Lectio Divina - Sixty-one

Ann & Barry Ulanov. Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982. p.92.

Intercessory prayer pulls us into the tow of God’s connectedness to everything. We are pulled into a current that shows us nothing is separated from anything else, no one from everyone else. We are in an ocean that flows under everything and through everyone. Not only do we discover the hungry parts of ourselves that we need to feed when we pray for the hungry persons of the world, but we discover the neglected parts of the world through praying for the neglected parts of ourselves. When we deal with the hating parts of ourselves, we see with sudden clarity how much hate exists in the people around us. When we pray for the suffering parts of ourselves, we are increasingly wounded by the suffering of those around us.

Lectio Divina - Sixty

The New Zealand Prayer Book (San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1989), 184.

Lord,

it is night.

The night is for stillness.

Let us be in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done

what has not been done has not been done;

let it be.

The night is dark.

Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives

rest in you.

The night is quiet.

Let the quietness of your peace enfold us.

all dear to us,

and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day,

new joys,

new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Lectio Divina - Fifty-nine

George A. Maloney, quoted in Christian Teachings on the Practice of Prayer From the Early Church to the Present, ed. Lorraine Kisly. Boston: New Seeds, 2006, p.136.

For a person who has begun the inner journey into the heart, true prayer should no longer be a thing to do, an activity before God. It should become more and more a state of standing before God’s loving presence, totally emptied of self, total gift to God. In complete nudity of spirit, in complete formlessness, without words, but with the “passionless passion” of the total true self, we grow daily in oneness with the triune God . . . Prayer of the heart becomes the unremitting consciousness of God’s abiding presence deep within us. It brings about the state of restfulness, tranquility, the quelling of all inordinate movements and desires, passions and thoughts within us.