We sense that the time has come again for the Christian faith to be practised, lived and loved, more than just learned as knowledge (as important as that is). The disciples learned a way of life from being with Jesus as well as from hearing him teach. So the Christian path is something that we do, even something that we become, as much as something that we believe. We hope that you personally will find this reorientation towards a life rooted in spiritual practice liberating and life-enhancing, and that this will be an experience that you will share with the children you work with. When working with this material, ask yourself:
- What could this practice look like for me?
- What could this practice look like in the lives of these children?
- How can I help them explore these possibilities in the time we have together and in other settings (home / family meal / school / church / all-age service, etc)?
Presence
Background
Place in the Christian tradition
A particular gift of Christianity is its insistence that life needs to be lived in the here and now – in engagement with the Earth, with our neighbour and with God. One way of looking at the whole of the Jesus story is to see it as a call into ever-deepening presence. In God’s presence, he is made tangible. ‘We were eyewitnesses,’ wrote Peter (2 Peter 1:16 NIV). And we are called to be present to the one who promised to be present to us always (Matthew 28:20). This is not an esoteric religion of other-worldly detachment, but a religion that glimpses heaven in the everyday. This is perhaps one reason why the Jesus story has so often been ignored, derided or even resisted. Presence can be messy as well as joyful, perplexing as well as serene.
Our contemporary context
A complex world demands our attention: so much attention but, if we are not careful, so little presence. We can go for hours or days without truly giving someone or something our presence. To be present is a deeply natural thing. We can access this in play, and presence is something that children do very naturally. But gradually our ability to be present can be submerged. We can find ourselves moving from experience to experience without pausing. We can be consumed by the past or just dream of the future. And instead of being truly open to the other – a key aspect of presence – we can find our presence diminished by being focused entirely on ourselves. Presence is natural, but it also needs practising until it becomes, once more, a natural part of who we are.
The practice
This month’s practice
This concluding practice in the present series of spiritual practices for children draws together elements from the other practices, and is at the heart of the Jesus way. Love of God and love of neighbour – recognised by Jesus to be at the heart of this life – are essentially both practices of presence. In this practice, we are encouraging children to nurture presence with God and neighbour, by first practising presence with what is in front of them. The idea is to find one thing that seems to open us up to presence, and to use that as way of opening up greater presence.
The practice in your main settings
Solitary ideas
Ask the children to try to give attention to a simple daily ritual, to enjoy it and to share with the group when it meets up next. For us, it might be whenever we open the packet of coffee beans to make a drink, for a few seconds to focus totally on the aroma. It’s a simple way of rediscovering capacity for presence and to sense a way to deepen our capacity to be present more widely in life, and present to God.
Ideas for the family
Look for ways to nurture true presence towards each other. This could be a meal time practice, when each person is given the opportunity to say something about how the day is going, without anyone else interrupting!
Ideas for a Sunday School group
On a large piece of paper create three sections. Get the group to talk about the past week / month / year and to write or draw something in the section on the left. Now ask them to talk about the same period of future time and to write or draw something in the section on the right. Explain that what they have said and illustrated matters. But it has gone, or is yet to come and, in God’s care, we have the amazing gift of now, of this moment, of the present. This is the middle section (and make this as large or small as you wish) and here invite people to write or draw whatever they are experiencing now. Finish by making a prayer for all that is past, for all that is yet to come, and for the gift of this moment.
Ideas for a family service
Gather a group to create a series of stations around the church, all with the aim of drawing us into presence. Explain that each station is best experienced by giving our full attention. Themes for the stations can draw in some way on the main Bible passage for the day, and could include play (a game), listening (music), touch (surfaces), smell (coffee), creating (paint) and prayer (a prayer space).
Helpful tips for this month’s practice
Possible Bible passages:
• 1 Samuel 3: The young Samuel is present to God with ‘Here am I’ – a phrase that could be at the heart of the gathering.
• Matthew 6:25–34: Jesus teaches us to consider the flowers of the field.
• Luke 19:1–10: Jesus’s practice of presence enables him to see Zacchaeus.
• 2 Peter 1:16–19: Peter’s memorable claim to be present – an eyewitness to the glory of Jesus.
Ian Adams is the author of Unfurling, Cave Refectory Road and Running Over Rocks (all Canterbury Press), director of Stillpoint, creator of Morning Bell and partner in the Beloved Life project belovedlife.org
Carolyn Edwards is lecturer in mission and ministry at Cliff College and author of Slugs and Snails (IVP)
