Beautiful! Once again, your words resonate with how I feel when it comes to prayer. Often times when I do my daily “formal” prayer, it feels forced. I think back when I was a child on the school bus, I would talk to God, because I was scared after moving to CA. No friends, unfamiliar territory, busy streets, strange faces… but just talking to Him would comfort me. Returning to those days of connection and faith is what I’m striving for. Thanks, as always, for your inspiration.
And the teaching of the NT gospels was to become as a child, who is the greatest in the Kingdom. To pray like a child again, in a non-infantilizing sense, is incredibly comforting. There's a "mature childhood" we can aspire to integrate into our adulthood. One of the papers I did for grad studies used some thought from the theologian Karl Rahner that somewhat captures it: "The mature childhood of the adult is the attitude in which we bravely and trustfully maintain an infinite openness in all circumstances and despite the experiences of life which seem to invite us to close ourselves. Such openness, infinite and maintained in all circumstances yet put into practice in the actual manner in which we live our lives is the expression of man’s religious existence.” And elsewhere he adds, “The childhood which belongs to the child in the biological sense is only the beginning, the prelude, the foretaste and promise of this other childhood, which is the childhood proved and tested and at the same time assailed, which is present in the mature man.” Incredibly hopeful, this pursuit of a mature childhood and its potential to help us return to what Hans von Balthasar called the "inviolable dimension." I can picture little Carl on a school bus in late 1970s California. What a precious image. Thanks for sharing it, Carl.
Beautiful! Once again, your words resonate with how I feel when it comes to prayer. Often times when I do my daily “formal” prayer, it feels forced. I think back when I was a child on the school bus, I would talk to God, because I was scared after moving to CA. No friends, unfamiliar territory, busy streets, strange faces… but just talking to Him would comfort me. Returning to those days of connection and faith is what I’m striving for. Thanks, as always, for your inspiration.
And the teaching of the NT gospels was to become as a child, who is the greatest in the Kingdom. To pray like a child again, in a non-infantilizing sense, is incredibly comforting. There's a "mature childhood" we can aspire to integrate into our adulthood. One of the papers I did for grad studies used some thought from the theologian Karl Rahner that somewhat captures it: "The mature childhood of the adult is the attitude in which we bravely and trustfully maintain an infinite openness in all circumstances and despite the experiences of life which seem to invite us to close ourselves. Such openness, infinite and maintained in all circumstances yet put into practice in the actual manner in which we live our lives is the expression of man’s religious existence.” And elsewhere he adds, “The childhood which belongs to the child in the biological sense is only the beginning, the prelude, the foretaste and promise of this other childhood, which is the childhood proved and tested and at the same time assailed, which is present in the mature man.” Incredibly hopeful, this pursuit of a mature childhood and its potential to help us return to what Hans von Balthasar called the "inviolable dimension." I can picture little Carl on a school bus in late 1970s California. What a precious image. Thanks for sharing it, Carl.