Think about your unconscious dialogue. You know, that little voice that’s like a running commentary and supervisor over what you’re doing. Sometimes we call that executive function. I think it can be something more primal. That voice determines Who You Are. It dictates actions and sets values. In the way a river carves its own bed, slowly over time, ideas and aesthetics we consume shape our mind and our heart. They mold the unconscious dialogue. No isolated event, outside of the deeply traumatic, alters who this voice is or what, in essence, it is saying.
What is God? A phenomena that is globally experienced through history is difficult to write off. The androcentric model (old-man-in-the-sky-God) is quickly losing steam and market share. It could be said that God is a synaptic pattern that has been re enforced through time by telling the God story. God could also be a process, or a force of nature. Whatever God is, there seems to be a component of that being that becomes incorporated into our own (1).
The daily office is a way of shaping who and what I am. It’s a way of shaping and molding my inner dialogue to conform to the character and values of the god of the Bible. It is a powerful tool and it’s meant to be used over a long period of time. The Daily Office sets a bedrock in the soul upon which practices of meditation, contemplation, and exploration find solid foundation.
The Daily Office is a way of praying started by early Christian monastics in the 4th century CE. Through the centuries it has been passed down by seekers and monastics often practiced in community. Although many practices differ, daily office is usually a combination of scripture or sacred reading, song, prayer, and silence historically done in a corporate setting.
Christ lives in my heart. I want to be in the light (2) and have it shine through me, like I’m a prism. Christ can shine through the prisms of you and me just like Christ shone through the prisms that were Jesus of Nazareth and his mom, Mary. Someone is the “Bible character” of today. It’s you. In fact, you’ve already been practicing the skills that make you so. Your experiences and choices have given you the tools to be and survive where you are now. The presence of love and creativity is the wind aft your back. I’ve told you a way I hoist my sail. What are yours?
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- Islam has Dhikr, the remembrance of God and Christianity has Jesus or God living in the heart (Eph. 3:17). Eastern thought has life energy (chi) flowing through the body, sometimes at focal points called chakra.
- 1 John 1:7
Joshua David Kingsley 