What is Spiritual
Direction?
A standard writing by Jean LaPlace
defines spiritual direction as “the help one person gives another in assisting
her to become herself in the faith.”
Preparing for Spiritual Direction
(1975). Sometimes the terms
“spiritual guide”or “spiritual companion” or
“spiritual advisor” are used. Norveen Vest and others
call it “tending the Holy.” It is
usually clearly distinguished from pastoral counseling or psychotherapy.
For additional definitions and resources, visit the
Spiritual Directors International’s website, a worldwide network to
assist people in finding spiritual directors and to set ethical standards for
the practice of spiritual direction.
Spiritual
Direction at the Center for Counseling &
Education
At the Center for Counseling & Education,
Clyde Glandon offers spiritual
direction. He is a graduate of the
School for Spiritual Directors of the Pecos Benedictine Monastery. Dr. Glandon is an Episcopal clergyman
and has been offering spiritual direction for 25 years.
Spiritual direction, contemplative prayer groups, and
teaching about the Christian traditions of meditative and contemplative
prayer, are part of the Center’s educational
mission.
“I see three central roles in spiritual direction. First it is a relationship of
encouragement in seeking God and sensing the Spirit’s life and
touch, in and around us. This is
often provided by listening, empathy, being a witness to what is happening,
companioning, framing and mirroring our experience in relation to the wisdom of
our spiritual ancestors.
There is also a feature of clarifying and discerning,
looking deeply together, seeking to interpret religious inspiration and
experience, and how to integrate spiritual practice and its fruits in our lives.
The director or advisor offers a measure of accountability and
assistance in a person’s actual practices of prayer and other spiritual
disciplines. Staying focused and growing in one’s spiritual practice, or
modifying and developing one’s spiritual practice, are
a key basis for what happens in spiritual direction.
Beyond these three parts, it is also usually important for
people in spiritual direction to continue to read and study in their
tradition, as well as others. The
Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh encourages Western seekers to “look deeply into their
own traditions.”
For many years I have worked especially with those who
include scripture reading, or lectio divina in their practice. This is part of the general
frame of the Christian Benedictine tradition of desire for God, the
relationship with Christ, and growing in love and vocation in the Holy
Spirit. This tradition is at the
base of most
Western Christian church bodies’ spirituality. I recommend the chapter on the
Benedictine tradition in Norvene Vest’s book
Tending the Holy: Spiritual Direction Across the
Traditions (2003).
Additionally the School of Spiritual
Directors at the Pecos Monastery has historically
used the psychology of Carl Jung as an important set of discernment tools in our
growth in what I call the stewardship of consciousness. This includes journaling as a spiritual
practice, working with our dreams, as well as active imagination as a prayer
form. Sometimes this is referred to
as Ignatian prayer
(whether or not one formally practices the Ignatian
spiritual exercises.) This is also
called the anointed imagination or praying with images. I refer people to my writing The Eyes
of our Hearts: Pathways in Sacred
Imagination.
I also encourage people to familiarize themselves with the
Eastern Orthodox tradition of the Jesus Prayer, and other dimensions of
the Desert Spirituality of the early Christian centuries, as a basis for
comparison of both Western and Far Eastern prayer practices.
