ANTICIPATION AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE

I remember watching the movie, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and listening to Tim Curry sing the song “Anticipation.” God gives me crazy thoughts from the most unlikely places. In this case, I was mesmerized by how Tim Curry sang the song, dressed as a transvestite of all things. Well, this notion of anticipation surfaced again in my Lectio Divina, and, as you might have guessed, I remembered how Tim Curry sang it. Here it is if you have not heard it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlwnbcxBuzI 

I like the idea of anticipation, meaning I look forward to something happening that has not yet arrived. I bring this up because my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditation today presented me with the notion of longing for the courts of the Lord. Rather than blab at you about the Psalm, here it is in its entirety. Read it three times: first time all the way through very slowly; the second time, think of yourself as sitting on a park bench in the dead of winter anticipating that Christ will come by and sit down with you; the third time, read it through with the thought that Christ has been seated next to you all this time but it is you did not open your heart to the heart of Christ.

Psalm 84

For the leader; “upon the gittith.” A psalm of the Korahites.

I

2 How lovely your dwelling,

O LORD of hosts!^a

3 My soul yearns and pines

for the courts of the LORD.^b

My heart and flesh cry out

for the living God.

4^*As the sparrow finds a home

and the swallow a nest to settle her young,

My home is by your altars,

LORD of hosts, my king and my God!^c

5 Blessed are those who dwell in your house!

They never cease to praise you.

II

Selah

6 Blessed the man who finds refuge in you,

in their hearts are pilgrim roads.

7 As they pass through the Baca valley,^*

they find spring water to drink.

The early rain covers it with blessings.

8They will go from strength to strength^*

and see the God of gods on Zion.

III

9 LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;

listen, God of Jacob.

Selah

10^*O God, watch over our shield;

look upon the face of your anointed.^d

IV

11 Better one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere.

Better the threshold of the house of my God

than a home in the tents of the wicked.

12 For a sun and shield is the LORD God,

bestowing all grace and glory.

The LORD withholds no good thing

from those who walk without reproach.

13 O LORD of hosts, blessed the man who trusts in you!

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/84

uiodg

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/84

As a Lay Cistercian. seeking only to be present to God each day with my whole heart, my whole mind, and all my strength (Deuteronomy 6:5), the simplicity of just placing myself in the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit brings forth the desire of anticipation. Some of my thoughts on anticipation as it pertains to my longing to be in the courts of the Lord.

• Part of human love means I anticipate being in the presence of the one I love.
• I long to be present to Christ, even if I am not at Church.
• My longing comes from my awareness that anticipation is possible where I am and as I am (even watching Tim Curry).
• Anticipation is the constant reminder throughout my day that I am in the presence of Jesus. (RB: 7:10)
• Love that includes Christ is not like the world gives. It means I abandon my will (which means I actually fulfill my humanity) as a gift and give it to the Father through, with, and in Christ.
• It is in that act of love, that renouncing self to anticipate sitting next to Christ on a couch and listening for His heartbeat, that compels me to do anything I can to not be separated from Christ.
• The heart is the sanctuary of my Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Arc of the Covenant, in which the Law, the Bread, are reconsecrated each moment that I am aware of it.
• I not only look forward to this life with Christ, but also transcending death to live out what I have discovered about the way, the truth, and so my life as an adopted son (daughter) of the Father.
• Life is worth living.
• uiodg