aeternus

In this blog some thought as to seeing God in the everyday experience of our lives, and this is such an important witness to Him. It is a prayer to keep Him with us and notice and appreciate His greatness in these daily events. It is “practicing the presence of God”, a notion taught very well to us through the Carmelite, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

At the young age of 18 years, Lawrence was on one winter day looking at a tree with all of its leaves bear. He considered that in only a little while the leaves would sprout afresh. Soon the tree would be splendidly green with buds and flowers and fruit. This meditation drew him so close to admiring the greatness of God that this divine spirit never left his soul. By witnessing the notion of transfiguration in nature, he was able to see how living in the every day and practicing the presence of God, our lives would be transfigured in God.

The mystical notion of transfiguration is sometimes left only to dreamers and poets and religious. I guess that is why then that contemporary media fills itself with thought only of the transfiguration of the physical? It seems the world is obsessed with it. Can we get through the day without seeing how we can transform into cyborg-robots, vampires, steroid athletes and even into the opposite sex! We can have a face-lift, a tummy tuck and transform our wrinkly thighs with liposuction. There is a fascination with magical powers and witchcraft and wizardry. But there is no thought given to the transfigurement of our souls.

This is so very sad.

If we can witness the powers of science to transform, surely we can testify to the mysterious transformation of the unseen Holy Spirit which permeates our souls and all of creation. It is this Holy Spirit which united Jesus with the Father on Mt. Tabor in a most perfect and divine union of physical and spiritual — the temporal meeting the eternal. And while I have to admit enjoying a bit of Harry Potter fiction with the children (gasp!) — my mind could certainly live only so long on fantasy! The real food of the mind comes from the nourishment it receives from the soul. It is then we can be witnesses of Gods Kingdom on this earth He has given us. It is then we can practice the presence of God and do our best to see the eternal within our physical world.