The Gift of Honesty
"Prayer is simply a matter of course in the Bible. It was so much taken for granted that, to begin with, Israel had no word for "pray." The word for praying was rejoicing, laughing, crying,
reviling, imploring, according to how one felt." Huub Oosterhuis (Dutch ,Jesuit) Your Word is Near/ no page cited from my Feb 26, 1985 personal journal entry
Those words are so embodied by the Psalms, the Prophets (and Jesus too.)
The Psalms flow with such human emotion, in all its range and richness:
exultation and praise, anger and fear, vengeance and despair, questions..doubts...sometimes just a waiting, seeking.. searching.
It is poetry. It is the human soul put into word. It is prayer.
Could Lent be a time for me to trust, a little bit more, this kind of prayer. It is a form of trusting God's love...
..permission to be...
isn't that a kind of grace?
Prayer reflection:
Will I pray Biblically...being honest before God..."according to how one felt" as Oosterhuis put it. ..bringing all my emotion...just being...
and then....
and then ..the grace of being
as I am, in the presence of God...?....................
Spend time in silence..letting your emotions come to your awareness. ... an honest prayer.
transformative..... healing
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