Week Three, Day Two Love

I invite you into the prayer practice of Visio Divina today to focus fully on your breathing.

Breathe in to the count of three...exhale to the count of six or seven.

Breathe in the One whose presence is woven into every breath...exhale that which stifles your soul today.

Breathe in the One who surfed over the watery chaos in the beginning bringing forth life with wind and words...breathe out that which doesn't foster creativity within you.

Look at the image and let your eyes stay with the very first thing that you see. Keep your attention on that one part of the image that first catches your eye. Try to keep your eyes from wandering to other parts of the picture. Breathe deeply and let yourself gaze at one part of the image for a minute or so.

Now, let your eyes gaze at the whole image. Take your time and look at every part of the photograph. See it all. What colors capture your imagination?  What do you see?  What do you think this sculpture might mean or what do you hear the artist saying?

Consider the following questions:

What emotions does this image evoke in you?

What does the image stir up in you, bring forth in you?

Does this image lead you into an attitude of prayer? If so, let these prayers take form in you. Write them down if you desire.

Reflection

Breath.

Fire.

Water.

The three key ingredients needed to make glass.

Heat or fire to make the molten glass flexible and soft.

Breath from within us that causes the molten glass take shape.

Water to cool and help the glass become firmer, albeit still fragile.

Breath.

Fire.

Water.

All these three are parts of our natural world.  And, perhaps, this list of ingredients is also what are needed to bring forth love in the world today.  Love needs, first and foremost, breath to start to take shape.  Breath that can communicate in words what is in our hearts.  Breath give us strength as we offer a hug.  Love and breath depend on each other as a glacier depends on fresh water to keep growing.

But love needs a heat source, something to fan the flames and keep the coals from being extinguished.  The fire part of love, perhaps known better as passion, is also where love starts to tip toe toward the boundary of what is dangerous.  Molten glass can be heated to 2000 degrees, to say you need caution is an understatement!  With love, passion can infuse excitement, energy, and starts to make your love take new shapes needed for the changing world.  But like fire, passion, can burn too hot within us at times.  Passion can be so bright, only to end up sucking all the oxygen - breath - life out of a moment and begin to consume, even destroy, what is around us.  This happens often in passionate words said which hurt or harm.  This happens in glares and stares dripping with anger.  Like a glass blower, we need to move between breath and the fire with care and intentional thoughtfulness.  We need moments when we place the fragile, glass-like parts of our life into a refining fire that can shape our souls.  We also need times we to rest outside the flame.

Then, we need water to help cool us down.  If we only stay in the breath and fire parts of love, we might feel like we are always in a state of flux and are too fluid.  We may feel like there is no solid ground.

I think about how fire and water are images for a relationship.  We meet someone and the passion burns bright.  Sometimes the fire that is fanned to a roaring flame, but it is unable to sustain such a blaze without consuming too many resources.  Sometimes, what takes shape, like the glass above, is something beautiful to behold because it has been cooled by water.

Love, like glass, is fragile.

Love, God declares at Christmas, is the divine way for Christ and all who seek to follow him.

We behold the beauty of God's love, the eternal embrace of God.

We behold God’s beauty dancing in Christ's eyes like a fire.

We see a tiny and fragile infant laid in a manger, who breathes on us the breath of God.

We feel the rush of grace, like cool water sending goosebumps racing, running down our spine as we sing carols, listen to the sacred story, or simply stand in the straw staring at our creche scenes.

Breath.

Fire.

Water.

What was, what is, and what will be part of the way traces of God's grace move in our lives.

Blessings ~~