Author: Julian Maddock (Page 3 of 5)

Preemptive strikes upon the Divine

3rd November 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

Stop asking God for what you think you want.

What God is waiting for is not a right conclusion to a matter but for our suppleness in falling into His hands for Him to work in us.
Benedicta Ward, Discernment: A Rare Bird

When I ask people what they say to God, they often tell me they ask God to change their, or other people’s, attitudes, behaviours, and situations.

A manager asks God for more patience (with her difficult colleagues).A mother worries about her adult children’s standing with God and prays God will make them come back to church (which bores them stupid).
A man feels guilty that he feels angry towards his husband (who never helps out at home) and asks God to help him be kinder.
A vicar (who is harried by a demanding congregation) asks God to help her enjoy visiting the sick.
A city dweller (who is fed up with the frenetic lifestyle and noisy, dirty streets) asks God for help to find a place to live in Cornwall.
I’m feeling a lot of fear at the moment (more on this another time). I want God to stop me being afraid.

This is the pre-emptive strike. I make my request before giving God an opportunity to comment: “I know what is wrong. Please sort it out.” Not that I think I know what I need better than God does; rather, I fend off being vulnerable with God.

What shall we do?

20th October 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

This year I have started out trying to live all my waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, “What, Father, do you desire said? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?”
It is clear that this is what Jesus was doing all day every day. But it is not what his followers have been doing in very large numbers.
Frank Laubach, Letters by a Modern Mystic (p. 4)

What shall I do? What is the best thing to do? How shall I make best use of my time? These are perennial human questions.

Finding Depth

17th June 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

I was lost – tired, overwhelmed, and angry. A wise woman once said to me that underneath anger is hurt or fear. I felt hurt. And frightened.

I s(k)ulk through the night.

In the early morning, I leave resentment on the other side of the door. I find a way back to myself. I become my breath, become this body, become, by and by, the sensation of being alive.

The only 3 prayers you need

26th May 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

Too often prayer is presented as petition.
But the word ‘prayer’ is simply religious jargon for relationship with what we call God.
In truth, there are only three prayers.

Prayer is properly not petition, but simply attention to God which is a form of love.
Iris Murdoch, On ‘God’ and ‘Good’ in Existentialists And Mystics

1. “Here I am.”

Inevitably, when I sit and pray in the morning I wish for a new, improved me. I lack kindness to myself. I try to think my way into becoming better. I try to think about how to sort out my life. I try to think about what to do. But thinking is not prayer.

Presence is prayer.

Training day for spiritual directors

10th May 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

“Where is God in all this?”

I am running a training day for spiritual directors entitled, “Where is God in all this?” It is being hosted at the London Centre for Spiritual Direction, as part of their Developing Direction programme.

Here is the blurb:

“Where is God in all this?” is a question much-beloved of spiritual directors. However, if God is “in all things” then this question makes no sense. What is the purpose of this question? What are we really asking? What are better ways of addressing this? These questions get right to the heart of what spiritual direction is and what makes it different from other listening disciplines. This day will explore how we we might ask about God with those who come to talk with us.

The God we seek is here. As spiritual directors, our craft is to live this. On this day we will pray together, explore our notions of God, play with our craft, and seek courage to practise Presence.

An affirming source (6): Empowered

5th May 2019 / Julian Maddock / 2 Comments

[See Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, inter-mission, & 5]

It’s about an authority that emerges from yielding not to an alien will but an affirming source … [We] are empowered, emancipated, to use the transforming energy we can exercise by acknowledging our dependence upon an unconditional source of affirmation.
Rowan Williams: Being Human, pp. 72–3

Spiritual direction relocates authority from out there to in here.

An affirming source (5): Relationship

28th April 2019 / Julian Maddock / 1 Comment

[See Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, & inter-mission]

Our human identity therefore becomes one in which we both acknowledge in prayer this dependence [upon God] and respond to the gift that sets up not only our being but our renewed being in Christ; and in acknowledging that dependence we are empowered to ‘do the work of God’.
Rowan Williams: Being Human, p.72

“I want to know what God wants me to do with my life.”

People often seek spiritual direction with this question uppermost in their minds. Spiritual direction is the right place to ask this question. Spiritual directors have training in discernment, and it is a question we ask ourselves frequently. My contention is that this is not the right place to start.

An affirming source: Inter-mission

14th April 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

[See Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4]

If people destroy something irreplaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable make by God they are called developers.
Joseph Wood Krutch (quoted in David R Loy, Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, p. 16)

You may be wondering why I am banging on about this at such length. Why does it matter that God is “not an alien will but an affirming source”?

An affirming source (4): Presence

31st March 2019 / Julian Maddock / 0 Comments

[See Parts 1, 2, & 3]

When God is “an alien will” I may feel the pressure to make amends for the mistakes of the past and to work towards an improved self in the future. When God is an alien will there is a to-do list.

Author: Julian Maddock (Page 3 of 5)

Preemptive strikes upon the Divine

Stop asking God for what you think you want.

Like this:

What shall we do?

Like this:

Finding Depth

Like this:

The only 3 prayers you need

Too often prayer is presented as petition.
But the word ‘prayer’ is simply religious jargon for relationship with what we call God.
In truth, there are only three prayers.

1. “Here I am.”

Like this:

Training day for spiritual directors

“Where is God in all this?”

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An affirming source (6): Empowered

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An affirming source (5): Relationship

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An affirming source: Inter-mission

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An affirming source (4): Presence

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Too often prayer is presented as petition.But the word ‘prayer’ is simply religious jargon for relationship with what we call God.In truth, there are only three prayers.

1. “Here I am.”

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“Where is God in all this?”

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Contributions to the Trust

Too often prayer is presented as petition.
But the word ‘prayer’ is simply religious jargon for relationship with what we call God.
In truth, there are only three prayers.