Hiking through a slot canyon embodies perfectly the practice of Contemplative Prayer.

 

During the practice of contemplative prayer, we sink below the level of thoughts and emotions, and allow ourselves to be drawn into the abyss or canyon of our innermost being. There, we sense obscurely that our awareness is magnetized by the presence of the One who dwells in love within the bottomless depths of the soul. It is there that we are held and embraced, while our thoughts and emotions flow - far, far above us - like stars, meteors, and distant satellites traveling across the sky. Because this embrace is so close - so all-absorbing - we are necessarily called to transcend experience and to exercise faith in its all-engulfing reality. For here, even the observer is absorbed in divine Love, making an objective observation of the union impossible. Meanwhile, we marvel at the fact that - even though we, and the Beloved, remain locked in this inner embrace - nevertheless, all things somehow make their appearance in the "sky" above us, like echoes resounding with no original word ever spoken! As Meister Eckhart once exclaimed: "It is an amazing thing that something flows forth and nonetheless remains within . . . All creatures flow outward and nonetheless remain within [in God] - that is extremely amazing!"

Photo: Joanne hiking through Peek-a-boo Gulch, Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, UT; May 25, 2013

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