Yes, I know it's Monday, but I was away all weekend, and still want to share with you a few quotes on prayer written by Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941). Underhill had a conversion to Christ at age 32 and her full devotion led her to being a sought out spiritual director and conductor of retreats. These quotes are taken from The Essentials of Mysticism. A bit flowery, perhaps, but I like the gist of it. Reminds me of Colossians 3:1-3...Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
"What do we mean by prayer? Surely just this: that part of our conscious life which is deliberately oriented towards, and exclusively responds to, spiritual reality. God is that spiritual reality, and we believe God to be immanent in all things: 'He is not far from each one of us: for in him we live and move and have our being.'
"'Prayer,' says Walter Hilton, 'is nothing else but an ascending or getting up of the desire of the heart into God by withdrawing it from earthly thoughts.' It is 'ascent,' says Ruysbroeck, of the Ladder of the Love. In the same spirit William Law defines prayer as 'the rising of the soul out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity.'
It entails , then, a going up or out from our ordinary circle of earthly interests. Prayer stretches out the tentacles of our consciousness not so much towards Divine Life which is felt to be enshrined within the striving, changeful world of things; but rather to that 'Eternal truth, true Love, and loved Eternity' wherein the world is felt to be enshrined."
Like always you hit a spot... the last few years I have read these verses over and over... And it took awhile for it to really sink in (and I can still struggle with it now)... But the praying at all times with all kinds of prayers and request... if I am doing that like I should... I have my heart set on the things above... On Him and nothing else... I really do have a sense that I am not of this world... and the things in it become far and distant... and I feel as if I come to a closer understanding as to what His will is... my emotions don't interfere with His will... and a peace comes that I just can't explain... I can endure through trials easier because I am focusing in on the "Bigger" prize... the lasting rewards, not the temperary discomfort I am in... if I could only stay in prayer like that at all times... If all of us could... what a world we would live in... oh wait, that is the world we ARE going to be living in!!! Thanks again for the awsome reminder!!!
ReplyDeleteLove you!!!
Shelly