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Prayer is a focus on God,
not upon ourselves.
*Ronald Rolheiser. Forgotten Among the Lilies.
Rolheiser's advice is true, but we must understand, so it is not misleading. The focus on Divine Presence does not mean negation of the Self, but surrender of the Self. You are not meant to be obliterated in Prayer; the Self is aligned with God.
Surrender is in the nature of Self. We are Surrendering Beings, for Self seeks Connection, and Connection is by surrender alone. The person who refuses to surrender encloses herself in surrender to herself. So, a person might not like the idea of surrender in our spiritual vocabulary; however, each person is surrendering to something or Someone.
God, we can call many things, including Universal Mind. With that in mind, contemplate the following words:
The Universal Mind expresses itself largely through the individual. It is continually seeking an outlet. It is like a vast reservoir of water, constantly replenished by mountain springs. Cut a channel to it and the water will flow in ever-increasing volume. In the same way, if you once open up a channel of service [to others] by which the Universal Mind can express itself through you, its gifts will flow in ever-increasing volume and YOU will be enriched in the process.
*Robert Collier. The Secret of the Ages.
The devotion of prayer operates on the same validity of laws that everything else in Nature does. You open your Self into God in prayer ~ for prayer is Self offering Self ~ with a desire to receive so as to give, then, blessing flows to you.
Yet, anyone who has tried to engage in prayerful surrender knows the problem of the mind disrupting focus on Spirit. St. Teresa of Avila clarified her struggle with this focusing. She stated for more than eighteen years in the monastery she did not sense Divine Presence during prayer, and she was often restless during prayers. In her Life St. Teresa wrote: "I could not enter into myself, could not lock up myself within myself."
St. Teresa offers three "hints" to pray well and keep peace within. She affirms peace within is essential to lead the Interior Life.
1) Real, regulated love for one another.
The "regulated" hints of balance. Love for another person or others can become so absorbing we lose connection to God. We are to love others in God, not before God.
2) Detachment from all created things.
This, again, is not the negation of created things. We, as with persons, love and care for creatures in God. For detachment from them does not mean ignoring or abandoning them; again, as with persons, emotional detachment allows us to love them more purely, patiently, and freely.
3) True humility.
St. Teresa admits to one time sharing in that subtle temptation of all persons in the Interior Life: false humility. So, true humility often dawns slowly, after a period of false humility.
Humility is first among the above three, St. Teresa teaches in her Way of Perfection: "Although I put it last, humility is the most important of the three, and embraces all the rest."
Interior Prayer, then, is directing consciously, in desire, of the total Self to and into God, inviting Universal Love to fill all the faculties of body, mind, and spirit. This is response to the Universal Love seeking you as a conduit of Divine Presence in the world and for service ~ Recall: You have only One Purpose in Life, in whatever you do, say, or think ~ to be a means of Grace. All else is servant to This.
We grow in Interior Prayer by three essentials: regulated love, loving detachment, true humility. We do this by surrendering into the One who enables us, by enfolding in God's Self this surrendered and abandoned life.
St. John of the Cross, a dear friend of and confessor to St. Teresa, and Master of the Spiritual Life, speaks of this abandoned life, and how this occurs, as well as why. Therefore, in The Dark Night, he sums up what we have written of today:
One might ... ponder how remarkable and how strong this enkindling of love in the [human] spirit can be. God gathers together all the strength, faculties, and appetites of the soul, spiritual and sensory alike, that the energy and power of this whole harmonious composite may be employed in this love. The soul consequently arrives at the true fulfillment of the first commandment which, neither disdaining anything human nor excluding it from this love, states: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. [Dt. 6:5]
Then, St. John says, in his typical articulate style, about this inner transformation.
When the soul is wounded, touched, and impassioned, all its strength and its appe-tites are recollected in this burning of love. ... They are aroused when the soul becomes aware of the fire and wound of this forceful love and still neither pos-sesses it nor gets satisfaction from it, but remains in darkness and doubt.
Here, St. John reminds us of the need for fortitude. For the purgation of the Interior Life will entail some measure of feeling touched by a Love that baffles the intellect, eludes the will, and contradicts the memory. Indeed, reliance on intellect, will, and memory are chief obstacles to walking in spiritual Love.
Yet, even in this the Self is aware of God pursuing it, and he or she becomes progressively aware of an inner work bringing the Self closer to a freedom of love, joy, and peace the Self has felt touched by but not known well in Reality.
Desire pulls one onward, and Love is the root of the Tree of Longing. Interior and Exterior Fruit is the consequence of persistence in devotion and service.
God is an unseen power residing within us. There are many powers lying around within us and we discover them by constant struggle. Even so, we may find this supreme power if we make diligent search with the fixed determination to find him.
*Gandhi. The Way to God.
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1) Share a time when you felt a mysterious Power working in you, One you named God, or an equivalent name or title. What was that like for you?
2) What is the role of desire in your spiritual journey?
3) Have you had a time when you felt your self put aside in devotion or service and, yet, you felt more like your self than you usually do? Explain.
4) Share a time when you were surprised by a Power within helping you do what you felt you could never do.
5) In what ways are you being a means of Grace?
6) Does surrender in Prayer imply abdication of effort,or not? Explain your answer.
* * *
*Mohandas K. Gandhi. The Way to God was edited by M. S. Desphande; material from St. Teresa of Avila is in Fr. Christopher Rengers. The 33 Doctors of the Church; St. John of the Cross' quotes are in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross. Trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. This writer replaced the translation of St. John of Deuteronomy 6.5 with the ESV rendering.
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in continuing his ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers or the Cokesbury on-line store, cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist Pastor, lives in Southwest Florida. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and seeks to inspire others to enjoy a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the Church through addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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