there’s been this image that has stuck with me all evening, and i wanted to share it, because it’s been something profound
we started our busy person’s retreat here. people on campus commit to a half hour of prayer alone and a half hour of time with a spiritual director. i’m doing it this semester in turn to become a spiritual director later on.
anyway, we started with a guided meditation today at our opening session where we used luke 6:12
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
we then proceeded to develop the image of that while meditating. we pictured the night, the mountainside, and then we saw Jesus and he didn’t see us, and then we sat with Jesus. that’s really stayed with me today. the thought of sitting with Jesus on a mountainside, talking to him about my life, just as if we were in casual conversation. we were to envision his face as we met up with him to sit together, and when i saw him, he had a smile on his face that just said “i know how you feel, adam, i will have to be there soon enough”
and the thing that i suppose has stuck with me about the whole thing is that prayer is meant to be like that. the Trinity really is with me like that. i can sit with Jesus on the mountainside and merely sit in his presence
we finished and were told that we could be given time to come back slowly to join the rest of the folks again, and i couldn’t help but not want to leave. i looked around the scene again where Jesus and i spent our time, and came back to the room
all in all, it was pretty amazing.