Editor’s word: Sacred House: The Prayer E book suggests six steps of prayer and contemplation for exploring the each day Scripture passages: The Presence of God, Freedom, Consciousness, The Phrase, Dialog, and Conclusion. We’ve invited our Ignatian bloggers to discover every step in a sequence starting right this moment.
The Presence of God
“‘Be nonetheless, and know that I’m God!’ Lord, could your spirit information me to hunt your loving presence increasingly for it’s there I discover relaxation and refreshment from this busy world.” (The Irish Jesuits, Sacred House: The Prayer E book 2026)
Our line of 14 cyclists strikes simply by the countryside on a weeklong bike and barge journey from Amsterdam to Bruges. With beautiful surroundings, succesful guides, and the simple firm of strangers who share a ardour for biking, now we have all that we may ask for this week.
As I cycle in the midst of the pack, my thoughts is chattering concerning the journey, the wind, the shut proximity of the rider in entrance of me, the too-frequent stops, and the mechanics of the bike. Why is my thoughts stressed with these considerations? The place is the stillness I discover on my bike that enables me to entry a connection to God?
After the journey on day two and a bathe on the barge, our cycle tour hosts name for a second of silence earlier than dinner: gratitude and, simply as shortly, “Bon appétit.” By days three, 4, and 5, I lengthy to discover a time and place for sustained solitude and deeper connection.
From metropolis to city to hamlet within the Netherlands and Belgium, we move historical church buildings standing shuttered or locked. Some serve a Sunday-only mandate, and one presents weekday Mass twice weekly, whereas others have been repurposed for housing, artwork facilities, or shops. Any given weekday, not one is out there for drop-in worship. Church buildings are closed to seekers of stillness or supplication.
What number of of those monuments to religion stand empty—ornate and thoroughly constructed fortresses of religion constructed for the ages. Trustworthy residents of the Center Ages pooled their wages to construct essentially the most elaborate and pious symbols of religion. Would a single church have its doorways unlocked after we rolled by a historic city for a break? Our biking resumes a well-known cadence after a break.
I take a flip donning the yellow vest to journey sweep, which implies driving within the again all day to make certain nobody is left behind. It’s right here, lastly on day six, the place I really feel God’s sustained presence.
“Don’t sit within the silence, ready for God to talk,” Thomas Merton wrote in Contemplative Prayer, the slim 1969 quantity I packed in my suitcase. “Let the silence converse for God.”
Driving extra slowly because the sweep, I guard the rear, keen to help if a rider falls again or stops the bike for any cause. I invite the divine to talk to me within the quiet of the agricultural route. We transfer by the countryside, the solar glistening on the canal. The one motion is the flip of our pedals, an virtually rhythmic cadence resembling a meditative state. Right here I mirror first on the plush Dutch hydrangeas, plump dairy cows too quite a few to rely, and a small herd of black Landrace goats lounging lazily subsequent to our bike path. Prayers of marvel, reward, and thanksgiving come extra simply. Gratitude flows for the unimaginable sights, congenial fellow vacationers, and the bodily achievement of biking the Netherlands.
I really feel the presence of God and the will to proceed within the stillness for the remainder of the day. Guarding the rear, reflection comes by the each day Examen. I discover what I’ve been eager for, the prayerfulness that Merton calls, “freedom from focusing by myself ideas, the silent self-forgetting dialogue, and the letting go that makes room for God.”
The stillness is pierced because the chief indicators, and the cyclists forward gradual to a cease. The moments of prayerfulness are fleeting, but I really feel renewed by the grace of inside connection. Even in motion there’s stillness, and in stillness, an consciousness of God’s presence.
My cathedral is the outside, and in stillness, the door is all the time open.
