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Living in the Presence of God

The Sacredness of the Present Moment

This flower, this light, this moment, this silence:
Dominus est. Eternity.
(God) passes. (God) remains.
We pass. In and out. (God ) passes. We remain.
We are nothing. We are everything.
(God) is in us. (God) is gone from us.
(God) is not here. We are here in God.
The flower is itself. The light is itself. The silence is itself.
I am myself.[1]

THOMAS MERTON’S poetic language draws us into a contemplative aware-ness of the sacredness of the present moment. He evokes the mystery that in the simplest tiny flower we can see everything and nothing. We can experience that God is. Moreover, as Merton identifies in New Seeds of Contemplation, ‘the ever changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God.’[2] We live in the Presence of God—a God who calls us to live an un-interrupted dialogue, in intimacy, in union.

In this article I will draw our attention to the sacredness of the present moment in which we dwell and show how we can nurture a spirituality of Presence through the practice of centering prayer.

After situating the image of God as Presence within the context of scripture and tradition, I will focus on various aspects of this Presence: the presence as love, a relational presence, and a dark presence. I will then show how awareness of the Presence unites us to the Presence we are seeking.

Finally I will give an example of centering prayer as a way of disposing and opening us to the gift of contemplation that the Presence longs to give us, by leading us to a meeting place with God in our deepest centre, and sensitizing us to the oneness of all, in the uniting love of God.

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By Kerrie Hide. Copyright © 2006, Commission for Australian Catholic Women.