AUGUST 24
In prayer, you encounter God in the soft breeze, in the dis-
tress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your
own heart.
—HENRI NOUWENWhat does it mean to pray? Sometimes we think of prayer
as being consciously articulated thoughts, petitions, and
thanksgivings addressed to God. We speak, or think, and
wait for God to answer. But what if prayer is sometimes
nothing more than a mood of being attentive to what is going
on? Joan Baez has described prayer as Paying Attention.
Perhaps in the mood of Paying Attention, we can welcome
God into our lives—our joys and sorrows—as one who is
also Paying Attention, and in that attentiveness understands
and shares our sorrow, even as God’s love wraps us around
in God’s mystery, and makes us feel we’re going to make it
home.
God is present in my joy, and in my sorrow.