Others
prefer to express themselves more freely, using their
own words. However we do it, the important thing
is to put ourselves in the presence of God and open
our hearts to him, knowing that he is with us as
a merciful Father who always loves us and knows us
better than we do ourselves. We will often realise
that the words are not all that important; God knows
what we want to say, and there is more to share with
him than we can ever put into words. So it is not
surprising that when we pray we find it easier to
use words less and less and to pray in silence.
Easier
in one sense. In fact praying in silence for a long
time teaches us how hard it is to raise our hearts
and minds to God. They are set on so many other things!
Growth in prayer involves a long process of purification
and simplification, so that we can learn to want
the one thing that matters above and before all else.
And that is God.
But that is only half
of the story, and the less important half too! Prayer
is a two-way thing. We can love God only because
we have discovered God's love for us. Prayer is fundamentally
a relationship with God. In times of prayer we have
to let God be God, and let him be there for us. Prayer
is above all about listening and waiting. People
who pray believe that God talks to them. This means
that as we learn to listen and wait, in the quiet
of our hearts we find that we are beginning to grow
in an understanding of God, that our hearts are being
changed so that we can do his will, and that respond
to the signs of his presence in the world and the
people around us.
St Benedict does not say
much about prayer in this personal sense. But he
certainly hoped that a monastery would be a place
where people could be continually aware of his presence,
and have the space and time to listen and open their
hearts to God, whether that was in the times of common
prayer, or by being able to go into the Church to
pray on their own. Above all, the meditative reading
of the Bible, lectio divina, gives every monk a time
to feed on God's word and pray.
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