prayer

Prayer is the process by which one continually surrenders to the mystery in the moment

Prayer is the process by which one continually empties out what one thinks one knows and surrenders to the mystery in the moment ... Prayer is an opening on your part to receive the gifts of God, an opening to God's unconditional love for you, an opening to God's unconditional acceptance of you as you are. When you enter the temple of prayer, you are blessed beyond measure. For, in entering, you surrender, and in surrendering, you are washed clean of all judgments you make about yourself or others.

In prayer the stilled voice learns to hold its peace

In prayer the stilled voice learns to hold its peace,
to listen with the heart to silence that is joy, is
adoration. The self is shattered, all words torn apart
in this strange patterned time of contemplation that,
in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me, and then,
in silence, leaves me healed and mended.

During prayer a new state comes on

During prayer a new state comes on. A kind of "largesse," an indescribable vastness, so great as to encompass the whole of creation. This immeasurableness simply flows right through me, no resistance from "self-important demands" blocks the flow, a feeling of absolute weightlessness and transparency. The expression "emptied of self" is a living reality.

The highest level of prayer is not a prayer FOR anything

The highest level of prayer is not a prayer FOR anything. It is a deep and profound silence, in which we allow ourselves to be still and know God. In that silence, we are changed. We are calmed. We are illumined. Prayer is meant to dissolve the worldly focus, to dissolve our sense of a separate self, to help us detach from the noisy world order.

Prayer is like pouring hot water on an ice cube, melting the cold and encrusted thought forms that still surround our hearts.

March 2006 (Vol. XIX, No. 3)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard? "

BLESSINGS OF THE SILENCE be with you, dear friends! Our deepening heart-prayers are acts of radical and continual abandonment to the Divine Guest abiding within our Inner Sacred Chapel. Here we trust with confidence — whether alone or with others, waking or sleeping, working or resting. Extended periods spent in the silence basking in Love's Presence or yearning in loneliness can open the space for the Prayer of the Heart to well up and radiate the love and light that we are at the core. May we open our hearts in the Silence each day . . . and just BE.

When we pray least

St. Augustine

We pray least when we say most.

What we need is here -- we pray to be quiet in heart

Wendell Berry

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.

Prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world

Karl Barth

To clasp one's hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.

Pray hypocritically, full of doubt and dry-mouthed

Rumi

If you can't pray a real prayer, pray
hypocritically, full of doubt
and dry-mouthed.

God accepts counterfeit money
as though it were real.

To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself

W. H. Auden

To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever we so concentrate our attention that we completely forget our own ego and desires, we are praying.

Dear Pray-er

Anonymous

Dear Pray-er,
A soul not nourished by prayer is like
a barren desert:
Pray when you work.
Pray over every problem.
Pray when you are at home,
Pray with your family.
Pray when you watch the news,
Pray over the nations, the planet.
Pray in the Silence,
Become the Prayer.

Prayerfulness is an awareness of Presence

S. S. Jorgensen, S. S. Izard Knitting into the Mystery

Prayerfulness is an awareness of Presence … our "You are" to God in the quiet of our hearts and in the busyness of our lives. This awareness births a gentle passion within us — an ache and a longing of the heart — that is palpable. Through our prayerfulness, we become able to say to the One who is, "You created me in your image. You are. You have called me by name. You are. You provide for me. You are. You love me. You are. "Through our prayerfulness we discover that there is no place You are not.

Prayer obtains what it is due to obtain

Louis Calaferte The Inner Adventure

Prayer obtains what it is due to obtain — not what I personally want to obtain, which is different. It is useful that islands of prayer exist in the world, even if they are composed of only one person, or two, or three, or four.

Prayer is not a mechanical activity, but a confrontation

J. Ellis An Early Soviet Saint

The elder warned us not to pray while our hearts were steeped in unprayerful feelings, without thoughts wandering as they chose. Prayer is not a mechanical activity, but a confrontation, a conversation with the Holy Presence. Pray humbly, then, in awe of God.

When prayers are lived fully

Anonymous

Our prayers make the most sense when they are lived fully.

My silence communing with the silence of God

William Shannon

Prayer is not so much conversation with God as my silence communing with the silence of God.

Being prayer includes time and space for lightness and beauty

The Inspired Heart

There is a way of BEING prayer that is fully grounded in a personal relationship with the divine. It is the way of trust, in which we do not feel separate from the Source. The entrance to this way has everything to do with the sincerity and intention of the practice and little to do with the particular form of practice. Being prayer includes time and space for lightness and beauty.

Where Presence can be felt and where you can be submerged in unceasing prayer

Yvonne Martinez Ward

My son opened my eyes to the unceasing nature of prayer in joyful moments which sometimes lie dormant in our hearts. I learn from him each day that God is in the little things — the things that can be found in the ordinary, here and now of life. Look in the minutiae of daily life in your everyday places, where Presence can be felt and where you can be submerged in unceasing prayer.

Prayer as a simple trust in that presence

Cynthia Bourgeault Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening

There was simply silence. And in that silence, as I gazed up at the sunlight sparkling through those high upper windows, or followed a secret tug drawing me down into my own heart, I began to know a prayer much deeper than "talking to God."

"Somewhere in those depths of silence I came upon my first experiences of God as a loving presence that was always near, and prayer as a simple trust in that presence.

Prayer is a dipping of oneself toward the light

Mary Oliver Winter Hours

And as with prayer, which is a dipping of oneself toward the light, there is a consequence of attentiveness to the grass itself, and the sky itself, and to the floating bird. . . . I too dip myself toward the immeasurable.

The desert challenges us to travel with prayer as our best companion

William J. Fitzgerald One Hundred Cranes

The Saguaro (barrel-chested cactus), arms uplifted as though in prayer, might remind us that for countless ages its desert home has been viewed by spiritual seekers as a special prayer space. In the long history of prayer, the desert has often been seen as a holy locale where seekers can travel light and encounter spiritual realities. The desert, whether of sand or of our inner souls, challenges us to see more clearly and to travel with prayer as our best companion.

Prayer is the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast

James Montgomery

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire
Uttered or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire,
That trembles in the breast.

As blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul

Mother Teresa A Simple Path

I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence, so we need to listen. For, it is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us that matters. Prayer feeds the soul — as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul — and it brings us closer to God.

As blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul

I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence, so we need to listen. For, it is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us that matters. Prayer feeds the soul — as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul — and it brings us closer to God.

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