Practices: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is both a practice of the New Monasticism, and a term that is variously, and vaguely, associated with Buddhism and/or New Age spirituality.  Let me share with you the description of mindfulness that is found in the Lindisfarne book of prayer, our Way of Living: "The practice of finding God in all things and being thankful; becoming aware of the creation as we live in the light of God over all and in all."   (You can see the Rule of the Community here.) 

Nothing unChristian in that description - God is described as both immanent and transcendent, but also available to our awareness if we so choose.  And that, that choice, is the practice.  "Finding God in all things," though, can seem pretty amorphous.  Where do I look? how do I see? how do I know I'm seeing God and not just imagining something ephemeral as I look?  It can become a bit circular.

As I've prayed through the later Psalms recently, I came across a phrase that has helped me with this notion of mindfulness.  In the place of one of the many references to the "fear of God," this translator had written "practice reverence."  Not only is the idea of reverence a needed corrective to the typical English translation of the Hebrew yirah, but it provides the link that I needed to practicing mindfulness.

By practicing reverence in a thoughtful, mindful way, I acknowledge the presence of God in the created order, in the material world, in those around me, in my husband, in my hermitage, even in myself.  Every part of the creation is filled with the glory of God, and adopting the practice of reverence throughout the day helps me become mindful in the way that our community seeks to be mindful.

"Practice reverence" has become a bit of a mantra that carries me through the day.  Perhaps it can carry you as well.