It is not necessary for a person to be interested in
Benedictine spirituality, Eastern Orthodoxy, or Ignatian prayer to be in a spiritual direction relationship
with me. I personally attend a
Roman Catholic charismatic prayer group, but it is also not necessary for a
person to be interested in Christian charismatic renewal to be in spiritual
companionship with me”
Resources—
Spiritual Directors International
Contemplative Outreach
(Also search
under Thomas Keating)
Worldwide Community for Christian Meditation
(Also search
under John Main)
The Shalem Institute
(Washington DC)
The Pecos Benedictine Monastery (New
Mexico)
Retreats International
The Iona Community (Scotland)
The Taize Community
(France)
Regional (Oklahoma area) Resources
Christian
Contemplative Prayer and Practice
(Center for Counseling & Education, Tulsa, OK)
Forest of
Peace Osage Monastery (Sand Springs, OK)
Heartpath Spirituality
Centre (Oklahoma
City)
Little Portion Monastery (Arkansas)
St. John’s
Center for Spiritual Formation
(Tulsa, OK)
St. Francis of the Woods (Coyle, Oklahoma)
Training
Center for Spiritual Direction
(Tulsa, OK)
Reading List
Those with an asterisk are good places to
start
I. Basic
Texts to “locate” Yourself in the Tradition of Christian
Spirituality
*Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey
Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold, eds. The Study
of
Spirituality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
A comprehensive survey of western spirituality and the major
figures, with excellent bibliographical
resources. A basic text to
“locate”
oneself
in western spiritual traditions, as well as to locate the branch(es) of the
Christian body you may have been
formed in. (including Eastern Orthodoxy).
Thornton, Martin. English Spirituality: An Outline of
Ascetical Theology According to
the English Pastoral Tradition. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986.
Articulates
the “Speculative-Affective Synthesis” (mind/heart path) in western
ascetical
theology, and is an excellent survey of spiritual classics, from the perspective
of the
Anglican tradition. A good
treatment of the Benedictine roots of western spirituality;
less
useful on appreciating Celtic Christian spirituality in the British Isles. (See the works
of Esther
DeWaal, not listed in this Bibliography.)
Underhill, Evelyn.
Mysticism: A Study in the Nature
and Development of Man’s
Spiritual Consciousness. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1961 (1911).
A rich counterpart to William James’ Varieties of Religious
Experience. Reviews 105 different biographies of
Western female and male
mystics and their “types” of mysticism. Adopts the threefold path of
purgation,
illumination, and union for the spiritual
way. In effect, case studies of
the
mind/heart path in Christian spirituality. By a master Anglican
teacher and spiritual director.
Ware, Timothy.
The Orthodox
Church. London, England: Penguin Books, 1963.
By now, a standard introduction to the history and ethos of Eastern
Orthodoxy.
II. Classics in the Eastern Orthodox
Library
Cassian, John.
Conferences.
New
York: Paulist Press, 1985.
This seminal 5th century work,
providing the spiritual background for St.
Benedict’s rule, comes from Cassian’s visits
to a variety of the desert monastic communities.
Cassian founded his own community
in Marseilles,
and also influenced those who formed monastic
communities in pre-Benedictine Christian Ireland.
Climacus, John. The Ladder of Divine Asent.
New
York: Paulist Press, 1982.
Another classic by a 7th century monk of the Sanai desert, the most widely used handbook
by the
ancient Greek church, and a seminal work in understanding the origins of the
Jesus Prayer
and Hesychastic tradition in Eastern Orthodoxy. An illustration of the desert fathers as
Christianity’s
master psychotherapists.
John of Damascus. On the Divine Images, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 1980.
This is the definitive theology of the practice of veneration of icons,
written in the
8th century at the time
of the iconoclast controversies, and useful in contemporary dialogue
about the
spirituality of the icon.
The
Philokalia. London:
Faber and Faber, 1979.
Four volumes which are a collection of spiritual writings from the
4th to the 15th
century,
providing the core tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy, i.e. Evagrius, Diodochos,
Maximos
the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory
Palamas.
III. Later Works on Christian
Contemplative Prayer & Meditation
Bloom, Anthony.
Beginning to
Pray. New York: Paulist
Press, 1970.
A short, practical introduction to prayer by a Russian Orthodox
Archbishop.
*de Caussade, Jean-Pierre, The
Sacrament of the Present Moment,
Kitty Muggeridge’s translation presents a
striking way to hear
de Caussade’s call to a Christian life of faith from
moment to moment.
The Cloud of
Unknowing, London: Penguin Books, 1965 (14th
Cent.).
The 14th Century English classic on apophatic prayer.
Glandon, Clyde. The Eyes of Our Hearts: Pathways in Sacred
Imagination.
Unpublished. Available by
order.
