DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Saturday, April 21, 2018

What is contemplative prayerfulness?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? – Matthew 6:28-30

A beautifully poetic metaphor, yet within it the stark reality of mortality. So exquisite are the lilies … yet, in time, they will come to their end. If the lilies are so beautiful in their natural innocence, how much more the human life in its state of innocence. And such is the outcome of sincere confession and bountiful mercy … we can be returned to the state of innocence.

But today, I focus on that word of direction given by Christ … that word … consider.

Consider the lilies … behold them, pause at each detail, count the colors and the shades of the colors, count the petals and the pollen they offer. Consider the lilies … relive their beginning and relive how they has grown. Consider the lilies … the shape as if crafted by the sensitive hand of a sculptor, the fragrance like no other fragrance on earth. Consider the lilies how they are so much the same and yet how each is somehow distinctive.

Spend time with the lilies, far more time than most people do. Converse with the lilies though their words may be few. This a time of contemplative prayerfulness … to long consider the lilies … or the people … or the moment … or the thought … or the feeling … or even the quality of spirit found in the Lord.

Take time to consider the lilies … or the sparrow … or a loved one … or your inner life … or a few words spoken by the Lord.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz