Andre Louf, in Christian Teachings on the Practice of Prayer From the Early Church to the Present, ed. Lorraine Kisly. Boston: New Seeds, 2006, p.2.
Each and every method of prayer has but one objective: to find the heart and alert it. It must be a form of interior alertness, watchfulness. Jesus himself set “being awake” and “praying” side by side. The phrase “be awake and pray” certainly comes from Jesus in person (Matt 26:41; Mark 13:33). Only profound and quiet concentration can put us on the track of our heart and of the prayer within it.
2 comments:
Often when we think about prayer, we think about duty, about what we ought to be doing, about learning to do something we don’t know how to do. This passage reminds us that prayer is about awakening the heart. If we really think about it, sit in silence and feel it, we discover that maybe we really do know how to do that, and that the way we do it must come from within, from our own personal discovery of what is really awake and alive within us and our movement towards that alive center. It can be helpful to learn different methods to pray, but at a certain point the methods fall away and we are face to face with our heart.
Loving God, help me to awaken. Help me to move towards the most alive part of myself where you are awake and praying within me.
Dearest Higher Power, dearest Godess, Put my heart on track to you, I pray. Bring me to your light. Awomen.
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