February 2001
Rise Within Us
Most of us feel that prayer takes place when we kneel in a church and sense the flickering of vigil lights and those few traces of lingering incense. Then too, maybe real prayer is sitting with a Bible in hand and looking out the window on a nice day.
But there are also other ways to pray. Everyday life teaches us one of them. In fact, God wishes our everyday to be itself a prayer. The praying Easter Jesus is continually rising when we make even small efforts not to be recognized as right, when we yield to that ready and healing humor that wishes to find a home within us, as well as when we scrape together just enough courage to deal with the difficulties we would rather not have.
O God of the poor and struggling, we have nothing that can force you to rise within us. In fact, we stand in mysterious awe at your rising, since you will always be more than our reaching hearts. O faithful All of our lives, we believe that Easter will happen, has happened, in everything.