Caves, Prayers and Grace

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. (1 Cor 15:10a)

My wife and I were married only a couple of years when we traveled to San Antonio, TX for a relatives wedding.  During our trip, we stopped and explored the Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown, TX.  It was awe inspiring.   We had never been in a cave and it open our eyes to something unknown to us.

Years later, on a business trip, I had the opportunity to visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  It was so much more than the small cavern we had explored in Texas.  When I tried to tell my wife of its grandeur, she just could not grasp it.  She had only experienced the smaller but still beautiful Inner Space Cavern.  She could not realize the grandness of Mammoth Cave having only experienced a small cave.   She could only relate it to the realness of that she had explored.  

Each of us, no matter how much we try, have only a limited knowledge of God.  However, this is not the way that is natural.  Through God's creation, man was made with the unique knowledge and ability to commune with the creator.  This was in man's created likeness to God.  The first communion, when man received God's breath, brought a uniqueness not found in any other created thing.  But, humanity loss this.

As someone who seeks to serve God, I look for different insights and knowledge of God.  One way is by reading books by authors such as Franciscan priest, theologian, teacher and mystic Fr. Richard Rohr.  His writings have given me an interesting and unique insights.   This is the way that I explore more caves so my communication with God becomes greater.     

Man is in constant search of God.  He wants to make God familiar.  He gives God attributes that are found in man.  This is the intimate cave where many search for that communication and knowledge of God.  Trying to find what was lost in the familiar.  Searching for an essential part of the self that knows God.

In this search for God, we may find many falsities.  In this search, we may accuse God of forsaking us.  God never does.  The true God, our creator, always calls us back to the mystery that is knowing and communicating with him.  This is where those who seek God discover prayer.

God always calls us to this relationship.  God invites us in the silence of our hearts to an encounter with the divine.  God blesses each of us in the grace that calls each person to this mystery.   When this call is realized in its truth,  we answer it with prayer.  We have a new heart born of prayer with a new knowledge and communion with God.

Each person explores God on a path of prayer made up of our life's experiences.   In free will the believer responds according to their heart's course.  The guidepost that marks the path to prayer are the experiences a person has with God.  

For the Church,  prayer is both a gift of grace and the response to grace on our part.   Richard Rohr's view that ". . . grace is not something God gives but God is Grace," is a new cave that I have to explore.  Now, prayer is not just seeking communion and knowledge of God but also a realization of Grace.  

Prayers are like caves.  Both are hidden places so near but out of sight. They are there for us to find.  You must enter a cave to explore it.  Pray to explore communicating and knowledge of God.  Pray constantly by remembering, praising, and thanking God and accepting Grace in every breath.  Prayer opens us to God in which is found Grace upon Grace.