where's the great dominican had a mystic eckhart this in so one
sentence from him
no one desires anything so eagerly as god desires to bring us to knowledge of god god is always ready but we are not ready
god is near us but we are far away
god is within but we are without
god is our friend but we are a stranger
so i think he dumpling has the sense that the problem is on our side of all times are sacred are places are sacred but we tend to judge not settling in one way or another not good enough for us for our place of encounter with god so
it's choose this exercise of the sacrament of though presence of god this sacrament of the present moment that we want to work on now this morning we saw the rye but but it's not that easy so this afternoon or tomorrow will want to reflect a bit on the house what can
help us be more present and that it's lovely to have experience every place as a place where god can be encountered but that don't happen that often in my life how can i render a more frequent what are some of the helps so i'll just sketch
some of the helps i've found in mumbai can read about this helpful to others will also say tomorrow we'll have a yacht or confirm for everyone to sure where to find helpful and also any questions you might have about the i would cheat as morning you could lose that convincing work it seems
lt's of problematic it's better than it be fairly convincing for super going to give ourselves to this endeavor
ah so how well i think for most of us are basic patterns to our life it's not that every day is totally different from every other day there are certain time certain people certain places that recur
we can ponder up a bit more especially in a retreat period such as us what is that pattern what are the recurring people places times and then just start to work on one another at these to ponder and meditate how
how is that sacramento for me how if i missed that and how can i may be more give time to act
most of us will have that three times a day for eating for instance for some of us it's currently set certainly if you're in a monastery it's quite set up maybe only too but i'm usually press americans we can count on of times for each and every day
so how to reflect on them claim that more as sacramento moment or so that that a part about the at least when we get to it becomes more sacramento
or maybe one week where work on our meal times may be one week will work on this cushioned ride regularly encountered who maybe i don't always experience sacramental rite or arrange such you to it as representing christ to me et cetera maybe another time we don't
be a the door cycle through or the of chinese i take by car or up the recurring task at work whenever it be one as i say is to ponder the pattern ponder what's regularly for and then through reflect
to claim it as a more conscious level and then a there since mechanician pianists of habit which can be bad if it's a bad habit but it can also reinforces it's a good habit if i get into the habit of racing my consciousness or for that pertain
secular moment or event or place or person of that will be good and that will also lead into rendering the more you see or recognize him other times out of place is other moments we break through that wall of from forgetfulness of from aliens
nation and if we abuse at least little islands could flood of recollection of centredness than it's likely that these are slowly slowly going to run expand that's the hoop
one of our palms is the mind where the fantasy or the imagination of however would characterize that faculty it can be fairly sliding i may be here now but my mind might be a hundred miles away
remember our old father eater it used to say we look so edifying and choir in all these monks absorbed and prayer if you could go into their heads we could be that one or two of them are a bit destructive should own work address or that or a wriggly coming back but i think for all of us
we experience swept up the eastern religions called the monkey mind just jumping around from thing to thing and up so that's a problem in terms of this practice of the sacrament of the present moment
the good news though is that our body remains here even with are going to see your mind of our imagination is one hundred miles away or it is not able to drag me one hundred and profits away i may be off with them photo in the learned of the rings movie
he and i might be churning toward such the amount of doom etc but actually i'm right here so if i can be framed my body a little more if i can become a little more aware of body and but body be a pint of a base home base on
that can help so that when i catch myself a thoroughly distracted at the thing that isn't to rugs than not they should punish myself with the next twenty minutes but just to judge me come back to where i am sitting or standing or walking or whatever and again be friend my body and
become aware of the immediate sensations are rising arriving at through the senses of the body that's a humble place to start but it's a good place
there's the sacred mountain that for like typical for our the great world religions certainly for and the jewish christian tradition you can trace all of salvation his speeches in terms of kii mountains i'm like mount sinai about caramel up
the of the be attitudes the amount of the crucifixion of or mount sinai jerusalem or the amount of the ascension et cetera well the archetypical because there's a mountain with their dogs to become aware of us in different levels and she said
don't it's good to just come back and be humble and started the base of about you know i'm just a we're right here
i find it a wonderful exercise for instance before prayer starts to get there a little early and just to sit there as we all do but just become aware of my feet against the floor you know and the seat of the sheer in the back of the chair my hands
