COMMENT: Essence of Prayer

COMMENT:  

The ‘Mellifluous’ St. Bernard, as in the previous Reading, can be rather prolix.

What follows, a very much writing from Sr. Ruth Burrows is accessible in attractive words,  - not having the book!

from MAGNIFICAT.com

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

SISTER RUTH BURROWS, O.CD.

How the Seed Bears Fruit

I am totally convinced that our God, the God we see in Jesus, is all-love, all-compassion and, what is more, is all-gift; is always offering God's own Self as our perfect fulfilment. I believe, through Jesus, that we were made for this, and that it is divine Love's passion to bring it to perfect fulfilment in us. So when I set myself to pray I am basing myself on this faith and refuse to let it go. I just take it for granted that, because God is the God of Jesus, all-love, who fulfils every promise, this work of love is going on, purifying and gradually transform­ing me. What I actually experience on my conscious level is quite unimportant. In fact I experience nothing except my poor, distracted self.

From ‘Essence of Prayer’ 2006 by Sister Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite nun at Quidenham in Norfolk, England.

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The Essence of Prayer: 

Foreword by Sister Wendy Beckett

Ruth Burrows OCD

1 Review

Continuum International Publishing Group, 1 Jul 2006 - Religion - 224 pages

Prayer is a word we take for granted but what do we mean by prayer? Almost always when we talk about prayer we refer to something we DO. But Burrows argues that our Christian knowledge assures us that prayer is essentially what God DOES.
And what God is doing for us is giving us the Divine Self in love. This is the vision of a contemplative nun who contradicts the heresy of so much modern spiritual writing. The growing fascination in the contemplative and monastic life is evidence of the profound appeal of this approach.
For this there is a real hunger. Ultimately, we live for God and not for ourselves.