous at times, locked into deeply ingrained patterns and ways of thinking and behaving that don’t always serve us as well as we would like. So for years I’ve been taking up practices that help settle the noise. When I pray the psalms in solitary prayer, I chant them. I often read scripture aloud. I will do sense meditations, walking meditation, or contemplation of nature, anything to get me out of my head.

 

Along the way, I have adapted my spiritual practices so that they are woven throughout the day and not just situated in intentional times of prayer, such as the morning or evening. For example, I will take a phrase from the psalms and allow it to be an anchor throughout the day, such as, “I sing your love, O God” or “Your love is established forever,” or “All my fresh springs are in you.” I will sometimes pause to do a minute or two of centering prayer. I will listen to/for the sounds of the birds while walking to work. I will do this whenever I think about it, but I will also do it when I notice myself agitated, when unpleasant emotions grip me, or when inclined to respond in a way that would not reflect my deepest values. I also do this when I realize I’ve not responded well, as a reminder that I’m deeply loved as a child of God and as a prompt to reorient and repair as necessary.

 

I love this quote by Viktor Frankl from his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

 

Allowing our spiritual practices to permeate our day helps widen that space so that we may choose responses that feel more like freedom. If you don’t already, how might you adapt your spiritual practices in a similar this way and presence the wisdom of the Holy Spirit throughout your days? I invite you to try this for a few days or a week and again notice the quality of your attention and intention. Notice your emotions, your senses, and how you feel in your body while you engage in them over the next week.

 

Do not be conformed to this world, rather be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may determine what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and mature. (Romans: 12:2)

 

-Mother Abbott