Morning Meditation

 

This morning we turn to a wonderful prayer by Father Thomas Keating called the welcoming prayer.  I invite you, first to read this prayer slowly, then I will make a few comments, then we will read it again together.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I welcome everything that comes to me today

because I know it's for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons,

situations, and conditions.

I let go of my desire for power and control.

I let go of my desire for affection, esteem,

approval and pleasure.

I let go of my desire for survival and security.

I let go of my desire to change any situation,

condition, person or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God and

God's action within. Amen

The first time I heard this prayer, I thought, “Wait, what? I am going to welcome everything?  What about suffering or pain or anxiety or people’s words that hurt?  How in the world can that be for my healing?  How do you welcome other’s words that sting worse than a thousand paper cuts?”

Great questions!  I think part of the power of this prayer is how it moves from welcoming to letting go and creating room for God to be within us.  One way we welcome what comes is to let go of the notion that we are in control and in charge of everything.  One way we welcome what comes (the good, the bad, and the ugly/oh my word, why God! of life) is because it isn’t like we can perfectly plan for everything.  The COVID epidemic, the political unrest, the continued discrimination, the marginalization of God’s beloved, and creation continuing to cry out under the weight of our insistent demands ~ we are part of a web of life where we don’t get to direct the winds that cause ripples to rip through the thin silky threads that connect us.  This doesn’t sit well to our Americanized Christianity where we long to be in control and create five-year plans with step-by-step goals and agenda where we follow Robert and his rules of order.  When we come to realize and recognize that we are powerless (which by the way is the first step of any 12-step program) to our addiction of choice and control, then we need to find another way to life.  The three prayers/poems this week are trying to give voice to that wayless way.  Each give us some structure to ground and guide us.  Go back and re-read the prayer with an openness and letting go and letting God enter those places that are too often occupied by our own sense of self-assuredness and desire for survival and security.  May God, who is our shelter in the midst of the sun and storms guide you this first week of October. Amen.