my legs were whatever of the body can be this so it'll sell that we returned to in which sure we find our heart in which we find our spirit
so our claim against about it this isn't always easy some of us are not that reconcile with our body for whatever reason by the image should be were getting older and were aware of aches and pains or whatever but up the christian faith as thoroughly embody thoroughly in ca
minute
you'd say up platonic temptation neoplatonic to just kill up in the realm of pure spirit and pure ideas but of the word was made flesh and we are incarnate god did not create us as pure angels so up to claim this body which is tempo
with the holy spirit and to rub
get in touch with that heroin can go into yoga practices when could go into the martial arts or whatever they're dancing return conveyancing whatever but up to can and befriend the body this is a great way to advance
dance in the practice of the sacrament of the present moment we shouldn't see so much practice at the present moment but up sacrament you actually celebrate the sacrament so we want to be more celebrated of guess though sometimes it might see like a hard job but a
really to come back home and first of all to our bicycle which is the body which god created for us and in which are a minute spirit dwells on that's good
as we are get more into the body we discover this amazing return that's going on all the time which is our breathing
thanks a from good studious an automatic ah process but the amazing thing about it as we can render it or we can kind of guided with our will we can move in and for instance breathe less rapidly more slowly
the we can breathe more deeply oh that's a real resource there's something about snow breathing that's very calming that helps the adrenalin well kind of dissipate it helps us be quiet her
so in that sitting exercise but it's right here in place that god is that everything is of the rhythm of the breathing can be up a lovely way to get back there
oh and this can be tied into a very ancient practices of breath prayer or upper the heart sometimes it's called or jesus prayer we can take a little phrase that we can link it up with breathing in and breathing out of in the
eastern religions as is sometimes called mantra prayer but it's extremely soothing and calming and it does help us to be more present more aware of the of the sacred of the moment
a there's the for prayer of jesus it's evolved in the eastern orthodox churches are brought jesus christ of the living god have mercy on me a sinner and some use the full form
oh we've had here calisto sweater a great orthodox bishop who's written extensively on the jesus prayer he says it's absolutely legitimate to short that to render it just a few words in that form it's also in the west in the chicago way spiritual tradition
ah i hope you know a be a centering prayer movement will further kidding father of basil pending term they have what they called the peripheries therapy you can see very quietly
also coordinate with the breath of you wish than there is the of christian meditation movement of jah me it's the same thing yet sit quietly and repeat one word quietly again and again they recommend the word foul because it's right bird has the blessing of
scripture added separately and of scripture says invoking god and in another language so we don't get all caught up with our brain to start popping around with meditations about it it's not so much to superfast faster prayer
i just as quiet bodily rhythm that's them night to prayer it helps us ascend about not to the level of the steward
a god created our body and then in genesis or god breathed into this body god's breath
a spirit rural there's something mysterious about breathing about breadth about spirit and and again it can help us percent right to the highest level of the mountains which a little exercise it can keep the mind busy so it's less apt to
fly around here and there the other place you know if you are caught in a traffic jam when you're just bumper to bumper sitting there that you don't have great meditations to come up with a and you're tired of the news on the radio or something and just quietly say a prayer it might be the ale ailment
repetitive prayer it doesn't want to be magical bird doesn't tell want to force god to be with us which is wants to call mouse and a neighbor loves to be more here now
ah when once walking or one can say such a prayer and second search and then become a at once walking will get into this a meditation rocking but will become a everyone's traveling in a car or another bus or a train it doesn't have to be just for 'em
medic i was there no i mean really have to get to the next places quickly as possible and was injured time is just to grunge know whether it's a fixed place standing sitting or lying down whether it's movement it can take on a certain rhythm and we can become aware of
the body in that context and we can acknowledge the body as sacramental yeah not supports terms it's the temple with the holy spirit it's sacred so wherever we are we can have the body there and so if we can claim the by
he reverence the body acknowledge the body as sacred and again in this if we can have some badly practices tight she or up yoga or carotid yeah whatever this could be very helpful yoga
and especially as we get into something like breathing prayer this is very ancient it goes way back we don't know when time immemorial in hinduism buddhism the mantra goes way back in the christian tradition
one the seventh century abbott john chemicals occur in the monastery and sinai st catherine's monastery that's still back it's gone through all these centuries he wrote this matter of divine a suit yourself some pretty strange things he looked beautiful things
it's thomas merton that i wrote a lovely
