The veil was different this morning. I couldn't tell whether it was gone or whether it was no longer above me, and had just descended around me. Either way, it felt like I was in the middle of something. Now I was not blocked from something; now I was in something. And the being 'in it' was wonderful. It was as if I had somehow entered into prayer, rather than trying to send it to something or through something.
A frost crunched on the thawing pad of leaves and dirt beneath my running feet. All manner of the flying were surrounding me aloud -- the winged singers were caroling away, a big black was cawing in the distance, the honking ones were apparently reading bumper stickers from the skies above me, and a rat-a-tat tatterer with the red hat was beaking his hole into something woody nearby. I was in the middle of something...something at this time of year both dormant and alive at the same time. I breathed prayer this time...into the veil.
For today I was listening...instead of punching. Nouwen describes the difference:
Listening in the spiritual life is much more than a psychological strategy to help others discover themselves. In the spiritual life the listener is not the ego, which would like to speak but is trained to restrain itself, but the Spirit of God within us. When we are baptized in the Spirit – that is, when we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within us – that Spirit creates in us a sacred space where the other can be received and listened to. The Spirit of Jesus prays in us and listens in us to all who come to us with their sufferings and pains.
When we dare to fully trust in the power of God’s Spirit listening in us, we will see true healing occur.
-- Henri Nouwen
