To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us – and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. + Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
During October 2022, I was given the opportunity through Cultivate Renewal to return to the Abbey of the Genesee with Emmaus City Church's other elder, Aaron, along with ministers and servant leaders from Canada and the U.S., for a spiritual retreat at the monastery focused on the Cistercian Benedictine rhythms of prayer in the hours of early morning to early evening, infused with Psalms throughout.
Before we arrived, we were invited to read, meditate on, and memorize Psalm 63:1-5 to prepare for this sacred time together (I've also included verse 6 as it relates to prayer in the night):
Psalm 63:1: God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You;
I thirst for You, my whole being longs for You,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water:
2 I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
3 Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will praise You.
4 I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.
6 On my bed I remember You;
I think of You through the watches of the night.
The previous time I had the privilege to go on a retreat at the Abbey was during Fall 2019 three years ago right before the pandemic came. The practices of reading and praying the Psalms, especially connected to compline and prayer in the night, were Christ-focused and life-giving to me then, and I think they helped prepare me for enduring the last few years with patience and presence with God in the Scriptures through the Spirit, along with unpacking more the depths of the sacraments of baptism and communion. Otherwise, I think my walk with Jesus, my family, Emmaus City Church, and my neighbors would have been shallower and more strained (regardless of how imperfect my walk with Jesus and others was and often still is).
Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God's point of view.
+ Philip Yancey
And so my return to the Abbey was very much anticipated to be a time of prayer with the Psalms (and other ancient songs like The Magnificat) helping to direct my focus and shape my perspective through a Jesus-focused lens. And God was abundant in His grace again to me as I entered into prayer. The Abbey lives up to its hope and goal of "seeking God and following Christ" via the seamless life of ora et labora ("prayer and work") through their ancient and fresh practices of communion and community together.
I was welcomed into this sacred time again not only through the sisters and brothers I got to experience some days there with, but also through Aaron's humility and hope to step into the 3:30 a.m. Vigils prayer hour for his first full day at the monastery (for anyone who is unfamiliar with the 7 Cistercian Benedictine prayer hours, check out "The Genesee Diary" post for an introduction).
Before I arrived at the Abbey during October 2022, a theme I thought God wanted me to focus on was wonder. Along with wonder, presence has been another theme for refocusing our micro City Groups this year, and recognizing God's coming in the big and small moments of life has been a focus during the first quarter of Surge School alongside people with Emmaus City and other parts of Jesus' Church throughout Worcester.
I carried each of these three themes — wonder, presence, arrival — into my anticipated times of prayer at the monastery where humble humans pray every day, multiple times each day, for the life and salvation of the world, including me.
We are all called to pray, which simply means to acknowledge the presence of God 'who is everywhere and fills all things' (Jer. 23:24; Ps. 139:7-10; Eph. 1:23, 4:10). We are called to converse with Him ... We ask Him to save us, save those we love, together with the world around us.
+ Orthodox Abbess Mother Raphael in The Monk Who Grew Prayer
Prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbour, and your world. ... Prayer is leading every sorrow to the source of all healing; it is letting the warmth of Jesus’ love melt the cold anger of resentment; it is opening a space where joy replaces sadness, mercy supplants bitterness, love displaces fear, gentleness and care overcome hatred and indifference. But most of all, prayer is the way to become and remain part of Jesus’ mission to draw all people to the intimacy of God’s love.
+ Fr. Henri Nouwen in The Only Necessary Thing
And so when I awoke to follow Aaron's lead at 3:15 a.m. the first morning we were there, returning to the aroma of cedar smells and the aura of chiming bells in the beautiful sanctuary built by the monks who crafted it by hauling up rocks from the nearby Genesee Riverbed, I could only smile when these were the first verses from the Psalms I was immersed in during my first hour of prayer in the darkest part of the evening and morning while the stars pierced through the black canopy above:
Psalms 98:1 Sing a new song to the Lord,
for He was worked wonders.
10 Let the rivers clap their hands
and the hills ring out their joy
11 At the presence of the LORD: for He comes.
He comes to rule the earth.
12 He will rule the world with justice
and the peoples with fairness.
