Two Benedictines writing on prayer
Benedictine Abbot André Louf writes:
That you have become a free human being, that your heart has begun to live and to sing, that the Word of God is able to reverberate freely and frankly in your inmost centre, is a source of light and power for anyone… For the deepest depth of your heart is also the deep ground of the world.
In this experience of prayer the world’s spatial limits are eliminated. Being far off or being close at hand no longer signifies. Being absent and being present have become one and the same thing. In your prayer all human beings are closely involved. As one of the Fathers put it so emphatically: ‘The monk is the man separated from everyone and bound up with everyone.’ [Evagrius, De Oratione, 124] For by way of prayer you already inhabit the deep heart of the cosmos.
From: Andre Louf ‘Teach us to Pray’ page 104
Mother Osyth, Abbess of Malling Abbey, 1951 – 1985
be silent
still
aware
for there
in
your own heart
the Spirit is at prayer
listen and
learn
open and find
heart-wisdom
Christ