Traces scriptural and Ignatian practices
through their use
in inner healing, dreams in Christian
spirituality, and vision for vocation.
Cynthia Gustavson,
Con-Versing with God: Poetry for Pastoral
Counseling and Spiritual
Direction, Blooming Twig Books, 2006.
Poetry as spiritual practice.
Ignatius of Loyola. The Spiritual Exercises, New York: Doubleday, 1964
(1533).
This is the primary source material for Ignatian prayer.
*Paul Harris, Christian Meditation: Contemplative Prayer
for a New Generation, Ottwa,
Ontario: St. Paul University, 1996.
A thorough,
practical
introduction to Christian meditation as taught by John Main
and the
Worldwide Community for Christian Meditation.
Kadloubovsky, E. and E.M. Palmer,
trans. The Art
of Prayer: An Eastern Orthodox
Anthology.
London: Faber and Faber, Limited, 1966.
A thorough introduction to the spiritual practice of the Eastern
Orthodox tradition, with its classic definition of prayer as “standing
before God
with the mind in the heart.” A rich illustration of Underhill’s
1911
observation that mind/heart unities in learning
and spirituality are grounded
in ancient tradition and practice, rediscovered
in contemporary psycho-
therapy and learning theory. Draws heavily on the wisdom and practice
of
Theophan the Recluse, a 19th century Russian spiritual
director. This prayer
tradition
also provides a sometimes lesser-known point of reference for contemporary
Western
Christian Pentecostal and charismatic spirituality.
Thomas Keating, Intimacy with God: And Introduction to
Centering Prayer, NY:
Crossroad, 1994.
An
introduction to Keating’s teaching on contemplative prayer. The writings of
Keating and Basil Pennington, both
of the Trappist tradition, form the basis for the
Contemplative
Outreach.
*Thomas Keating, Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian
Contemplation, NY:
Continuum, 1992.
Keating’s incisive presentation on the personal patterns and obstacles
in
human personality and the deep challenges of the
path of contemplative prayer.
Brother, Lawrence, (Nicholas Herman). Practicing His Presence.
Jacksonville,
Florida:
The Seedsowers, 1973,
(1692).
One example of a western counterpart to the “realized eschatology,”
“mindfulness,” and the “spirituality of the
present moment” as taught by Buddhist
practitioners.
Compare this to Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s
Sacrament of Present Moment.
*Main, John. Moment of Christ: The Path of
Meditation. New York: The
Continuum
Publishing Company, 1984.
A Benedictine monastic, Canadian, taught non-discursive,
unitive prayer, one of his many writings. His work is the basis for the World
Community for
Christian Meditation.
Maloney, George. The Breath of the Mystic. Denville, N.J.: Dimension Books, 1974.
This is one of Maloney’s many books on Christian prayer, which draws
on early Church Fathers and Eastern Orthodoxy,
with a fine chapter on the Jesus Prayer.
Maloney is a Jesuit.
Merton, Thomas.
Contemplative
Prayer. New York: Doubleday, 1996, (1969).
A clear and thorough history of this Christian tradition by one of
its
contemporary masters who also pioneered in
East-West spiritual dialogue.
Michael, Chester, and Marie Norrisey.
Prayer and Temperament: Different
Prayer
Forms for Different Personality Types. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Open
Door, 1984.
Uses the Myers Briggs Typology Indicator as a way to understand which
prayer practices in Western Christianity may
come most natural to each of us.
Provides a very fine introduction to the traditional Western Christian
schools
of prayer.
IV. Beginning to Make Western and
Far East Comparisons
*Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux). Prayer.
Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1967.
This is a Benedictine’s dedicated encounter with
the higher forms of Hindu
yoga
practice. (See
Patanjali). Makes integrations
with the Jesus Prayer. A
contemporary community which makes Hindu/Christian
integrations is Osage Monastery,
west of
Sand Springs, led by Sister Pascaline.
*DeMello, Anthony. Sadhana A Way to God: Christian Exercises in Eastern
Form.
St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1978.
