Week Two: Day 1 – Consider the Lilies

In this phase, we will be exploring our relationship with God. Out of all the elements of creating a Rule of Life this is probably the central part. Jesus came to offer us abundant life and through his teaching, through his life, death and resurrection he has offered us this wonderful way to come home to God, to receive that life, which is his promise to each one of us. And I think in my own experience my own relationship with God deepens in proportion to my own life of prayer. Prayer is the lifeblood. It is the very thing which binds me to God and God to me. And during this phase, we’ll be exploring ways in which we can develop and grow our own life of prayer with God.

I love the way that Jesus, who came to teach us about God and help us to come to know God, didn’t do that through very difficult theological concepts. Jesus preferred to talk about God and about the kingdom of God through very simple images, using the very ordinary things of life, which were so very familiar to his hearers. He would say, “Consider the birds of the air or consider the lilies of the field,” when he was trying to help them not be so anxious or not to worry so much. Don’t worry, consider the birds, consider the lilies. And what I like is that word he uses, ‘consider’. We see the word consider and we assume it just means think of them or just imagine them for a moment. But that word in the original Greek is a very special word and it actually means look at very carefully. Look at it and consider what you are looking at. Spend time looking at those lilies – and what do they say to you? What do they reveal to you about God and about yourself? I think one of the best things we can do, I think, in developing our own life of prayer is practicing simply paying attention. Actually look and consider and spend time looking at something in creation, looking at it and marveling at it, wondering at it, and allowing its deep mystery to come to you and change you and reveal something of a mystery of God the Creator. I think this is a wonderful way of deepening our relationship with God.

And during this phase, we’ll be offering various ideas, reflections, to help you in your own growth in your life of prayer with God. And at the end of the phase, we’ll be encouraging you to gather together some ideas or thoughts, which have come to you, and offer you some tangible ways in which you may incorporate them, so that you may enrich your own life of prayer, and enable you to receive in a new way the abundant life, which is God’s gift to us all.

– Br. Geoffrey Tristram

This Week’s Podcast Episode 

This Week’s Workbook Exercise – My Garden Plot (Page 5)

Spend time now reflecting on your relationship with God. Use the exercise in your guidebook to map out how your garden is currently growing. Consider too, how you would like it to grow. Respond to the questions in each section with drawings and creative expressions. Start with the soil, move on to the plants, and end with the sky. Have fun, get out your art supplies, and let your creative spirit come alive!

Question to Journal
Pick something in God’s creation to “consider” today. What did you notice or observe?