May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)

Linda DeGraf

Dear Friends ~ I shall now expose myself for the fraud that I am—I know nothing about prayer, have no attention span, no disciplined prayer practice, and often struggle with depressing periods of doubt. I veer from "Here am I Lord. Forgive my unbelief," to queasy periods of anxiety or guilt when I think I should pray or fear not to pray, to longer spells of hurrying through life distracted and forgetful. Perhaps if I lived where I heard the muezzin call for prayer five times a day or where monastery bells rang to mark the hours—would that make a difference? It's a good thing that we are loved all the same. As Anne Lamott says, perhaps it is enough to say, "Help. Wow. Thanks." Just as flower blossoms emerge on tree limbs that were in winter stark and bare, so too can hearts try once again to open themselves toward Light. It's not too late...

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The inner connection of the heart

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
In our busy lives it is so easy to forget the Divine, to be immersed in our own problems and our own selves. The mystic knows that what really matters is the inner connection of the heart in which our heart opens and cries. It is something so simple and yet so easily overlooked. Prayer is a way to be with God.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

A Hasidic saying

May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
Do not think that the words of prayer as you say them arise to God. It is not the words themselves that ascend; it is the burning desire of your heart that rises like smoke toward heaven.
~ a Hasidic saying

A quite warm and tender place

Macrina Wiederkehr | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
Today my prayer consisted in simply going to my heart and remembering all the folks I've stored there. It is not cold storage. It is a quite warm and tender place.
~ Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB

Rest, my dears, in prayer

St. Catherine of Siena | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)

The sun hears the fields talking about effort
and the sun smiles,
and whispers to me, "Why don't the fields just rest, for
I am willing to do
everything
to help them grow?"
Rest, my dears, in prayer.

~ St. Catherine of Siena

The art of communion

Rachel Hosmer and Alan Jones | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
The human heart is a capacity for God. Prayer, then, is the development of the art of communion. We are called to develop the disciplines required for loving and open communion with God, the world, others, and ourselves. We need to recover the art of communion and so recover the universe as God's, and rediscover our roots in God, in the world, in one another, and in our inner selves.
~ Rachel Hosmer and Alan Jones

I draw prayer round me

Etty Hillsum | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
I draw prayer round me like a dark protective wall, withdraw inside it as one might into a convent cell and then step outside again, calmer and stronger and more collected again.
~ Etty Hillsum

The prayer of the heart

Henri J. M. Nouwen | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
Real prayer penetrates to the marrow of our soul and leaves nothing untouched. The prayer of the heart is prayer that does not allow us to limit our relationship with God to interesting words or pious emotion...the prayer of the heart is the prayer of truth.
~ Henri J. M. Nouwen

The function of prayer

Hugh Feiss | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
The function of prayer is not to establish a routine; it is to establish a relationship with God who is in relationship with us always... The function of prayer is to bring us into touch with ourselves, as well. To the ancients, "tears of compunction" were the sign of a soul that knew its limits, faced its sins, accepted its needs, and lived in hope.
~ Joan Chittister

The superior rhythm

Robert Benson | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
"Only those who obey a rhythm superior to their own are free," wrote Kazantzakis. The superior rhythm is the one made by God and whispered into us at the time that we were whispered into being. It is a rhythm based on the light and darkness of the day itself...a rhythm that supports all of our lives— prayer, rest, community and work. We are called to live lives that are shaped and nurtured and wrestled with until they become a prayer that is prayed without ceasing. To do that will require a rule of some sort, even if it is The Rule of Saint Whatever-Your-Name-Is.
~ Robert Benson

Prayer is sitting in the silence

Richard Rohr | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)

Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, praising God until we ourselves are a constant act of praise.

~ Richard Rohr

The empty garden is full

Phyllis Cole-Dai & James Murray | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
We meditate in the library's garden, desolate in winter. We shiver but aren't in a hurry... After a while I feel more rested, and strangely fortified, too, as though by a company of unseen helpers, wise ones who know what it means to live with a heart as open as a clear blue sky, as passionate as the summer sun, as patient as rain on rock. How I want to live that way. A Zen saying burrows into my quiet, becomes a prayer: "May I walk hand in hand with you, ancestors, the hair of my eyebrows entangled with yours." The empty garden is full.
~ Phyllis Cole-Dai & James Murray

Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God

Mother Teresa | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at God's disposition, and listening for Love's voice in the depths of our hearts.
~ Mother Teresa

Instrument of our work and love

Julian of Norwich | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
Prayer is not an idle occupation. It's a very powerful instrument of our work and love.
~ Julian of Norwich

Prayer with devotion

May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
Better a little prayer with devotion than much prayer without devotion.
~ the Talmud

To the quiet mind all things are possible

Meister Eckhart | May 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 5)
The most powerful prayer, one well nigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The quieter the mind, the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more
perfect the prayer is. To the quiet mind all things are possible.
~ Meister Eckhart