Dec 16 2006
Praying Fingertips
Between my sophomore and junior year of high school, my mother suggested that I take a typing course during the summer at the local public high school in the Bronx, NY. I did, and thank the memory of my mother frequently. Not only did this skill of touch-typing serve me professionally, it has contributed to my prayer life as well.
In the stillness of the morning, long before the sun has risen, I have become accustomed to spend some time reading scripture, meditating on the words, and then seating myself before the keyboard of my notebook. In response to my request for clarification of the particular scripture I find the Holy Spirit flowing through my fingertips.
The process brings me to an increasingly familiar place of further still where peace reigns and deep loss and grief no longer hold sway on my emotions and inner calm. Let me offer a recent example of praying fingertips for you to consider.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written. “The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17
Prayer: Please tell me more about the power revealed in the gospel.
Response: The power is like entering a beautiful well-lit home or palace that is bare of furniture and ornament, only rugs on the floor, and pulling back one of the rugs is revealed a trap-door down into the interior.
The gospel takes you down into the interior to reveal a magnificent treasure that is impossible to contemplate in terms of variety and numbers because all is revealed in a union, in a unity.
And what is revealed? A roar of power that resounds the deeper one descends. And that roar is for some just a faint echo of what they hear in their hearts. It is the “Ah Hah!” that you utter, knowing all the time my will and love for you.
Righteousness is my divine will and plan for all of you. Each word that I gather and reveal to you in the gospels contains a surge of that power that time and distance can not dilute. The words are blessed with my touch and influence the righteousness of writings and sayings of even those that do not derive from the tradition that I empowered.
You are blessed and you know it. You are following my path, and even more blessed that you are responsible for leading others through your words and writings. Be peaceful today and reflect the righteousness of the scriptures and what they reveal to you.
