Psalm 46: 11. Be still, and know that I am God!
Be still and know that I
am God.
Be still and know that I
am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Every Monday when we begin
our Centering Prayer “sit,” we recite responsively this form of the line from
Psalm 46. By sitting in silence in a circle for 20 minutes, we indicate our
intention to “be still” and simply “be” in God’s presence. We open ourselves to
God’s inner work.
The psalmist assures us
that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm
46:1) and depicts an omnipotent, all-powerful Lord at work in the world. We are
not to fear, however, in the face of His mighty acts of awesome control and
command. How, then, are we to respond?
“Be still and know….” [emphasis mine]. Out of our
spiritual practice of being still, we will know a very present God – not an intellectual
“knowing about God” but an internal experience of Spiritual Presence, a
mystical experience.
Richard Rohr, a Franciscan
friar, describes this knowing as “when God’s presence becomes experiential and
undoubted for a person.… A mystic doesn’t say ‘I believe.’ They say ‘I know.’”
(Richard’s Daily Meditation, online, February 6, 2013) The late Carl Jung
expressed this kind of knowing when an interviewer asked him if he believed in
God. Jung responded, “I don’t have to believe. I know.” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ25Ai_FYU)
The way of being and
stillness is a practice open to all. In the midst of the tumult and trials of
the world, God comes to us in the stillness…the stillness of a budding flower,
a crow in flight, a cat’s calm eyes, a lover’s glance, a friend’s kind touch…in
these I know.
—
Shirley E. Deffenbaugh
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