What does the word ‘abide’ mean to you?

When I was growing up, the whole family sang songs together, sometimes just the seven in our house and sometimes with the cousins nearby so that there were thirteen altogether singing around the piano. That is where I first heard the word “abide” and it was in the song Abide with me. “I need thy presence every passing hour…through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me. Or “In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”

Actually we read in the Bible in John 15 that Jesus is saying to us:
"Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. . . . .. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit"

Jesus tells us that God is within us, looking to be our companion, always available. How shall we be available to God? When Jesus says go into that room, I think he also means that inner room of our heart, our inmost center where we are not identified with a role or an emotion and are beyond activities. Rather it is so deep within that all that is going on is abiding – that is, companionship with God.

As we say a simple prayer word or phrase over and over, we re letting the Spirit of God pray in us. In a way we have to listen within to the word we are saying. So that when thoughts arise, or images, we move back within and say our prayer word again. That repeated word is a symbol of our consent to the abiding Presence of God and to whatever God wants to do in our depths to heal us and draw us into more intimate relationship with Him. To abiding.

We don’t have to fight off obsessive thoughts and feelings, we just have to let them go for a while as we come back to our prayer word.. We trust that by abiding in us. God’s loving is going on in us.

There are many good ways to pray. And they are for other times of day – like the walking prayer, like devotional praying, or petitions for others. This quiet prayer is a transforming practice. Thomas Keating says it good to show up for your time with your Divine therapist twice a day!
Let us pray. In silence call to mind that God is with us and within us. Sit up straight. Close your eyes and introduce your prayer word. Keep saying it within and with attentiveness until your 20 minutes timer dings! Close within by saying the Our Father.