Pay heed to this, you who pray on the run but dally with books, you who are fervent in reading and lukewarm in praying. Reading should serve prayer, should dispose the affections, should neither devour the hours nor gobble up the moments of prayer. When you read you are taught about Christ, but when you pray you join him in familiar colloquy. How much more enchanting is the grace of speaking with him than about him!
Gilbert of Hoyland, Sermons on the Song of Songs I, Sermon 7: Approach the Beloved, v 2 (CF 14, page 109)
Paul says
About that last line, my perpetual question is:
If prayer is supposed to be a dialogue, how do I know I am not “making up” God’s part in the conversation? That definitely happens, and is a dangerous business, because we are subject to all kinds of mental tricks as well as self-suggestion (“the flesh”), and we are subject to all kinds of suggestion from others–certainly other people (“the world”), and perhaps diabolical, as well as angelic and divine. (The whole point of reading God’s Word in lectio divina, as I understand it, is precisely to invite this suggestion from a divine and inspired source.)
Maybe I can accept that prayer is just a dangerous business. It certainly seems Tradition tells us that prayer is going to be a battle sometimes. I’m betting Scripture tells us the same thing, though no verses are springing to mind as particularly apt to what I’m driving at here. But how can we win the battle if it is a battle simply to identify who is a friend and who is a foe, among the many thoughts that swirl around in our minds and hearts during prayer?
I suppose there are more “passive” methods of prayer–stop fighting, stop looking for a method, clear the field, and wait for Christ?
I know part of the answer is interior silence, patience (not my favorite), humility (also not a favorite), discipline (also…nevermind), virtues, a life of obedience to the commandments of God and the Church, faith, hope, and love (let’s assume I know what those three words mean), and finally perhaps some “discernment of spirits” such as the method recommended by St. Ignatius in the Ignatian spiritual exercises.
Furthermore, Ignatius’ suggestions sometimes seem too methodical, calculated, and self-analytical–rather the opposite of what is suggested here: a “familiar colloquy” with God.
I just really want to believe God uses words we can understand when He speaks to us! I also, however, have a very hard time believing that anything I experience in my prayer is a word spoken to me by God.
It probably is, first of all, my sins getting in the way; I need to persevere and get back to the grindstone on that front. Also, even communication between human beings can benefit from moderate self-reflection after the fact, both on one’s own words and digesting the words of the other, so I am willing to do that with God’s inner “words” to me, too, as Ignatius suggests. And maybe the best answer really is to be still, to “wait for the Lord with courage; be stout-hearted, and wait for the Lord.” But if there are other thoughts on anything I’ve put down here, please do let me know!
Ronald Dombroski says
Wow!
Reading should not gobble up the moments of prayer….
How easily this can happen to me..