review of the says there's a couple of lines that make the whole book
tremendous significance center to spirituality and terms of what it can be and chapter of it's in step twenty seven number sixty one
it's a little tiny one liner that the remembrance of jesus be present with each breath and then you will know the value of quiet
her spirit packed in there some technical stuff here but the remembrance of jesus there's a footnote here this patristic expression to denotes the jesus prayer and not the simple remembrance of the name of jesus so let this per to jesus in jesus through jesus be pro
isn't with every breath and then you will know quiet stillness the a group to there's se kya which means a little bit of everything you do
there is a wonderful texture the songs be still and know that i am god and then there's elijah at the a map of the cave and he discovers god not in the flashing of the lightning worth of thunder or the earthquake discovers god in the still small voice for the
latest translation as the soundest sheer silence well if we get into this rhythmic quiet prayer of we can come to know or value the experience of the stillness which is a privileged way
to celebrate the sacrament of from the present moment
i use the little phrase of jesus spirit father i like the whole trinitarian thing and i just um unite jesus and spirit with the breathing hand and father with breathing out
and very simple prayer but it brings him over the gospel of our christian faith etc it's surrounds us with this trinitarian mystery of did i find very helpful
oh everything is trinitarian a route trinitarian of we often don't think about the history of the trinity that everything has this and trinitarian sheep everything comes from the father never creator through the rug and the spirit remember at counter such as in
provides creation but it's according to god's wisdom according to god's logos god's wisdom and remember in that spirit that gives life to everything the spirit it's hovering over the waters who brings for valgus multitude so everything that comes to us every day comes from the hand of
the father through the word in the spirit everything that comes to us in every moment is coming up from this great trinitarian source and then we weren't in that place to receive this with gratitude and through christ in the spirit offering back to god
search the creator the fulfillment of all things not to claim to face this is mine and but to run your offered all backup as we get into this trinitarian circle and we're living the whole thing we're living by with salvation history and the whole of the sacramento
oh and as i say i find a little prayer like that helpful but are you can come up with whatever form is helpful and may be change it from one week to another that they do say the time comes when it's good to just settle into one form for longer term but it might be a jesus mercy or
oh my god i love you or whatever be but you might try this as a way to claim more and celebrate more the sacrament because again it's a sacrament that we celebrate with in our body embodied and then in our spirit
ah it's not that the mind is to manage the mind is wonderful that she stepped tends to be a little to run hippophae to whoever of flighty so if we can shake removed from the bag into the spirit the spirit is that kind of a summit of are being that's a marine
to more
just aware of the mystery were often not even in touch with the spirit
may modern state were just a mind and the body of this model of the human person has been called the of computer in the eighth you know and up much of human life is just as wild pendulum swing between of the analytic thinking mind wants to know everything and diamond
eight everything and then a d of three moments would works over sobering you get into the body and you go out and you're hardly and you drink kentucky wild etc than the next more you have to struggle back to the computer and get back to the computer mind kind of thing of the more ancient model
at the human person in it's right there in scripture and first testimonials caesar says triadic and three dimensions and the spirit is quite as different from the by into mindless from the body chemistry step on so we're trinitarian should be more aware of the spirit often were just oblivious to the spirit
shit
a great psychiatrist who also a wonderful methodist spiritual writer gerald maybe he should a lot of books on spirituality
but he says at this highest level there's a sense in which were always praying were always reaching out to god not a conscious level which in this cloud of unknowing like mount sinai would sir crown the cloud moses had to enter into it so up at this level
not a rare at what's happening or even if it's us like even though it's the kind of up supreme level of our existence except some moments some moments we just overwhelmed the hall and were aware of that to mention in us that his reverence is aware of the mystery is so
just up
oh wanting to glorify god beyond words kind of thing and so the thing is to have a son to that level little more and more so than even when the mind is distracted we might be a world that start our whole being we're not just totally caught off into up never know
verlander into to pass to the future of what we're aware but somehow the same time there's this yummy there's is reaching out
gerald may so see each one of us are there's this yearning for love with a capital l they're such yearning for a piece with a capital p four home with a cap or edge of
we can in faith to give the name of all this to the kingdom of god to our beloved god etc but even pre phase this is in every person and entered we live it out in our phonetic life in all kinds of round raise but this is the deep source of our enter
