Noticing God - Book Review
Roberto Cortes
April 18, 2017
Reading Report: Richard Peace, Noticing God: in mystical encounters, in the ordinary, in the still small voice, in the community, in creation, and more.
I. DESCRIPTION
The thesis of this book holds that Christians have to notice God in the present. He is not in hiding. Peace testifies his divine encounters with God and also supports his topics with similar testimonies from others. He realized that God is present in our world. He is everywhere and in everything. The book tries to explain to the reader how we can get this kind of experience from the presence of God, and how to recognize His voice. Peace holds that it requires a level of awareness and discipline of the heart which Peace calls “spiritual discipline of noticing God.” In the same way, Peace takes into account the different avenues where God wants to speak to us. Some examples are mystical encounters, ordinary daily life, the community, the Lectio Divina, hospitality (treating a stranger as if he or she were Christ), the creation, nature and the church.
II. Meaningful points or ideas within the summary: -Mystical Encounters. The author has reflected on God-encounters. He develops the mystical encounters with an emphasis in the conversion of the human being when they receive Jesus Christ. When the individual is exposed to Jesus Christ, he or she starts to get a beautiful transformation. “Metamorphoó” is a Greek word meaning “metamorphosis, alteration or transformation” according to Strong’s Concordance 3339 in Romans 12:2. This kind of divine transformation is not only in the mind, but also in how the individual starts to live (Peace, 12). Conclusively, the new Christian becomes a witness of his or her changes by God. Then God is not in hiding, He is knowable and the problem is with us. This problem will be solved as we learn to notice Him. Therefore, Allen holds that this hunger for God is beneficial when we have the guidance to be more aware of God´s presence. All experience is processed in the human brain, and the historical fingerprints from these experiences remain in our brains, according to the study from University of Chicago that Peace stated in the book. Therefore, a spiritual experience is a human experience in the human being. Consequently, parts of the brain light up and chemical hormones are delivered when we pray deeply. We only can conclude that we were made with the human capability to worship God and live supernatural experiences with God. In other words, our divine experiences are real and the Kingdom of God is coming to be real in our lives in earthly terms. The science reveals that we were made to experience the supernatural of God. On another note, the author states that we are not living in two worlds, but spiritual experiences are part of our reality. We are undivided human beings, and we need to open ourselves to the Divine. Don´t forget that God cannot be boxed in. He is not defined by any formula or magic incantation. We have to learn to notice God in everyday life.
-God in the Ordinary. During our lives, we have probably experienced seasons where God has revealed His presence consecutively. The author realized that God is a God of everyday life. Also, He has revealed consecutively when we have been celebrating Him with others. It means when we testify of His love with others, His manifestation is presented during those seasons. Therefore, in the midst of our activities and businesses, we should always ask ourselves, “Where is God here?” and He would show Himself. Ignatius Loyola founded colleges and schools around the world. “At the heart of Ignatius spirituality is the principle of finding God in all things” (Peace, 38). Peace has called this full life, “seeing God in the ordinary” (Peace, 38). Peace explains what he called “spiritual discipline of noticing,” and also, he writes about Loyola’s experience and the “examination of conscience.”
-Imaginative Prayer. Peace taught us the Ignatius contemplation, also called imaginative prayer. This discipline tries to imagine that we are living next to Jesus when we are reading the Bible or Christian histories.
-The Still Small Voice. This chapter says that having a relationship with God is internal. His inner voice is speaking to us now. In spite of this, we can make a mistake in recognizing it. Therefore, we have to test it carefully. He wants to lead our life, but also “[He] wants us to grow up, make choices, and live…a fully human life” (Peace, 68). He is a continuous voice, not an intermittent voice. However, when we move forward to the next level of intimacy, we are not going always to do the process to find His answer. His answer will be in our heart because ¡Christ is already in us! Now Peace´s statement makes sense. On the other way, Peace realized that the “tell me what to do” prayers “were not always the pathways to wholeness” (Peace, 59). This is true! He relates this concept to our God-given ability to choose. Nevertheless, he should explain this idea encouraging people to experience the voice of Christ in us. In conclusion, His inner voice will be able to lead us to face the situations in our life because of Christ in us. Try to do it!
