The Practice of Simple Regard

On February 17 (last Thursday), I facilitated a small-group day of prayer and recollection, focused on A Taste of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness, the title of a 2007 videotaped dialogue between Richard Rohr and Thomas Keating. In addition to engaging in communal centering prayer, the group viewed segments of this Rohr-Keating talk. Two variations on another contemplative practice were also introduced:  a receptive form of prayer inspired by Keating's reference to Brother Lawrence in his book Intimacy With God. This practice incorporates imagination and sensory perception as a means of heightening one's awareness of -- and gratitude for -- the ever-pouring "flow" of beauty, truth, and goodness from God.

"Brother Lawrence fine tuned the 'practice of simple regard'-- the noticing of God looking at me! Although my attention may wander, I can be assured that God's attention does not. Nor does God waver, nor does God condemn, nor does God dislike us for our wavering. . . . God is present to everything like the eye of a camera that sees everything just as it is. Yet we, in our turn, may not be present to God. Like the subjects of a casual photograph, we may not perceive that someone sees a marvelous value and beauty in us and is taking our picture." 

     --Thomas Keating, from Intimacy With God

Variation #1:  Be attentive to the Presence that is aware of you, watching you like a loving grandparent, ready to catch your fall, admiring your work and your struggles, waiting breathlessly for even a slight glance. Receive this gently watchful Presence. Experience yourself as a focus of God's loving gaze. Let this gaze flow over you and through you. Inwardly communicate to God what you are thinking and feeling.

Variation #2: Allow your awareness to be drawn to something beautiful in the present moment -- an image that crosses your field of vision, a sound that you hear, a caress, the smell and taste of food, words that you encounter in a book or through another's speech or song. Do not "seek out" something beautiful -- instead, wait patiently and allow it to "find" you. Receive it as the outflow of God's goodness and truth. Let your gratitude well up and flow back to God.