The Place to go is our heart.

August 8, 2007
The Place to go is our heart.

St. Paul tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. (1Cor. 6:19) And Jesus also tells us to pray in secret. Of course we know that Jesus prayed also in the Temple with others, in common worship as we do at Sunday Mass. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that the followers of Jesus, after Pentecost, celebrated together what we now call Mass or Eucharist. They called this “the breaking of the bread” But we most certainly have the example of Jesus going apart to pray. His whole life was steeped in prayer.

So if the Holy Spirit dwells within us, which I do believe, help my unbelief. Then within is the place of prayer. By going into our own hearts to pray, we communicate with God. With this intimacy we are letting the Holy Spirit of God lead us from our hearts. Little by little if we are faithful to interior prayer, our community prayer becomes more real to us. We are at one with the believing community when we gather for Eucharist or any common prayer. All over the world there are believing people who together honor God in praise, thanksgiving and repentance. We are one with all these people

The place to go is the heart. That way our lives become more real and less superficial. Why? Because there is the Spirit of God loving us. We are not at all aiming at nothingness in our head! We are communing with God who is present. For me the simplest way to pray in the heart is by centering or Christian Meditation. We just turn our hearts to God in trust, let go of all our discursive thinking, or anxious thinking and just call on the name of Lord with a prayer word or phrase. As you know since I was a young sister, I did this with the psalm verse: O God come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me. Then I met up with Father Thomas Keating who suggested praying a single word, Then I met sister Eileen O’Hea from the the World Community for Christian Meditation who recommended Maranatha. The phrase in the New Testament is also Maranatha Jesus. So there are a variety of words to pray while we sit quietly, going into our hearts with God, though it is well to say the same word all the way through the time you have set aside. Let us pray