Oratory of the heart

Nouwen cites a quote by Brother Lawrence that was familiar to me. In fact I have oft quoted it.

It is not necessary for being with God to be always at church. We may make an oratory of our heart wherein to retire from time to time to converse with Him in meekness, humility, and love. Every one is capable of such familiar conversation with God, some more, some less. He knows what we can do. Let us begin then (Genesee Diary 174).

Last January we spent our residency at Malvern retreat center near Philadelphia that had these great rooms called oratories. They were a beautiful place to pray. When I first read this quote, the only reference I had for the word oratory was a speech. Reading it again, with the experience of the oratories at the retreat center, I felt my heart enlarge. There, inside my heart was a place where I could meet with God, all day.

I find that this kind of prayer is aided by a habit of prayer throughout the day. I use the Liturgy of the Hours to offer a rhythm to my day, at least on the good days. This week I have been experimenting with using the Jesus Prayer as a breath prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” It feels like the space in my soul expands with each breath.

mojo or nojo?

Work is the engine that drives production. It is that labor of mind, body and will that gives birth to result. This engine needs fuel to run. As one classmate remarked recently, every action, word and deed burns a little life. The work-engine will run either on one of two substances.

Mojo
I define mojo (n.) in the following ways:

1. The energy to produce.
2. The desire to do.
3. The erotic vitality to create, the muse, the imago dei imitating the Creator’s activity.
Mojo is a spiritual substance. It is created by contact with the Holy and those things the Creator has built in as buttons to bring us to life. It is the genius that hears the bat qol the echoes of divine whisperings.

In absence of mojo
In absence of soul mojo the work-engine will burn naked soul, sucking the life from the working person and offering barriers to contact with the Holy.

Work maybe for profit or not. It may be professional or merely routine effort. Some kinds of work are more prone to sucking soul, as some engines burn oil. As this fuel is intrinsically spiritual – soulful – the worker can be employed even in soul sucking work if through contact with the Holy, discipline and formation, the worker substitutes mojo as the fuel for work. This requires constant attention to the presence of God, as the great engineer of work, Brother Lawrence demonstrated.