Spirituality as a parent-

I have blogged before about how frustrating it is to have become a parent and suddenly you feel as though all of your tools for prayer and finding sacred space are out the window.

Silence...

Meditation...

Reading...

Thought provoking conversation...

All these things become intangibles with young children.

Of late I have been deeply embracing presence...letting myself be present to Junia. Present to the moment and letting that be prayer enough.  Prayer is sometimes just being awake to sitting on the floor playing "people" or being totally awake to the joy or struggle or experience that is at hand.

And then, this quote crossed my path.   It is from Henri Nouwen.

“For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life---pray always, work for others, read the scriptures---and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself.  I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

                Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not, ‘how am I to find God?’  but ‘How am I to let myself be found by him?’ the question is not how am I to know God” but,’ How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is now, ‘how am I to love god?’ but how am I to let myself be loved by God?’ God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home. In all three parables which Jesus tells in response to the question of why he eats with sinners, he puts the emphasis on God’s initiative. God is the shepherd who goes looking for his lost sheep. God is the woman who lights a lamp, sweeps out the house, and searches everywhere for her lost coin until she has found it. God is the father who watches and waits for his children, runs out to meet them, embraces them, pleads with them, begs and urges them to come home.”

 I don't have the exact source and I apologize for that except that the copy I have is from page 106 from a chapter called "The Father welcomes home." The book---I don't know...