richie of are searching of bar every endeavor and if we can get in touch with that again highest point then we're rolling at the level of from the sacramental because that so where we are really a one with god god is there
as we can learn more from the world that we are with god and let that happen even if it's a mysterious ineffable level then wherever we are
i will be all right
oh it leads to the gospel of john it appears that christ also in he's walking about speaking or discoursing but summer there's a highest point in it's always a cleaving had to prevent the hungry today cleaving to god the father where to turn it upside down if
that helps and because some geographies very relative your it's the deepest roots of our being
or if it's more helpful it's the it's the centermost center of our be or father bruno website language of the author the cloud of annoyances use whatever language you want the idea in such getting away from the where peripheral or distracted more anxious smirk disappeared were
the of that dimension of us to a more intuitive more unit to more serene a dimension of our being and sometimes of our experience and as were more in touch with that
but then we can be a more celebrated again of of god present wherever we are and whenever we are again according to channel made the schools i'm continually kisses is just a constant of our existence and so when we sometimes offer up prayers were
not doing something terribly artificial were giving rise to this yearning within it would urge every slight to be able to pray without ceasing to prince guard without ceasing etc
so something to think about so the bottom line of those instead of the basic sacred place that each one of us wants to claim in a way of religious liberty bus is herself body mind and spirit and then we can nourish the mind with good reading off limits
capture and good stuff and not just junk and up we'll see later we can get into snatch were reading and a murder of ordered way that will have little render the mind more helpful and more a part of our but effort
to celebrate every present moment but ourselves this is the up
the basic sacred place
st teresa of avila says what a sad thing it is when a person is not at peace with themselves when they don't go with them and find rest there when there's anxiety with there's a restlessness may have to rush out and to be elsewhere
that's the basic first movement of elimination of distraction and a dish indeed a prediction i come with her and i'd find an empty nester i find a deep primordial fear with your death i a fine guilt whatever it is what's better to work through that defined the
the point where i am at peace with up myself if i am at peace within myself when on this sacrament of the present moment becomes a piece of cake repeat cause whenever i am up i'm aware that jump the sacred is
oh yes we're going to acknowledge that i am a sacred place and then i need to acknowledge that robin other people also are sacred place every other person
usually it works the way usually weekend honor and revere other people and love other people and know that god loves other people or at least in some part of our psyche more than we can accept ourselves would think the god loves us think that were lovable et cetera so works both ways but sometimes we get into a very nice
cystic self for him up but we also smart remember that there for every other person i meet us are living icon of christ
he's living my kind of the feminine dimension of god is that is sacred place to be revered to be referenced
that's what we've so much boston are very violent society how much violence in the usual a movie or tv program and set of people just be bashed and a dutch it's kind of entertainment you know well if we get to this of point of awe and reverence
it's or
then we move beyond that
there's no macy passage in a
brothers karamazov the famous some classic
gross asimov who says holy holy elbert he's been confronted by the said very anti religious drunk old of objectionable man ah and whose cursing year in front of others it said
drunk and up just enough just visit with prostrate himself before this drunken allowed person who is just totally floored by the sea good that understand assessor awkward screamed back or him with his said staff or subject but what does this all about possessing
life is going beneath the unfortunate distressful disguise and recognizing that know also this is a child of god and this calms the other path person back to a kind of reverence for assessing off and for himself or that kind
of thing mother teresa says she have receives christ as much when she's nursing to raise a leopard was dying and the streets of calcutta as when she is receiving host it's the same body of christ so are we want to work on that and we can really like this
exercise who's the person who i'd least recognize as greatest like rotten meet regularly
ah jesus commands us love your enemy
love doesn't mean we have to agree with them doesn't mean that we have to feel that clean said bob or empathy for them we have to like them love means we have to will they're good the love of benevolence we have to pray and hope that they do
rich eternal be attitude and that in this life they're as happy as possible which means as in the bird is possible or we don't want malevolence towards others this is the opposite we run benevolence and next above of envy
so if i can exercise that level of benevolence actively towards others
that's up again this way of celebrating the present moment when i was some people i might feel very spiritual and prayer comes easy with other people i've just done my guard okay but soon are also those other people that's a very special moment
and to run to prize that scripture is filled with these moments were enemies become friends were a power before his conversion who was part of the stoning of stephen the great enemy of christianity becomes the great our credit a
