Dear All,
Two particular quotations from the gospels have rung bells with me this last week: ‘Come Away by yourselves to a deserted place & rest awhile’ & ‘Come to me, all you who are burdened & I will give you rest’. Both are invitations to prayer.
We have included a couple of pieces of Henri Nouwen’s writing on prayer. And something from Joyce Rupp. Also, a piece on listening by an Anglican sister, Mary Clare, which we have linked to a well-known quotation of John Henry Newman – both speak of learning of the mission that God has for each of us – learning by listening.
We send you a blessing as well of course & pray that it touches you & anyone you are concerned about at present. It is ‘The Hand of God’ from Haugen’s Third Anthology. Hope you enjoy it.
With love
Henri Nouwen
Just Dwell
Be with him and listen. Listen to the One who invites you. Be quiet. Like a child dwells in the house with her mother and father. Just dwell. Play around. Be there. A half hour a day. Is it possible? Is it possible for half an hour? Just be there. Sit there and do nothing. Waste time with Jesus. That is what love does.
Entering Into God’s Intimacy
Prayer, therefore, is far from sweet and easy. Being the expression of our greatest love, it does not keep pain away from us. Instead, it makes us suffer more since our love for God is a love for a suffering God and our entering into God’s intimacy is an entering into the intimacy where all of human suffering is embraced in divine compassion. To the degree that our prayer has become the prayer of our heart, we will love more and suffer more, we will see more light and more darkness, more grace and more sin, more of God and more of humanity. To the degree that we have descended into our heart and reached out to God from there, solitude can speak to solitude, deep to deep and heart to heart. It is there where love and pain are found together.
Love for the Holy One
Does prayer take effort and discipline?
Yes.
Every friendship requires faithful attention
to the relationship.
And, yes, sometimes we have to work
at renewing and restoring this bond
because we have a zillion things
that can lead us away from this attentiveness.
But, underneath, in our heart of hearts,
the reason we give ourselves
to the effort of prayer is Love,
the love that drew us in the first place
into the relationship,
and which destined to unite us
with the Holy One
Joyce Rupp
The most difficult and decisive part of prayer is acquiring the ability to listen. Listening is no passive affair, a space when we happen not to be doing or speaking. Inactivity and superficial silence do not necessarily mean that we are in a position to listen. Listening is a conscious, willed action, requiring alertness and vigilance, by which our whole attention is focused and controlled. Listening is in this sense a difficult thing. And it is decisive as it is the beginning of our entry into personal and unique relationship with God, in which we hear the call of our own special responsibilities for which God has intended us. Listening is the aspect of silence in which we receive the commission of God.
Mother Mary Clare – Sister of the Love of God
God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.
John Henry Newman