Generous Attention

 

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” Simone Weil

Following closely on the heels of the quote above is something both Weil and Mary Oliver said and I paraphrase: Attention is the beginning of prayer.

I have often transposed the word presence for attention and yet rarely think of generosity in the same place as prayer. I am rethinking this relationship.

Generosity is related to generativity is related to genesis. God’s creative power is magnificent and magnanimous. We who are created in the image of God are graced with that capacity to generate, to give. 

It seems to me that what Simone Weil and Mary Oliver were getting at is the particular fullness of our selves, our souls and our bodies, outwardly turned toward God and the other and creation. This very orientation which I know as presence and they as attention, emits generously: love, compassion, mercy, justice. 

And that indeed may be prayer!