On Prayer Postures and Recognizing The Season We're In
and why I'm illogically excited about 2024
Hi friends. This week on the Raised Catholic podcast, I’ll describe a kind of ‘breaking in’ period I’ve had with my word for 2024, springtime. I found it was less of a word and more of a link in a chain in where God has been leading me for quite a while now. If you’re still working on your word, I hope you know that there’s no such thing as ‘too late’, and also you know I would love to hear about your word and even chat/pray about it with you in the comments, so I hope to see you there!
Every organized faith tradition has its own prayer postures, and I talk about many of them in this week’s episode. Across place and time, we people of faith use our hands and our bodies to express our need or state of being while in worship or conversation with God. As I let ‘springtime’ settle in to my body during this first chunk of January, I have realized that the accompanying posture, at least for me, is open-handedness.
As a good friend of mine says, “you can’t make a flower grow by pulling on its stem,” and similarly, you can’t make springtime happen. You only have to allow it in in whatever form our abundant God is planning and to trust that though we may plant a seed and water it, that it is only God who makes things (or people) grow, in God’s own time. And that reality can be frustrating or freeing, depending on how we have learned to really trust just what God is up to.
This week on the That Sounds Fun podcast, Annie F. Downs interviewed pastor Banning Liebscher about discerning and naming the season we’re in. I highly recommend listening to this episode, and then asking God about your own season. What a clarifying thing to know as we embark on a new year, because if we know what season we’re in, then we can adequately prepare for it and even make the most out of it. Let me know your thoughts on that!
My ‘springtime’ in 2024 is so unlikely given the state of the world, I know, but I’m more convinced than ever that this is in fact the season God has me in right now. And I’m wondering, friend, how about you?
Listen to episode 158: Open Hands at the Raised Catholic podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts (or read the transcript) and then let’s meet back here to chat about your word and posture and season - I would be so honored to pray about all of that with you. See you in the comments.
While I don't have a single word of the year, I made a "more" list and a "less" list, and somehow almost every word that came to me begins with a C. Both contemplation and dance were on my "more" list and I love that Thomas Merton quote. Thank you for sharing it. Cosmic dance! Another C!
Open hands (or maybe open arms) really does symbolize my prayer posture recently - definite growth for me. Blessings to you on your exploration of springtime.