Utterly Real

To step out and meet, or let ourselves be met by reality is no small thing. You may recall my mentions in the past of how the late modern mystic, Evelyn Underhill's favorite name for God was Reality, and how this has become, right along with Beloved, one of my favorite names for God, too.

Accepting Jesus as the Incarnation, as Word made flesh, and taking up his invitation to follow him (note Jesus never once invites us to worship him, but repeated invites us to go where he goes, to do what he does, both internally and externally) will result in —as Saint Symeon puts it in the poem (audio version) I shared at the beginning of this Audacious Advent —becoming utterly real.

As Jesus modeled, the process of becoming utterly real will be very difficult. It means enduring many pains and wounds and griefs in addition to radically opening ourselves to joy and awe and compassion. It is through this process that, as Saint Symeon writes, "everything that is hurt/ everything that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful/ maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged/ is in Him transformed." Through OUR OWN BODIES.

It is A LOT to surrender again and again to becoming utterly real. Again and again, we fall alseep (thus Jesus and the prophets' repeated reminders to "Stay awake!"), or we numb out (with actual sleep, or devices, or substances, or habits, or rationalizations, or denial...the list goes one. What's your favorite?). But Jesus keeps coming around, sometimes gently nudging us, "Wake up, my love," other times directly confronting us, "Stay awake!" Always, though, leaving it up to us: "The one who has ears, let them hear."

I have promised you some practices to live into an audacious Advent. Today's offering comes to you through James Finley. It is called The Reciprocity of Love prayer. Working from what Jim Finley has taught, I have tweaked it to be my own version and I offer that to you here.

I use this practice often myself and often with those with whom I do one-on-one work. What I so love about it, is that this is an embodied prayer. You are invited to connect with body and breath and to experience the union of God's love and your own via the breath. May this practice nourish you deeply, as it has me and many others.

May we all become utterly real. May we all support one another in becoming utterly real. Look around you. Look within you. The cost of remaining asleep, of sticking our heads in the sand is killing us. Literally.

Scroll back to the top of this email will you? Look upon our Palestinian brother, Jesus. See his wounds. And see his light. He is mirroring you, the utterly real you. Now, go. Open your heart [and body] to him. Let yourself receive the One who is opening to you so deeply.

(It's ok if now is not the time or space for this practice. Flag this email and right now set an intention to return at a more spacious time. You can do that for yourself. You can do that for those you love.) Be audacious.