Wood Knot + An Octopus Eye + Connections = Praying Without Ceasing
This
morning, I found myself in a quiet house, with a cup of good coffee, a book of
poetry, and a window inviting me to simply sit, be still and reflect on the
goodness of God.
A gnarled
knot on the thick tentacle that was a maple tree branch stared back at me, like
the eye of an octopus. While neither the
tree nor the ‘eye’ was God, I could
see God in both. In that moment, a
connection was made between God, a tree, an ocean creature, and me –
reaffirming the interconnectedness of all Creation. The pregnancy of that moment birthed thoughts and images of so many people who are
part of my life – family, Sisters, friends, former co-workers, people with and
for whom I’ve ministered - life-long connections and connections only days old.
Those
connections between a wood knot, an octopus eye, God’s omnipresence, and the
people in my life, prompted me to ponder the meaning of St. Paul’s exhortation
to “pray without ceasing”, a challenging one for me. Could the warm flood of connections, of
thoughts, of images – some fleeting, others very intentional – be ways for me
to ‘pray without ceasing’? I’d like to
think so.
What does
‘pray without ceasing’ mean to you? As a
reader of this blog, you are now part of my life and I’m part of yours. Let’s pray for each other.
Kathy Flynn,
OP
Whitefish
Bay, WI
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