A remarkable integration of Christian Ignatian
exercises with the
Eastern tradition of “Sadhana,” which generally means any spiritual
practice.
In Tantric Buddhism it refers specifically to
the visual techniques of “deity
yoga.”
A brief focus on the Jesus Prayer. DeMello was
the director of the
Sadhana Institute of Pastoral
Counseling in Poona,
India.
*Talbot, John Michael.
Come to the Quiet: The Principles of Christian
Meditation. New
York:
Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam, 2002.
A praxis-oriented update of Merton’s classic on contemplative prayer, in
this case highlighting prayer traditions from
the Christian West, the Christian East,
and the
Far East.
An excellent introduction. Talbot leads a religious community,
relatively nearby for Oklahomans, Little Portion Monastery, not far from Little Rock,
Arkansas. An excellent
bibliography.
The
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, trans. Alistair
Shearer. N.Y.: Bell Tower (Random
House), 1982.
A foundational
text of India, within both the Hindu and
Buddhist traditions,
highly
useful in comparing Eastern and Western practices of contemplation.
A Spiritual Direction Bibliography
*Duane Bidwell, Short Term
Spiritual Guidance, Fortress Press, 2004
Tilden Edwards, Spiritual Friend: Reclaiming the Gift of
Spiritual Direction, Paulist, 1980.
Carolyn Gratton, Guidelines for
Spiritual Directors, Dimension Books, 1980.
Jean LaPlace,
Preparing for Spiritual Direction, Franciscan Herald Press,
1975.
Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend: The Practice of Christian
Spirituality, Harper & Row Publishers, 1980.
Thomas Merton, Spiritual Direction and Meditation,
Liturgical Press, 1960.
Chester P. Michael, An Introduction to
Spiritual Direction: A Psychological Approach for Directors and Directees, Paulist
Press, 2004.
*Norvene
Vest, Tending the Holy, Spiritual Direction Across Traditions,
Moorehouse Publishing, 2003.
Wisdom for Prayer and Life,
Contemplation and Action
Collected by Clyde Glandon, D.Min.
* * *
We cannot love God unless we love each other. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love, and that love comes with community.
Dorothy Day
Pray and work
Benedict of Nursia
Find your vision, move into it, last it out.
David Gereats
Walk in beauty Native American blessing
One by one the commonplaces of mysticism are being recognized by official science.
Evelyn Underhill (1911)
“He” is also a metaphor, but “Thou” is not . . . human life is so penetrated with the relation that relation wins in it a shining constancy. Ever new spheres become regions of a theophany. In true prayer, belief and cult are united and purified to enter into the living relation. The fact that true prayer lives in the religions witnesses to their true life: they live so long as it lives in them. Degeneration of the religions means degeneration of prayer in them.
Martin Buber
Prayer is the proper way to learn theology
Martin Thornton
now the owl
sleeps lightly
yet remains in faith
Cynthia Gustavson
If feminists seek to find a way to honor desire as key to spiritual unfolding, how affirming to realize that Godde’s essential liveliness is a creative energy that pours forth as love.
Norveen West
Our unity is in our prayer
Beverly Bradley
Since the divine and deifying illumination of grace is not the essence but the energy of God, for this reason it comes forth from God not only in the singular but in multiplicity as well. It is bestowed proportionately on those who participate in it, and corresponding to the capacity of those who receive it, the deifying resplendence enters them to a great or lesser degree.
Gregory Palamas
We must be still and still moving.
T.S. Eliot
* * *
Look at this window: It is nothing but hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light. Being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed.
Chuang Tzu
the summer rains
one night the moon appeared
behind the pine tree, secretly Ryota
Faith, prayer, and contemplation are the internal realities underlying the external activities of the disciples of Jesus.
Henri Le Saux
I talked about the importance of the hidden, the inner life, of pouring oil and balm on wounds, of nurturing our people for the tasks of transformation. I knew it was important to cultivate an authentic spirituality of transformation in that transition period of much flux, bewilderment, violence and turbulence. Discovering stillness, hearing God’s voice, is not, as I have said, a luxury of a few contemplatives. It is the basis for real peace and real justice. Just as we are all meant to be contemplatives and to hear the voice of God in our lives, we are all meant to answer God’s call to be His partners in transforming the world.
