[P]rayer is the most perfect and most divine action that a rational soul is capable of. It is of all actions and duties the most indispensably necessary.
*Augustine Baker, Christian Contemplative
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A Jewish story tells of a cobbler who visited Rabbi Isaac of Ger and said, "Tell me what to do about my morning prayer. My customers are poor men who have only one pair of shoes. I pick up their shoes late in the evening and work on them most of the night; at dawn there is still work to be done if the men are to have their shoes before they go to work. My question is: What should I do about my morning prayer?"
"What have you been doing?" asked the Rabbi.
"Sometimes, I rush through the prayer quickly and get back to my work, but, then, I feel bad about it. At other times, I let the hour of prayer go by. Then, I feel a sense of loss and every now and then, as I raise my hammer from the shoes, I can almost hear my heart sigh, 'What an unlucky man I am, that I am not able to make my morning prayer.'"
Said the Rabbi, "If I were God, I would value that sigh more than the prayer."
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*Lotus of the Heart is a Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi ~ a Hospice Chaplain, interspiritual author, writer, poet, and bicyclist. He is someone in love with Life and inviting others to that same ecstasy of Love ~ and, by the way, herein is nothing he claims as his own.
