Fiery life

If we permit the love of God to replace our cares in the world, and if we give ourselves over to steady prayer and meditation, we will soon find our attitude and behavior changing. We will stop racing from one thing to another. We will rest in tranquility and peace.

A stable. spiritual life requires much prayer and devout singing of psalms. Evil is only conquered by continual prayer.

Prayer can become habitual. Whether praying or meditating, it is possible to focus our attention on God. In this kind of prayer we do not think of anything in particular. Our whole will is directed toward God. The Holy Spirit burns in our soul. God is at the very heart of our being. Our prayers are made with affection, and they become effective. If our prayers require words, we do not rush. We can offer every syllable as a prayer in itself. The love burning in us will give fiery life to our prayers.

Prayer of this kind is a delight.


--Richard Rolle, The Mending of Life
Picture source.

Waiting until God is heard

As my prayer became more attentive and inward, I had less and less to say. I finally became completely silent… This is how it is. To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoming silent, and being silent, and waiting until God is heard.

-- Søren Kierkegaard

Picture source.

There is only one vocation

... there is only one vocation. Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are, you are called to the summit of perfection: you are called to a deep interior life perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others. And if you cannot do so by word, then by example.
Yet if this sublime fire of infused love burns in your soul, it will inevitably send forth throughout the Church and the world an influence more tremendous than could be estimated by the radius reached by words or by example.

--Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain [page 458]

Hat tip to Mike's blog.
Picture here, and from www.flickr.com/photos/phildowsing .

I only feel myself resting

I only feel myself resting in God's arms, to state it a bit pathetically. Whether it is here at my most dear and safe desk or in a month or so in a bare room in the Jewish ghetto or perhaps in a working camp under SS surveillance, I will always feel myself resting in God's arms, I guess.

Yes, my Lord, I remain very faithful to you, through thick and thin. (...) The only human thing that still remains in these times is: to kneel before you, o God.

There are moments when I feel like a little bird, covered by a big protecting hand. (July 28 1942)

--An Interrupted Life
Etty Hillesum
Killed at Auschwitz, 1943

Prayer is the light of the soul

There is nothing more worthwhile than to pray to God and to converse with him, for prayer unites us with God as his companions. As our bodily eyes are illuminated by seeing the light, so in contemplating God our soul is illuminated by him. Of course the prayer I have in mind is no matter of routine, it is deliberate and earnest. It is not tied down to a fixed timetable; rather it is a state which endures by night and day.

Our soul should be directed in God, not merely when we suddenly think of prayer, but even when we are concerned with something else. If we are looking after the poor, if we are busy in some other way, or if we are doing any type of good work, we should season our actions with the desire and the remembrance of God. Through this salt of the love of God we can all become a sweet dish for the Lord. If we are generous in giving time to prayer, we will experience its benefits throughout our life.

Prayer is the light of the soul, giving us true knowledge of God. It is a link mediating between God and man. By prayer the soul is borne up to heaven and in a marvelous way embraces the Lord. This meeting is like that of an infant crying on its mother, and seeking the best of milk. The soul longs for its own needs and what it receives is better than anything to be seen in the world.

Prayer is a precious way of communicating with God, it gladdens the soul and gives repose to its affections. You should not think of prayer as being a matter of words. It is a desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not of human origin, but the gift of God's grace. As Saint Paul says: we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.

Anyone who receives from the Lord the gift of this type of prayer possesses a richness that is not to be taken from him, a heavenly food filling up the soul. Once he has tasted this food, he is set alight by an eternal desire for the Lord, the fiercest of fires lighting up his soul.

To set about this prayer, paint the house of your soul with modesty and lowliness and make it splendid with the light of justice. Adorn it with the beaten gold of good works and, for walls and stones, embellish it assiduously with faith and generosity. Above all, place prayer on top of this house as its roof so that the complete building may be ready for the Lord. Thus he will be received in a splendid royal house and by grace his image will already be settled in your soul.

--St. John Chrysostom

Picture source.

Fall in love, stay in love, it will decide everything

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, that is, than falling in love
in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you will spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

--Pedro Arrupe, S.J.