Mystery

November 5, 2009.--The relation of prayer to spiritual growth filled my mind with all types of images and statements as I walked down Connecticut Avenue to the Cathedral. Love creates an infinite set of formulas and set of rules within each of us. Prayer remains very essential to our spiritual life. Prayer is one way for us to communicate to God or for God to communicate to us.

I give myself a little prayer or a simple thought, to think about, to play with each day. I like having something mildly cerebral to focus the thoughts of my rambunctious mind; my imagination needs some question, real or rhetorical to cling to, to tease, to define; the clinging on often leads to more thoughts about mercy, compassion, and hope. Sometimes I am able to develop a deeper understanding of God or my love for God.

The more real that God becomes in my heart and soul the easier it becomes for me notice sin. Sin is a coarsened behavior, either thought or action. I sometimes wonder whether the impetus for sin begins somewhere within the unconscious within the fragments of dreams, fantasies, nightmares and other fears. How we interpret our sins might provide us with tools and resources to avoid them in the future.

Do I consider sin to be concrete, abstract, or some type of rebellion against the conscience? I am still trying to decide. Each day I am trying to avoid sin. There are good hours, and bad minutes.

Life is a condensation of all of our thoughts, all of our actions, all of our deeds, the ones we planned, the ones we completed. Within all of us there are an infinite number of thoughts and truths. This is how we advance and grow by learning, asking more and more questions.

Our thoughts, our imagination provides us with an incalculable wealth of symbols and ideas. Our lives as Christian needs to have access and control over our thoughts, our imagination. They both need to be always focused on goodness, fairness, mercy and directed toward God.

Many of my dreams are forgotten each morning when I wake. Many of my daydreams are repeated with slight variations each day. The conscious mind is often a Byzantine enterprise of mazes and dead end hallways and mirrored rooms and all types of other adjective and noun combinations.

There is mystery in the conscious mind; there is mystery in the unconscious. If we except both of those statements then can we also accept that within each action that a human makes there is a mystery; there is always a question why? This question occurs with every action, good or bad, sinning or loving God. This question leads us to reason, a deeper understanding of ourselves, our actions. Our relationship with God deepens when we learn and express more humility, charity, and love within our lives.

The mystery within our minds allows and encourages spontaneity. Hope and goodness are often supported and strengthened by some act unexpected, sudden, yet very beautiful. Our spiritual lives are neither scripted nor planned. Our progress is based upon our efforts, our prayers, our hope and how we interact with our Church community. Our individual progress might not be the same as our neighbors. It does not have to be. It should not be.

We often repeat what we pray for and how we pray for it. Our prayers exists with our thoughts, our dreams. Our prayers are sometimes spontaneous. Our prayers are always necessary.