“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” – Ephesians 3:14-20
This is more than one verse,
except in Greek.
In the Greek it is one verse.
This is a prayer and I didn’t feel I could interrupt to extract one verse.
It is so expansive.
All the phrases need to join hands, so love and energy are released
from the centre of inward being to the far edges of the cosmos.
That far. That deep. That spacious.
Within the prayer there are tender phrases comforting the heart,
evocative phrases opening our entire being to realms seen and unseen,
contemplative praying that grounds and enacts Love in the world.
It ends the first part of the Letter and opens the next part;
the part about daily living in the world.
It stands in the breach between the deepest desire for unity and
the ironic divisions within the household.
We need this prayer
prayed for us
and prayed by us
for the life of the world
and the hope of one new humanity for the peace of the world. (2:15)
These are soaking words.
Enter them.
Let them wash over you.
They will enter you.
Absorb them phrase by phrase.
Be seized by them wholly.
I pray that…
Settle yourself. Take three deep breaths. Read the prayer again, slowly. Sit with it, without thought, without desire to figure it out. You can come back to that. Imagine the words as rain falling on you. These words are prayer for you today. You. Imagine the words landing in you, touching your longing, reaching your deepest desires, filling you.
Choose one way to live this prayer in the world this week.
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