-The Power of Community. The author starts this topic with Mother Teresa of Calcutta`s statement, “Each one of them is Jesus in disguise” (Peace, 69). Coincidentally, I had shared the same knowledge to others in the past. I realized that Jesus is a sick person in a hospital, is homeless, is imprisoned, is in debt, and so on, only when I visited them (Matthew 25). The Benedictine experiment focus in seeking God together as a community like the desert fathers and mother lived alone. This is the power of community. It brings two spiritual practices, the daily offices of prayer (eight daily offices of prayer and praise) and Lectio Divina (Bible reading for Spiritual Growth). Therefore, a meaningful statement of Peace regarding the fruit of the Spirit is when he writes, “I believe we see Christ in others when we encounter the fruit of the Spirit” (Peace, 79).
-The Written Word. Klaus Bockmuehl argues about this topic, “The entire Bible is a record of God´s speaking in human history,”[1] and Peace says, “You want to know God? Begin with the Bible” (Peace, 86). Really, we meet Jesus right there in the Scriptures! This is the first way where we are able to meet the voice of God. On the other hand, “Lectio Divina” means sacred reading assuming that God wants to speak to us from the Bible. Peace leads us in encountering the Bible as a study and as a reflection (Peace, 89).
-Creation, Culture, and Creativity. Peace draws the beauty of the creation of God, art, and creativity as a transcendental form of God´s presence. Therefore, God is a great artist of his own creation, “To name God as creator and to take pleasure in that creation is to see intimations of God” (Peace, 106).
-Church. In this chapter, Peace lists different part of the ritualism in a church where God is revealing himself to the human being. Some of these activities are worship, sacraments, teaching, spiritual disciplines, and practices. In conclusion, the believers have different challenges in this topic. Peace clarifies them, “discerning God´s voice and learning to hear God rightly” (Peace, 142). The author shows three tests that can help us discern whether we are hearing God or not, and Ignatian discernment offers rules of the three states of the soul.
II. INTERACTIVE ANALYSIS
Reading this book I have confirmed different concepts that I have experienced regarding the spiritual disciplines in my life. Imaginative prayer is one of them; examination of conscience is another one. The meaningful idea that I have found is to be aware that God should be studied in three ways or emphases. Peace mentions, “In Christian spirituality we talk about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer” (Peace, 49). Why? Because we have encounters with God in such different ways. Therefore we must notice who is speaking to us. I, for one, would like a society, a generation in which God is known to everybody who likes to know about Him. Unfortunately, Richard Peace´s God is not the same as the average Christian’s God. In the same way, my God is not the same as the average of believers. I can notice a big gap. Definitely, everybody is living in a different process from God, and different levels, but my question is, “How can we lessen this gap?”
III. APPLICATION
I remember when I was mentoring a senior college student; one of the topics was “Knowing the Living God.” We were talking about this interesting topic by 3 sessions, which were 5 hours per session. In total, this topic lasted 15 hours. Unfortunately, we could not finish in this time. The student was 22 years old and was teachable, smart and strong spiritually. While this is true, I noticed some spiritual perspectives that the student had was limiting the fullness of their knowledge of the living God. Without a doubt, the student had an interesting history of spiritual growth. Can we imagine what happens with the rest of our young generation?
God is knowable. He continues working in the process of our lives in order to move forward from one level of spiritual maturity to another where we will be able to know Him more fully. In my life, God has worked through crises. For example, I experienced crises when my father was sick and passed away, and when my family had an economic crisis. Thankfully, we matured spiritually and grew in our knowledge of God as we worked through the crises. Nowadays, we are living closer to Him.
[1] Klaus Bockmuehl, Listening to the God Who Speaks (Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard, 1990), p.13.