Many who've frequented the web site at http://shalomplace.com have come across the motto that I use in many places:
Be here now in love.

It's a wonderful focusing phrase, and it's what we ought to be about every waking moment of the day.

Of course, anyone who tries to put this into practice will quickly discover that it's not easy to do so.
- What does it mean to be here now? Sensate awareness? Are thoughts OK? What kind of thoughts?
- What does it mean to be in love? To love?

These are questions to embrace and to live with, and the Holy Spirit teaches us how to respond to them -- especially in prayer. It is in prayer that we are focused on one thing only -- the better part (Lk 10:42) -- being present to and open to a loving God Who is always present to us. In prayer we set our disposition to be here now in love so that as we go through the rest of the day, we can continue in prayer-full-ness, which is being here now in love as we do this or that.

I wrote a book about this practice years ago: Here Now in Love: The Roots of Contemplative Spirituality.
It was published by Liguori Publications and is still in print.

Of course, you can always just begin, right here and now, to do this most important practice, and ask the Spirit to teach you. Just to say this phrase, "be here now in love," can shift your consciousness to a better attitudes.

Go ahead. Give it a try. And feel free to share what you notice.