Picking up from last week, we explore the second line of the Sarum prayer as a means of Lenten reflection and meditation.
God be in my head — and in my understanding
God be in my eyes — and in my looking (Repeat 10x)
God be in my mouth — and in my speaking
God be in my heart — and in my thinking
God be at my end — and in my departing.
All of these actions work together. However, they work together better when we pay close attention to each line. Ken Wilson, the author of our study book, God be in My Head: The Sarum Prayer, suggests saying the line multiple times to inwardly digest the concept. I like this idea.
Because I have trouble with “monkey mind,” where my imagination jumps all over, I modified the practice. I said the line 10 times and the other lines just once, per Ken’s guidance. But with each repetition of the second line, I intentionally thought of a way I could be more understanding, and let that sink in.
Slowing down your normal pace is so important. Let this process be as if you are resting in a hammock on a beautiful sunny evening with a gentle breeze. Or use your imagination to envision you are somewhere that really brings you bliss and chills you out.
Give yourself time, space, and quiet to let the prayer experience go “through you” and not “alongside you.”
Recognizing and not just looking
For those of us who are sighted, we constantly scan our environs. Our limbic system searches for threats, often unbeknownst to us. As we walk, we evaluate our footpath for trip hazards or traffic. This is what I call “survival seeing.” We don’t usually comprehend what we are seeing. We’re really just visually filtering out dangers from our immediate experience.
Looking means more to most folks, I think. It hints that we are paying better attention. We don’t say to another person, “See the mayo jar in the fridge.” We’d say, “Look for the mayo jar on the fridge door.” Looking is more particular. Instead of using the term “looking,” sometimes I say “recognizing.” I do this because recognize has a profound sense intent built into it. Not only do we better comprehend something familiar or understandable, we also process what we recognize more completely.
With more engaged processing, we remember it better. It becomes inwardly digested. In a sense, our eyes “eat” what we understand at a profound level. When we consider the difference between seeing (filtering), looking (with particularity), and recognizing (intentional processing and remembering), we realize that there are active and passive kinds of vision. This prayer invites us to see more deeply.
Then there’s “spiritual seeing”
Barbara Newman notes that when Isaiah saw God in the Temple, we don’t know exactly what he meant when he said, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple (Is. 6:1).” We don’t know if Isaiah “physically” saw this or if he saw this “prophetically,” in his mind’s eye.
We’re not quite sure what to do with people who see “spiritually.” And, Ken rightly points out that if we accept that this kind of seeing exists, we tend to think that such seers, or soothsayers, are rare indeed. But let’s not write them off because they are “different” from us.”
I believe that his kind of spiritual seeing exists, because I have experienced it numerous times and have written about it. There are those liminal times when the thin place appears, where that permeable membrane between heaven and earth temporarily dissolves, and we experience a divine understanding with our eyes and our hearts.
In this next week, let us “see” something as more than an opportunity to move past.
How do we describe our individual lenses for seeing/looking/recognizing?
How will we look for what needs to be found?
What will we recognize as too important to forget?
What if we don’t want to look for or recognize something important?
Blessings on your Lenten journey.+