When we sang Psalm 98 together in the call-and-response at that very early hour, I smiled. The monks go through all 150 Psalms each week and I had no idea Psalm 98 would be the first I would engage with them on an early Wednesday morning, a Psalm filled with the invitation to sing and live in light of the wonders God has done and continues to do.
And it was not the only time that morning that the themes of presence and wonder would come up in the sanctuary.
Psalm 78:4 These we will not hide from their children
but will tell them to the next generation:
5 The glories of the LORD and His might
and the marvelous deeds He has done ...
16 He did wonders ...
23 "Is it possible for God
to prepare a table in the desert?"
24 It was He who struck the rock;
water flowed and swept down in torrents.
37 ... (put) faith in His wonders ...
Psalm 94:18: When I think: "I have lost my foothold;"
Your mercy, LORD, holds me up.
19 When cares increase in my heart
Your consolation calms my soul.
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| "Our Church Speaks" featuring Ephrem of Edessa by Ben Lansing |
Psalm 77:11 I remember the deeds of the Lord,
I remember Your wonders of old.
12 I muse on all Your works
and ponder Your mighty deeds.
13 Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is great as our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders
You showed Your powers among the peoples ...
20 Your path through the mighty waters,
and no one saw Your footprints.
Psalm 39:4 My heart was burning within me.
At the thought of it, the fire blazed up
and my tongue burst into speech: ...
9 And now, LORD, what is there to wait for?
In You rests all my hope.
My heart did burn within me, like the disciples on the Emmaus road when the Savior opened the Story of God in the Scriptures to them. My cup was filled and all was overflow during the rest of my days, in the times of solitude and silence, as well as with all the beautiful people I got to enjoy these days with.
In a world with much noise and clutter, we must create space to hear God's voice.
Embrace solitude and silence.
Sabbath. Pray. Listen. Breathe.
If Jesus took some time to retreat for prayer and silence, how much more do we need it in our lives?
+ Eugene Cho
To clasp our hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorders of the world. ... Christians pray to God that he will cause his righteousness to appear and dwell on a new earth under a new heaven. Meanwhile they act in accordance with their prayer as people who are responsible for the rule of human righteousness, that is, for the preservation and renewal, the deepening and extending, of the divinely ordained human safeguards of human rights, human freedom, and human peace on earth.
+ Karl Barth, The Christian Life
If a guided retreat like this sounds like something the Spirit of God would like to use to orient your soul towards Jesus, our Savior and Lord of the Sabbath, please don't hesitate to contact me. For those in New England who aren't able to travel to upstate New York to visit the Abbey of the Genesee, my hope is to help design and lead guided retreat(s) at St. Mary's Monastery and St. Scholastica's Priory in Petersham, Massachusetts in 2023, 2024, and the coming years.
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| Streams of Living Water at the Abbey |
Maybe I have been living much too fast, too restlessly, too feverishly, forgetting to pay attention to what is happening here and now, right under my nose. Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered in one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment. Just as no great travels are necessary to see the beauty of creation, so no great ecstasies are needed to discover the love of God. But you have to be still and wait so that you can realize that God is not in the earthquake, the storm, or the lightning, but in the gentle breeze with which He touches your back.
+ Henri Nouwen, The Genesee Diary
Bonus Prayer Posts:
+ CN | Being with God: Stillness, Silence, and Surrender
+ CN | Here Is Honest, Messy Holy Ground: Pray As You Can
King of Nations // Psalm 2: 0:00
Majestic Creator // Psalm 8: 1:58
Sanctuary & Fortress // Psalm 27: 3:49
Forgiving Savior // Psalm 51: 6:19
Good God // Psalm 34: 8:51
Afflicted yet Faithful One // Psalm 22: 11:39
Sovereign Lord // Psalm 69: 15:52
Suffering Servant // Isaiah 53: 21:32
Inheritance // Psalm 16: 24:34
Victorious Priest & King // Psalm 110: 26:07
Eternal & Just // Psalm 45: 27:35
Lord & Ruler // Psalm 103: 30:14
Cornerstone // Psalm 118: 32:47
With presence and peace in Christ,
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