Desmond Tutu
Brother warrior, there are none of us that walk this path alone
Spirit healer, it’s the only path that we have ever known . . .
We are crying for a vision that all living things may share
And those who care are with us everywhere
Kate Wolf
They are going to kill me. I am not afraid.
Janani Luwum, Archbishop
Murdered by Idi Amin
Utter tranquility, the distinction between
yes this and no that, I embrace primal
Unity, thought and silence woven together,
that deep healing where we venture forth
Hsieh Ling-yun
* * *
The gift of contemplative prayer is a practical and essential tool for confronting the heart of the Christian ascesis—namely the struggle with our unconscious motivation—while at the same time establishing the climate and necessary disposition for a deepening relationship with God and leading, if we persevere, to divine union.
Thomas Keating
But our good Lord the Holy Ghost, who is eternal life dwelling in our souls, keeps us safe, and brings peace to our souls, giving them comfort through grace and harmony with God and making them pliant . . . The source of mercy is love, and the action of mercy is to hold us safely in love . . . Mercy works through tenderness and grace blended with abundant pity: for by the work of mercy we are held safe, and by the work of mercy everything is turned to good for us . . . When I saw all this, I had to admit that the effect of God’s mercy and forgiveness is to lessen and wear away our anger.
Julian of Norwich
Until the soul is established with the mind in the heart, it does not see itself, nor is it properly aware of itself. . . .when the mind is in the heart, this is in fact our union of mind and heart which represents the reintegration of our spiritual organism . . . this is the true wilderness—to stand face to face with God.
Theophan the Recluse
It takes a pure, stable mind to enter the wilderness in peace.
John Redtail Freesoul
Give me, O Lord, the comfort of my wilderness—a solitary heart and frequent communing with Thee. Lead me away meanwhile, my Refuge and my Strength, into the desert’s heart; lead me where the bush burns, but is not burnt up
William of St. Thierry
Interior silence—the inner stillness to which meditation leads, is where the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds
John of the Cross
At the time when John baptized him, the sky opened and the Holy Spirit came down upon him like a dove and entered into him. Jesus went into the wilderness in order to strengthen that energy within him. . . Jesus is born every time the Holy Spirit in you is touched.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Wildness is not just “the preservation of the world,” it is the world. We need a civilization that can live fully and creatively with wildness. We must contemplate the shared ground for our common biological being before emphasizing the differences. Our bodies are wild. The depths of mind, the unconscious, are our inner wilderness areas, and that is where a bobcat is right now. The body is, so to speak, in the mind. They are both wild.
Gary Snyder
From the point of view of the true spiritual life, we must eradicate the subconscious. What is called “repression” is totally unacceptable in real spiritual medicine. In the spiritual arena the logosmoi, we aim at the transmutation or metamorphosis of our passions, not the actual storing of them in the so-called subconscious.
Maxime of Mt. Athos
The time honored path to self knowledge is meditation
Sheelah Trelfe Hidden
It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. In your head, you can analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and to write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down into your heart. Then you can live them through and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds.
Henri Nouwen
Those who learn to practice mindfulness experience the stopping of habit energy, freedom from agitation and madness, and insight and understanding into what is actually going on, so that compassion may arise.
Jack Lawlor
O comforter, draw near, within my heart appear
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing
O let it freely burn, ‘til all the passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming
Bianco da Siena
Looking deeply together is the main task of a community or church
Thich Nhat Hanh
I dreamed I had a child and even in the dream I saw that it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran away. But it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And I bent to its broken face, and it was horrible . . but I kissed it. I think one must finally take one’s life in one’s arms. . .
Arthur Miller
In this dream I saw Adolf Hitler in hell, and he was suffering horribly. He caught my eye and he said to me: “Martin, Martin, why didn’t you tell me?”
