Status Updates From Prayer: Oxygen for the Soul

“How can we keep in touch with God? We must, essentially, relearn to live our daily lives. Two attitudes help us in this conversion: cultivating a spirit of wonder and seeking meaning in everything.“

“The one who prays is not the one who is cut off from the world, but the one who knows how to live the real, the present, at every moment, and find in it the mysterious and hidden – but so very real – presence of God“

“Human beings are not purified from the outside inward, but starting from within. Not so much by a moral effort we make, but by discovering a Presence within us and letting him act freely.“

It’s in prayer that silence is both the most precious and the most difficult to experience… During this time of prayer our thoughts won’t stop turning: our everyday concerns, a word or attitude that hurt us, old wounds or dreams, or sometimes even darker thoughts… should we try to muzzle these thoughts? Is it not better to simply hand them over, let them flow into God‘s heart, without dwelling on them?

“If silence is first and foremost listening, our words must first and foremost be responding. Not a reaction to the word of another, but a response to which our deepest heart invests itself.” we must encounter the other person rather than their words; to listen more with the heart than with the head.

“Silence is not the absence of speech; it is beyond speech. Good silence is first and foremost, listening: listening to God as to allow ourselves to be called, instructed, led, and loved by him.”

“Two lovers, hand-in-hand, expressed their love more through silence than through words.”

Causes of Acedia:
1. Overwork: indulgence in excessive activity, or asceticism beyond one strength, which causes a breakdown.
2. Certain climates are seen by the fathers as a cause of despondency.

Man rises to pray and finds neither the words nor the strength to continue it. When he sits down to read, the book is in his hands… as if it were made of lead, can remain open before his eyes for a whole day without him understanding a single line. The intellect is scattered, unable to concentrate and understand the meaning of words; the will that presides over all activity is dissolved. - Fr. Matta El Meskeen

Signs of acedia:
1. Desire to move all the time. This instability reveals a deeper instability of the heart.
2. A vague and general dissatisfaction. A desire to flee from one’s duties for other activities that are believed to be more fulfilling.
3. A slackening of the soul in spiritual activities.

“Acedia, also known as despondency, is a complex reality comprised of laziness, boredom, and discouragement.”

“According to St. John of the Cross, this entry into dryness is often linked to an evolution in the prayer life, the passage from meditation to contemplation. It’s a question of gradually entering a form of prayer in which human activity is much reduced and simpler, more receptive than active. Prayer becomes simply a general, loving attention to God, with no particular emotions or representations to support it.

“What we can feel or taste of God is not God.” – Spiritual constellations are not God.

“Deeper causes often underlie laziness. One of these is the fear of complete surrender to God. We can have a very strong feeling that, if we start praying, seriously, God will attack the state of mediocrity in which we have settled.”

“Another form of spiritual laziness is a lack of vigilance in providing our soul the stimulation it needs: readings, retreats, nourishing teachings, spiritual guidance that forces us to take stock of our life on a regular basis…”

“Are we paying enough attention to giving our soul what it needs to stay awake and fervent in God‘s desire? Spiritual laziness can take many forms. First, a lack of fidelity to prayer: the less we pray the less we want to pray.”

“And like Christ in Gethsemane, like Therese of Liseaux or Mother Teresa, I don’t know what to do: with no more than faith to move forward…”

“Prayer internalizes, and assimilates the Liturgy during and after its celebration.”

‘We respond, by singing, and praying [in the Liturgy] to the God who addresses us, but the greater mystery, surpassing all words, summons us to silence.” - Joseph Ratzinger

“The highest act of worship is silence. The closer we come to God, the rarer words are spoken, for we sense how powerless they are to express a mystery that only silence can truly honour.”

“Even if we weren’t very present in our prayers, He was, and certainly did something in our hearts!”

“The time devoted to prayer is very precious. You need to have a strong desire to make the most of it, so that it is fruitful rather than routine.”

“yes, prayer is hard work…it is the work of God within us, with the contribution of our ‘two pennies’.”

“So let’s stay away from everything that shines, love our littleness, love to feel nothing, then we will be poor in spirit and Jesus will come to get us…” - Therese of Lisieux

“Fidelity to Prayer is a school of humility and hope.”

“What often makes us shy away from silent prayer is fear, because we sense that, inexorably, if we stand in Gods presence, he will attack our mediocrity and bring to light everything in our lives that needs to be purified.”

“Union with God is not measured by the intensity of the emotions we feel, or the abundance of light that illuminates our intelligence, but by the sincerity of our act of faith.”

All methods of prayer are good, as long as the fundamental disposition of the heart is an attitude of faith, hope, and love - this act of faith, often imperfect, not always accompanied by intense feelings or great enlightenment, is nonetheless essential.

“Prayer is not just one grace among many, but one from which all the rest flows, and to which we must constantly return, to immerse all that we are, all that we live, all that we do…”