The Emmanuel PromiseSummer Joy Gross penned The Emmanuel Promise: Discovering the Security of a Life Held by God (BakerBooks) in 2024. Summer currently serves as a priest of the Anglican Church of North America. In addition, Summer ministers as a retreat leader and spiritual director. Above all, Summer observes, Emmanuel, God-with-us, isn’t just a tag line. Rather, the author highlights Emmanuel as God-with-us in the mess and mire of our lives. Therefore, Summer defines peace as a person. Hence, an awareness of God’s presence stills waves of anxiety. Because expectations around discipline and care color what we expect in our experience of God. Furthermore, our preconceived ideas about what love looks like become deep and trenchlike.
Consequently, we must know God is present, attentive, and turned toward us — the Emmanuel promise — before we can believe He’s available for attachment. Instead of practicing perfect, God desires that we practice the art of authentically crying out. For our God-given need is intended to braid us into the loving aspect of the Trinity. The God of the universe possesses unlimited capacity to tenderly hold our need. And our need provides just the right environment for attachment. As a result, recognizing the internal lie of the need for self-provision further opens the door for attachment to God. Hence, God prefers your authentic engagement over your limp assent. Eventually you come to rest in His arms.
Certainly, God’s presence never depends on our awareness. Trusting in the Emmanuel promise, we sense the nearness of God. But when you turn toward God, know that He is already turned toward you. While God holds hope, we hold only questions. Yet, God’s passionate pursuit of you never wanes until He’s holding you in His arms. But bringing our awareness to Emmanuel requires stillness. So, present moment awareness serves as the on-ramp to practicing His presence. Above all, our posture positions us to engage the holy with full attention. Yet, at times we need to intentionally grasp and cling to stay present to the voice of God. For example, prayer postures enable our bodies to remind our heart how to pray.
In conclusion, Summer notes that a prayer labyrinth provides one way to stay present to God in a culture of hurry. However, you never enter a labyrinth in a rush to find the finish line. Rather, your pace is your pace. Because presence is the goal. Also, the ancient prayer practice of Lectio Divina involves the prayerful and relational reading of Scripture. Thus, in Lectio Divina we learn to pause, linger, and listen. In addition, engaging in the simple, profound practice of the 3 R’s — Rest, Receive, Respond — quiets you in the arms of God. Furthermore, this simple, contemplative breath prayer builds muscle memory as we abide in God. Detach in order to reattach to God.
Finally, silence and solitude allow God’s voice — and the Emmanuel promise — to be loudest in our life. Silence converts us to a life of communion. Through holy imagination, the Ignatian Imaginative Prayer engages the senses. Summer adds:
“Attachment love developed through attunement gives us the resilience to risk the courage of obedience.”
