Several evenings recently the sunsets have been fantastic—but you have to catch them! That’s the fun part. Just walking or driving along, and suddenly you stop breathing. Everything stops—even breath—for a few seconds of pure awe and joy and wonder and incredibility and thankfulness. For those few seconds we are contemplatives. I imagine that our five-second contemplation rivals the mystical practices of the mystics who wrote books about their experiences and got their names on lists of the canonized saints.
In “The Joy of Science” in the July 4-11 issue of America we read that contemplation is “enjoyable, and though in the moment it is quite effortless, contemplation is far from passive because the whole self is engaged. It feels effortless because it is what our minds were ultimately made to do”)p. 14).
Be on the lookout for moments of delight. Be open to the inspiring moments of beauty, goodness, and truth. Let your heart love it all. Say nothing, yet know that’s a great prayer.
