The Transfiguration

I am changing my mind. This blog is my daily journey through scripture. However I want to begin that format with a significant Church Calendar date. Until then, hear about significant scripture to me. Please engage me with your experiences. Otherwise this blog is for naught. Each passage I will share in the next few days brought me to "God is Love" and "teach me to pray."

I start with "teach me to pray." I find Contemplative Prayer, Meditation, and Prayer in Action, prayer in work ~ ora et labora ~ throughout God's Word. I start with The transfiguration.

I am struck by how often people in Jesus’ company asked him to teach them to pray. I imagine Jesus’ confusion ~ perhaps astonishment is the better term ~ when he realized that his companions perceived barriers when simply trying to pray. I hope that, today, I can simply pray.

Jesus invited a few of his closest friends to join him in prayer. “While (Jesus began) praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah…(Luke 9: 28-36)” One part important to me continues with Luke’s 33^rd line, “Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and, one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them ~ all of them including Peter, John and James ~ and they became frightened as they entered the cloud.”

They were praying when “they entered the cloud” but, perhaps, too frightened to notice; too busy “making three tents” to Be Still in full contemplative prayer with Jesus.

I imagine that every time Jesus prayed, he transfigured. Jesus’ contemplative prayer experience was so different than his friends’ experience upon “entering the cloud” that he must’ve realized 1) his true uniqueness and 2) the depth of “teach us to pray.”

I feel this could be one of the loneliest times for the Man Jesus. I can only imagine how alone the Divine Jesus may still feel when those of us spending so much time walking with Him are intimidated by intimate prayer.

Jesus’ mission is even clearer to him at this time: teach all to pray without fear, to talk with God without fear, to love God and each other so completely without fear. Be prepared to pray “to death, even to death on a cross.”

my heart beats and i sigh