The last two notes I've talked about the most important habit the Spiritual Life: The habit of Presence of God. There I explained what it is. Now, I propose some practical means to live in the presence of God.

The presence of God is the most important habit of spiritual life because:

This exercise is to consider that God is present everywhere, and particularly in the depths of our hearts; and accordingly, do all things as under God's gaze.(Theology of Christian Perfection, 603) author: Antonio Royo Marín

 

7 Practical Merits to Form the Habit of God’s Presence. 

 

1. Believe and imagine that Jesus is with you.

We don’t see him and touch like any other person, but by the Faith we know that Christ resurrected is alive and accompanies us on the path of life. As the blind perceives the presence of another person by his side, by faith, I feel and am sure of the presence of God beside me. I know he Listen to me. I think I've always had him by my side and inside me, and that right now it's here. I can "take him with me" everywhere, talk familiarly with him, ask for light and strength, enjoy his company.

One of the most beautiful prayers we know and celebrating this omnipresent presence of God is Psalm 139:

"Lord, you analyze and know me, you know if I sit or get up, you know from afar what I think. Whether i am walking or in bed you see me, you are witness of all my footsteps. The word is not yet in my tongue when you, Sir, know it all. You squeeze me from behind and ahead and put your hand on me. I'm beyond that prodigy of knowing, it's heights I can't reach. Where shall I go away from your spirit, where I will flee away from your face? If I climb The Heavens, you are there, if I lie among the dead, there you are too. If I ask the wings to The Aurora to go to the other side of the sea, Also there your hand leads me and has me taken your right. I say then: "Hide me, at least the darkness and the Light will be night upon me!" But for you, the darkness is dark and the night is luminous as the day. It is you who formed my kidneys, who wove me in my mother's bosom. Thank you By so many wonders, admirable are your works and my soul, you know. My bones were not hidden from you when I was formed in secrecy, or embroidered in the depths of the Earth. Your eyes saw all my days, all were already written in your book and counted before one of them existed. "

 

2. Look with faith:

If we look with faith, everything is God's transparency; Everything: things, events and people. God is in all creation because he gives existence and because he conserves. The creatures have the traits of their author and we can discover in them the attributes, the essential qualities of who made them. In the people we can see God because he created them as his image and similarity and the sanctifying grace run through their veins.

God is there, he wants to reveal himself, to be known to us, it is up to each one to open our  eyes with a look of faith and recognize him. The opposite would be a kind of blindness or myopia.

 

3. Make a full daily exam full of gratitude:

The Provident God is present in history and in your personal history, every day; don’t let him go unnoticed.

God tends to manifest himself through acts and words of other people, of current graces that the Holy Spirit gives you, of gifts you receive, opportunities to grow, of the sacraments, etc. They don't have to be great events, God offers us the gifts of his love quite simple. is a matter of being attentive to capture your provident intervention, be receptive, be humble, attribute merit, bless you and thank you.

If every day, at the end of the day, you reserve a time to discover the way in which God became present in your life and to thank you, you will be applying a means of great efficiency to form the habit of the presence of God.

 

4. Prayer Hand:

San Pedro de Alcántara, in its treaty of Prayer and Meditation, says the prayers "Help for the Memory of God and always walk in his presence. "

The prayers are short sentences, in the form of simple phrases, that we direct to God in the midst of the daily activities, putting all the strength of our faith and all the affection of our heart to pronounce them.

Some examples:

-"Lord, you know everything, you know well that I love You"

-"The Lord is my Shepherd, nothing I’am missing"

-"I am in your hands. Thy will be done. "

-"You are my rock and my Salvation "

-"Jesus, meek and humble in heart, make my heart like yours"

-"Holy Spirit, enlighten me"

-"Lord, let him see"

-"Lord, increase my faith"

-"Holy Mary of Guadalupe, pray for us"

-"Mary, I'm All Yours"

-"Sacred Heart of Jesus, in You I trust"

-"My Lord and my God"

-"Lord, have mercy of me "

 

5. Make Eucharistic visits and spiritual communions:

If we talk about the presence of God, what greater presence than the Eucharist? Christ the Eucharist: the faithful and close presence. If there is a chapel in your university, or close to your work or home, you can go and visit Christ Eucharist once a day. Maybe you pass, or you can pass, every day in front of a Church and you want to form the habit of stopping and greet him for a few minutes. The same thing you do with your girlfriend, with your wife or with your parents. It's a way to keep love.

Also, there are times when you would like to receive the Eucharist and is not possible; then you can make a Communion “wish” wherever you are. It consists in pausing and manifesting to Jesus Christ the desire to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist and ask the grace to receive him spiritually.

You can imagine yourself with Jesus at the Last Supper, leaning spiritually on his chest and telling him in your own words how much you wish to receive him. You can also use formulas such as San Alfonso Maria de Gorio:

I believe, my Jesus, that you are truly present in the blessed Sacrament at the Altar. I love you above all things and desire to receive you within my soul. But as now I cannot receive you sacrament, come at least spiritually to my heart.

(keep silent and express to Jesus the Love you have)

And now, as if I'd already received you, I'll hug you and I'll join you.
Do not allow me, Lord, to ever separate me from you. Amen.

 

6. Pray when you do your usual activities:

It helps a lot to enliven the presence of God to acquire the habit of praying before your usual activities. You eat three times a day, you can bless food before eating. When you walk out of the house, you can ask for God's protection. When you start your workday, you can make the sign of the cross. When you come home every day, you can kiss a bible, a crucifix or an image of the Virgin Mary that you place at the entrance. 

 

7. Light a candle or carry a crucifix in your pocket.

The flame of a candle can remind you of the resurrected Christ (like the Paschal Candle) and his presence in your heart. You can have a candle on your desk, in the workshop, in the kitchen, or where you spend long times every day, and turn it on occasionally. The lit candle can help you evoke the presence of the resurrected Christ at your side and within you.

And there are other practical means that each one can find, as a friend who has long had the habit of carrying a crucifix in the pocket of his trousers: several times during the day, puts his hand in the bag, tightens the crucifix and directs a word  to Jesus.

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