"What makes monastic life useful to God is the space it gives him."
p. 110, Punkmonk by Andy Freeman and Pete Greig
What a wonderful image---and reality---monasticism as the practice of making space for God. Several years ago now, I heard a wise nun describe the contemplative, religious life as a gathering of people who held the world in prayer. She explained that as the rest of humanity ran around with our busy-ness and jobs (which she deemed as important and needed), the work of a religious was the thread of continuous prayer her community provided to hold the world up to God as it continued to spin on its axis. That wisdom has stuck with me for several years now.
As I read this book about new monasticism, Punkmonk, and feel within myself this deep desire to creatively and fruitfully reveal God's Kingdom in this world through prayer, I am returned to Mother Hilary's description. The power of prayer. The value of prayer. The ability of prayer to "make space for God"----space for God to do God's work within me and through me. Within a community and through a community.
Prayer is an important and essential "space-maker," but so are the other aspects of a rule of life that all of us Jesus followers require in order to live this life of discipleship. Sacrament---particularly Holy Communion---makes space for God. By participating in the "re-membering," the "putting back together" of the Body of Christ---we meet Christ face to face (St. Ambrose of Milan) as if we are brought to a mirror in which we are invited to be bold enough to see our own selves---who we truly are----the beloved sons and daughters of God who are made in the image of God.
When we serve others, we make space for God because we are removing ourselves from the center of our being and doing and seeing. When we worship in community, we make space for God because, again, we are called to make room for others---in hospitality and welcome, in acquiescing to another's preference, in letting go of individual comforts in order to have communal cohesiveness.
Today I sit and drink my tea, read my book, as the cooler air outside and the children in the schoolyard remind me that summer is fleeting, and I am invigorated by the Holy Spirit reminding me of the necessity to make room for God. And dreaming of the beauty that will come, not only in my life but also in the lives around me, as God inhabits more and more space within---I am inspired and renewed.
Heavenly Father, grant me the will and desire to make space for you within me, so that like Mary, I might be empowered to give birth to Jesus in this world through my words, choices and actions----truly being a living member of the Body of Christ. Amen.
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