Last week, this space shared a description of The Welcoming Prayer, as explained by Contemplative Outreach. Key to the description is that The Welcoming Prayer is “a method of consenting to God’s presence and action” [emphasis added]. This language of consent acknowledges God as the prime actor in our prayer. Indeed, it is fundamental to our understanding of God that all relationship with the Divine is initiated by God. As paragraph ONE of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “At every time and in every place, God draws close to man.” Yet, our perception of prayer so often has us frail and fickle humans as the initiators of prayer, the first ones seeking, asking, calling. In truth, every moment and circumstance of our lives should be seen as a moment or circumstance in which God actively reaches out and allures us into Divine Life and Love. The Welcoming Prayer properly frames our relationships with God in this way, and recognizes that, living constantly immersed in the presence and action of God Who Loves Us, there are really only two responses we can offer: we can consent or dissent to that presence and action. The Welcoming Prayer bids us to continually offer our consent to each moment of our lives as an act of radical, deepening faith to the all-encompassing love of God!