pacelle christianity to the gentiles that kind of thing so rob to work on a the acknowledgement the referencing of every person as sacred place and that again we can say this week i'm going to work on my relation with x person
can dutch actively ground him that at least we can always pray for them
a private god that not just punish them and send them to hell has no credit check that have got princip to serenity and joy and fulfillment ah diri can do wrong psychological thing about often the people that push our buttons the most there's something about them
what's really inside us and we're just projecting on them or a girl
i memorized this monastery and this one month just rubbed me the long run rate who's unafraid to walk in the room and i was angry i was indignant he knows how dare he exists and he says
what i had this dream about him and i don't remember the content of the dream but he was there and rather have passed it benevolent light and part of the when psychotherapeutic theory dreams is that up when we dream of someone it's truly sub dimension of our site
t so it struck me my god that guy is somehow inside me at some some are a part of me and from that moment on it was difficult for me to be so a hostile to him i started feeling a certain compassion you know he's just that target for of dementia
in me but i haven't fully worked with acknowledged integrated so there's all bad of teresa said we should have some real difficult type person in each community it's good for everyone helps us
well there's just so sweet called the touch of marriage and how great we are we don't grow that much but if someone's kind of from rubbing against us some challenging as etc that helpful
in my passion to the this a pretty rough characters who said that his vocation was to be the cross for the rest of us
how can we thought it was pretty good
that actually a whole person and is now living in strict solitude up and you start one of the record says here that a you just have to run appreciate that there's all kinds of people out there and it is somehow all providential and again who ever is here
for before me and that somehow god can work through that god again may not will but they say to me what they do to me et cetera but god dess where my good human through them in all kinds of creative ways if i can just find out how that kind of thing so
so to were that god in me and god in others
an uber sushi were pretty good of could we can make sniff scoop aliens about you know recognizing the eucharist is a sacramental month eucharist is would we want to be present where we're a little more committed to focusing and attention
and i'm that's as it should be you know eucharist is is very special moment that that were all kinds of things are happening but the and culminating moment of salvation history of christ's suffering death and resurrection is rendered present for us and in us and
and i i do this journey of communion with god and christ is realized in this very and material incarnate way of eating etc
and when we receive the eucharist because we're all members of christ we communed with all of us etc so and certainly eucharist is sacrament and that moment is sacred served up to the extent that reward focus their that renders s a more focused with that
with other moments that that many moments are there and me after grad of a church sooner or later under members there are a reflection of you greste a little image of your krista are mere moments we started out them briefly referred to them probably three times a day we do eat
and that shouldn't be just you know feeding the face that shouldn't be just up pushing it down in running fast food kind of make this is a pretty unfortunate aspect of modern american life
ah i was privileged to be some eleven years in italy and their the meal is very special and they know it and you sit down and you sit down and others and you enjoy and it's a celebratory and you'd not entirely sure when you're going to get up you know which snap or i'll give for twenty minutes to this is my
i fetch taking my time up this people may start sharing in unusual ways that might be arguments and might be a very important discussions whatever but she'll leave time for the meal and you recognize and you appreciate that it is certainly sacramental
but the meal is a very an important time and it it hits us so to speak and all kinds of relative it's a certain level of the body we need to feed the body yet at hits us therefore in are celebrating all those people who have a trend of the seed
were cultivated and who have from harvesters who have felt gathered etc etc at once i'm into eating versus immediate network of connections and to avert to that to give thanks to the farmer and the farm worker out there et cetera
then just the humanity of the meal
oh and the sacred depth for the meal at the many of us tend to see a grace at the beginning of the meal but it can be just not a matted kind of fake you know but but if we say it seriously in a bless this view bless god bless her being together and pray for those who have less
but this is a second little moment
dorothy day i one point wrote that she'd like to have the time to go through scripture and find all the meals again savage mr you can be treated in terms of mountains you can also be treated in terms of very important meals and as he entered the front entrance and
the churches and mysterious speaker icon which had three own children around the table with that said early meal of the mysterious men angels had come to visit abraham and sarah and in the great tradition of eastern hospitality abraham and sarah really come out and offer the phone meal
and the same shows declare that up he bragged sir will be with child so these guests that at the neo table bless abraham and sarah her beyond their wild imagination while a christian tradition is always sarah see that is a kind of a prefiguring a
