Taking Refuge in You: Chanayni

Chanayni Elohim, Chanayni
Ki v’cha chasayah nafshi
Hebrew for Taking Refuge in You
You pour out your grace to me, Oh God,
When my soul takes refuge in You. (Psalm 57:2)

There are many names for God. When I invoke the name Elohim, I am sometimes startled to remember that this name is grammatically in the plural; I must explore that great Multiplicity if I am to find my way to Unity. On some days I call God “My Beloved”; on some days I call God “My Friend”; on some days I call to God as “The Great Mystery”; on some days I know God as the “Infinite Invisible”. Today as I face a world that is reeling in flux, I take refuge in God, and I call Her, “Spacious, Loving Awareness.”

Taking refuge in Spacious, Loving Awareness allows me to re-contextualize my own troubles, lean into a larger perspective, and surrender into this expanded moment. This act of taking refuge beneath the wide wings of Shechina, is what opens the apertures of my heart, allowing Grace (the Divine flow) to pour in. God is always flowing. It is only I who sometime closes in response to trauma, fear, doubt or wounding. Our spiritual practice is to open to that flow by taking refuge, giving ourselves over to God’s loving embrace.

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