Meditation in Eastertide ~ Monday, Week 6: Praying with All My Selves?

May 6, 2024 ~ Monday, Week 6

     Every one of us is a variety of persons at the same time, it may be a very rich blending, but also it may be an unfortunate meeting of discordant personalities. We are different according to circumstances and surroundings; the various people that meet us know us as different persons. 
   There is a Russian proverb that says, 'He is a lion when meeting sheep, but he is a sheep when he meets lions.' When it comes to praying, our first difficulty is to find which one of our personalities should be put forward to meet God...because we are so unaccustomed to be our real self that in all truth we do not know which one that is...  

~ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom* 

Well, God, 
          today I come to You as close to being me as I can as there seems to be a few of me so that may just be all of me, or at least me in one mood or another.  It's early in the day and I haven’t had enough coffee yet. There's no one here but me. No one to impress, to one-up, to anger, to suck up to, to order around, to help. No make-up or jewelry, no special clothes, I don't look my best or my worst. I'm just me. You know more about me than I ever will and You still love me. Thank you. I'm just here today to spend a few minutes with You. It's nice to quietly give love and receive love. That's all for now. I'll be back later or tomorrow with all of my MEs and I might, possibly, ok one of me will probably ask for something.  amen. 

*Metropolitan Anthony Bloom [1914-2003] was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. He spent his early childhood in Russia and Iran and the family settled in Paris after the Russian revolution. He went into WWII as a surgeon for France, a participant in the French Resistance, and a secretly professed monk in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was ordained in 1948 and sent to Britain where he was later appointed vicar for the Russian Patriarchal parish in London. In 1957 he was consecrated Bishop and in 1962 as Archbishop for the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland.  He was then assigned as Metropolitan ~ Russian Orthodox Archbishop [or Diocesan Bishop] ~ for the Moscow Patriarchate [jurisdiction/territory] in Western Europe.  In 1966 he was released from the larger responsibilities upon mutual agreement so he could devote himself to the pastoral needs of his diocese.  Between 1966 and 1986 he wrote and published six books on prayer including Living Prayer from which the above quote is taken.  

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