holy trinity
ah in each one of our meals that's also trinitarian again we receive these gifts from god or good creator through the word in the spirit we offer them backup we offer the fellowship up here right here in the meal etc but to claim all and so there there's that early meal there's the man
a in the desert where israel is fed there is therefore the passcode passover meal to celebrate liberation or there's keynotes a very first sign of our lord the wedding feast that's a meal that's a real meal that have been to europe that can go around for hours and hours and hours
there is the multiplying of the metal stairs on the last supper then there's a base where christ is recognized in the breaking of bread and every one of our new purists wants to bring our that together but every meal should also so if for this next week and we work on our me
mere moment maybe just breakfast or maybe just supper but a work on that is a homework assignment to acknowledge that as sacramental and to reverence that moment and be a little more there and not just stuffing down the food
ah that can be a real resource that would mean if we claim those three moments every day that at least in the morning noon and evening we're dedicating some time to being centered to be aware mindful to being a in
god's presence also as were in the presence of everyone else there
so it's that kind of that of work why don't we do this next one and then a take a break and then come back tomorrow and again other methods and their spaces i've noticed various others there and we can discuss tomorrow bet there's the word of god we usually when
your scripture read in church we know this is a special moment i should be listening to this i shouldn't just be pondering the budget or my schedule for tomorrow or there's something special here as indeed there is and we believe that the spirit is in those work
words and of the school is in there and under mysterious way to be capable of speaking to each one of us in our very unique situation today
so to listen to that were to hear it to meditate it
it said benedict's rule he gets hours every day for the monks to do spiritual reading to just ponder scripture read it aloud and there said it became a little more calculated in the later middle ages these four steps to call spiritual reading first i just read it
it and a the early a monks or nuns they didn't speed read they took it very slowly they even read it aloud silver key kind of from a proclamation to the old also be kind of music and they'd even memorize could shake chunks of up
then the meditating stage there okay and here's the word what does it have to do with me
but my life how does it reveal christ to me how does it reveal how our community should be how does it reveal how i should react to certain events etc
up to bring it home
ah it's all well that it's written that sacred page but it doesn't involve me if i don't get into that age somehow or then it's not a single word for me
so if i've been meditating getting asked there's gonna be all kinds of motives to pray that i may do this more and that mask and i may be more united to christ and rather which were shooting and et et cetera the final step is lowered into silence were am i just take our
where it just rest in god he still and over by god there are four steps to getting deeper into scripture a that's one way to do it there's all kinds of ways to do it that to utilize that to some more time with scripture don't just stop here at a church
sunday and then immediately forget it but how does this work nourish me hopefully maybe read scripture daily
in this reading meditating praying contemplating
no way this is a sacramental moment of the word is an essential part of the eucharistic celebration because the word tells us why are there what we're doing a it's the word that presents the salvation history that culminates in the past cool mystery
price that culminates stuff in eucharist for us so the word is an integral part to the sacrament of eucharist so the word should be an integral part to our sacramental life daily if were nourished by the word
we're gonna be helped me and the your father served up we drank well now that we've gotta feed the body will maybe we have to feed the mind and spirit old show and scripture or good good book and spirituality of this will feed us to the level of my
mind and spirit the way we know we have to be said bodily as we apply blush to the were on capital w then we can start applying the same dynamic to if we read a good book of spirituality if we ride redefine poem
ah
if we see a serious film a serious play it there's an event that happens in our life how do we read that in depth how do we meditate that how do we pray it how do we enter the contemplation with that this becomes a pattern for doing spiritual reading or lexi
ill for whatever comes to us and recognizing that as god's word to us origin one of the first two wonderful early father's he said that what is scripture it's this extended love letter that god has written to each one of us and we should read it
the way a spouse reads a love letter that's been addressed from the beloved you know with reverence gratitude in astonishment and top this kind of thing
and he says no one else has a right to read love letters it's very intimate think so knowing who is a not a person's face should be allowed to read scripture it's just very intimate stuff between god and us between god and the church and because between god and church so also between
god and each one of us personally
so again if we can claim the word then we could hear various words coming to us that might also be roots of life that we recognize that god is speaking at least through these words a daily and and maybe also events daily
and that also helps us in our i'm celebrating of the present