The Celtic Monk

Right now I’m reading several books at one time. One is a book on discernment –a very good book I may add; another on Ireland and the Celts; the third on meditation and contemplative prayer. The conflagration of the three has brought me to broach the subject of how to use a discerning heart (or even the spiritual gift of discernment) as I pray for others. It names a struggle I face in my own prayer life: Do I pray for someone in a specific way because they asked me to… or do I take that person, their needs, wants, desires to God and seek God’s best for them? Do I pray that their will be done… or that God’s will be done in their lives. Sometimes as I pray for something specific that someone has asked, I’m led away from their request and find myself asking God to use their circumstances, need, situation, longing, even illness or grief to bring them closer to Him and His desire for their lives – even if it means they don’t receive what they want right now. At those time...

In my reading these past few weeks I've been accompanying Job the mythical biblical character who if he didn't have misfortune, would have no fortune at all. I spent time remembering my teacher in the Job course at Columbia Theological Seminary, Dr. Kathleen O'Connor, http://www.ctsnet.edu/FacultyMember.aspx?ID=32 and her depth of knowledge about and compassion towards this one called Job. I've used the passages from this book as they came up in the Sunday lectionary before...but right now...am finding new learnings from this guy no one wants to emulate. The first of those learnings is that even as children of God, or perhaps especially as children of God, the only way to get beyond suffering is to go through it. Job had to go through it. Abraham had to go through it. Moses had to go through it. Jacob had to go through it. Jesus and Paul and Peter all walked into the suffering that was before them. If I'm remembering any of Psychology 101, this Theology 101 o...