Martin Niemoeller
(The head of the Lutheran Church during and after the Nazi period in Germany, Niemoeller re-wrote, on the basis of this dream, the statement of the Lutheran Church about its functioning under the Hitler regime, acknowledging its failures.)
Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him . . . Be silent to God, and let him mould thee; keep still and He will mould thee to the right shape.
Martin Luther
* * *
The seat of faith is not consciousness but spontaneous religious experience, which brings the individual’s faith into immediate relation with God.
Carl Jung
One thing is needful
Jesus of Nazareth
Returning to one’s roots is known as stillness
Lao Tzu
Listen, listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true self
Thich Nhat Hanh
(as the meditation bell is sounded)
Every sound and every sight comes before every definition or theory.
Robert E. Kennedy
Truth is one form of Good, but a secondary form; the primary form is love.
William Temple
Let the fox go back to its sandy den
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
Go dark. Let evening come. Jane Kenyon
We must fall and fall in the darkness
Until we find our buoyancy Meister Eckhart
Be still and know that I am God
Psalm 46
just being here
I am here
and the snow falls Issa
Lie gently and wide to the light-year
Stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you
Phillip Booth
Give yourself, then, to this divine and infinite life, this mysterious Cosmic activity in which you are immersed, of which you are born. Trust it. Let it surge in on you.
Evelyn Underhill
the frog floats on the water
by its power of clinging
to nothing at all Joso
Just to be is a blessing.
Just to live is holy
Abraham Heschel
Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit..
Jesus of Nazareth
a leaf has fallen
on my shoulder, and so
I come to balance
Cyd Corman
new winter moon –
the white pine begins to sing
without any wind
Clyde Glandon
* * *
The all-important aim in Christian meditation is to allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality in our lives.
John Main
Unless we cultivate our awareness of God in prayer, we tend to lose our desire and capacity for it in daily life.
Katherine Howard
Come unto me all who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus of Nazareth
You must ask for what you really want
Don’t go back to sleep!
Rumi
He who does not believe will not experience; and he who does not experience will not understand.
Anselm of Canterbury
Pray, but row for the shore
Russian Proverb
The turning of the mind and heart to God, which is the essence of prayer, will also become unchangeable and permanent in her. This turning is made evident in different degrees, and like any other gift, must be renewed.
Theophan the Recluse
If you enter the heart, and are able to remain in it, then every time thoughts begin to confuse you, you have only to descend into the heart and the thoughts will flee. It will be a comforting and a safe haven. Do not be lazy about descending. In the heart is life, and you must live there. Do not think that this is something attempted only by the perfect. No, it is for everyone who has begun to seek the Lord.
Theophan the Recluse
The Spirit of God dwell in our hearts in silence, and it is in humility and faith that we must enter into that silent presence. St. Paul ends that passage in Ephesians with the words, ‘So may you attain the fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.’ That is our destiny.
John Main
Thou will keep her in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon Thee.
Isaiah 26:3
You are to strike that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love; and you are not to retreat no matter what comes to pass.
The Cloud of Unknowing
Where there is no commitment, there is no community,
Where there is no community, there are no values
David Gereats
The unbroken continuity between monastic life and meditation practice led me to recognize that meditation is a monastery without walls.
James Finley
Don’t take care for others for their own sake: you will burn out
Don’t care of others for your own sake: you will be using them
Don’t take care of yourself for your own sake: this is too selfish
Take care of yourself for the sake of others
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The expectation, then, we should have of our time of recollection, what we should try to achieve, is nothing more or less thatn being attentive (at attention) in God’s presence. If God wishes, he will act in his own good time. Our duty consists in withdrawing ourselves from other attachments, in making ourselves free and available to him. We make ourselves vulnerable and then wait in a relaxed and joyful manner.
John Wijngaards
Nothing is more conducive to a communion with the living God than a meditative common prayer with, at its high point, singing that never ends and that continues in the silence of one’s heart when one is alone again.
