Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?

p. 168

“Monastics have a practice they call statio that means, simply, stopping one thing before beginning another. Rather than rushing from one task to the next, pause for a moment and recognize the time between times. Before dialing the phone, pause and think about the conversation and the person on the other end. After reading from a book, pause and think back through what you learned and how you were moved. After watching a television show, pause and ask what it contributed to your life. Before reading the Bible, pause and ask for a spirit of attention. Do this often enough and even mechanical acts become conscious, mindful. This gets us beyond the competition and achievement cycle. So Paul in Romans, recommending statio: ‘Set your mind on what the Spirit desires . . . ‘ And in Philippians: ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure . . . think about such things.’”