Roger Schultz
But we must love God before we can be holy at all, this being the root of all holiness. Now we cannot love God, till we know he loves us. “We love him because he first loved us” And we cannot know his love to us, till his Spirit witnesses it to our spirit.
Charles Wesley
It is helpful to understand that regularity is more sustaining in prayer than intensity or length. A desert Abba said: “Do a little work and do not faint, and God will give you the grace.” You can, too. Prayer is for you. Prayer is not a test of your character, an endurance contest, or a heroic task set before you.
Roberta Bondi
Ask grace not instruction, desire not understanding, the groaning of prayer not diligent reading . . . not light but the fire that totally inflames and carries us into God.
Bonaventure
* * *
All spiritual contemplation should be governed by faith, hope and love, but most of all by love . . . the intellect is filled to the degree that the energy of love desires. When one begins to perceive the love of God in all its richness, he begins to love his neighbor with spiritual perception. The natural love of the soul is one thing, and the love which comes from the Holy Spirit is another. The love which comes from the Holy Spirit so inflames the soul that all parts cleave ineffably and with utter simplicity to the delight of its love and longing for the divine. The intellect then becomes pregnant through the energy of the Holy Spirit and overflows with a spring of love and joy.
Diodokos of Photike
After pleas comes a form of prayer shaped by the contemplation of God alone and by the fire of love, and the mind, melted and cast down into this love, speaks freely and respectfully to God as to one’s own Father
John Cassian
The energy of the Holy Spirit, which we have already mystically received in baptism, is to be realized . . . Let our aim be to make the energy of prayer alone active in our hearts, for it brings warmth and joy to the intellect, and set the heart alight with an ineffable love for God and man.
The energy of grace is the power of spiritual fire that fills the heart with joy and gladness,
stabilizes, warms and purifies the soul, temporarily stills our provocative thoughts, and for a time suspends the body’s impulsions.
Gregory of Sinai
Some of the fathers have called this stillness of the heart, others attentiveness, others the guarding of the heart, others watchfulness and rebuttal, and others again the investigation of thoughts and the guarding of the intellect. But all of them alike worked the earth of their own heart, and in that way fed on the divine manna.
Symeon the New Theologian
There is a self within, and Jesus has come to make this inner self healthy. . . .The Lord consoles us through the working of the Holy Spirit in our every tribulation and to save us and to communicate to us all his spiritual and charismatic gifts.
Pseudo-Macarius
Your heart baptized by tears, you will now become receptive to the rays of the Spirit, and will receive the Paraclete in tongues of fire in the upper room of your stillness.
Nothing so puts you in communion with God and unites you with the divine Word as pure contemplative prayer, when you pray undistractedly in the Spirit, your soul cleansed by tears, mellowed by compunction and illumined by the light of the Spirit.
Nikitas Stithatos
Such an experience—Moses’ desire to look upon God—seems to me to belong to the soul who loves the beautiful. Hope always draws the soul from the beauty which is seen to what is beyond, always kindles the desire for the hidden through what is constantly perceived.
Gregory of Nyssa
All words are signs. Beyond the words and their immediate signification, it is the mystery itself in them that we should be eager to reach. . . their important role is to provoke an awakening deep within, where no picture or idea of God is any longer possible. As signs they have finally to disappear in the thing they wanted to convey: here lies the true dignity of all signs.
Henri Le Saux
Here, renouncing all that the mind may conceive, wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible, he belongs completely to the one who is beyond everything. Here, being neither oneself, nor someone else, one is supremely united to the completely unkown by an inactivity of all knowledge, and knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing.
Pseudo-Dionysius
Between the creator and the creation lies this frontier of the inadequacy of knowledge, which is expressed in the necessary interconnection of apophatic and kataphatic theology. These two theologies cannot exist separately from one another without the result being error.
The true mystical revelation of God occurs not in the night of extinguished consciousness, but in the midday light of consciousness. The path here is not discursive, however, but intuitive, not the path of the Logos, but that of the Holy Spirit.
