PRAYER IS THE LIGHT OF THE SOUL
The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because it means that we are in God’s company and in union with him. When light enters our bodily eyes our eyesight is sharpened; when a soul is intent on God, God’s inextinguishable light shines into it and makes it bright and clear. I am talking, of course, of prayer that comes from the heart and not from routine: not the prayer that is assigned to particular days or particular moments in time, but the prayer that happens continuously by day and by night.
Indeed the soul should not only turn to God at times of explicit prayer. Whatever we are engaged in, whether it is care for the poor, or some other duty, or some act of generosity, we should remember God and long for God. The love of God will be as salt is to food, making our actions into a perfect dish to set before the Lord of all things. Then it is right that we should receive the fruits of our labours, overflowing onto us through all eternity, if we have been offering them to him throughout our lives.
Prayer is the light of the soul, true knowledge of God, a mediator between God and men. Prayer lifts the soul into the heavens where it hugs God in an indescribable embrace. The soul seeks the milk of God like a baby crying for the breast. It fulfils its own vows and receives in exchange gifts better than anything that can be seen or imagined.
Prayer is a go-between linking us to God. It gives joy to the soul and calms its emotions. I warn you, though: do not imagine that prayer is simply words. Prayer is the desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man but brought about by God’s grace. As St Paul says: For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be put into words.
If God gives to someone the gift of such prayer, it is a gift of imperishable riches, a heavenly food that satisfies the spirit. Whoever tastes that food catches fire and his soul burns for ever with desire for the Lord.
To begin on this path, start by adorning your house with modesty and humility. Make it shine brightly with the light of justice. Decorate it with the gold leaf of good works, with the jewels of faithfulness and greatness of heart. Finally, to make the house perfect, raise a gable above it all, a gable of prayer. Thus you will have prepared a pure and sparkling house for the Lord. Receive the Lord into this royal and splendid dwelling — in other words: receive, by his grace, his image into the temple of your soul.
--Pseudo-Chrysostom, Homily
REMINDERS OF GOD'S PRESENCE
"Taking your children to school and kissing your wife goodbye. Eating lunch with a friend. Trying to do a decent day's work. Hearing the rain patter against the window. There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly. . . . Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness—touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it—because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace"
--Frederick Buechner, Now and Then, Harper & Row, 1983, p 87).
PRESENCE OF GOD
When we experience God's presence, or God speaks to us, all is transformed. He tells Moses, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" (Exo. 3:5).
God's holiness requires respectful distance, but God's presence also transforms everything at hand. The burning bush in the barren, lonely desert of Sinai is a sign that God often comes and graces the lowly. He appears in the common places of life.
We can experience God's presence anywhere, anytime, at work, school, home. God's presence happens to ordinary people going about their ordinary routines. So it's important to be watching and listening for those moments. It is the only way to avoid the common disconnect between our faith and our daily life and work.
--Gary Klingsporn, "God Calls us to be Leaders"
http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewLibrary.asp?LibraryID=5236&WID=411&T=H&SID=12675
Prayer is the light of the soul
The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because it means that we are in God’s company and in union with him. When light enters our bodily eyes our eyesight is sharpened; when a soul is intent on God, God’s inextinguishable light shines into it and makes it bright and clear. I am talking, of course, of prayer that comes from the heart and not from routine: not the prayer that is assigned to particular days or particular moments in time, but the prayer that happens continuously by day and by night.
Indeed the soul should not only turn to God at times of explicit prayer. Whatever we are engaged in, whether it is care for the poor, or some other duty, or some act of generosity, we should remember God and long for God. The love of God will be as salt is to food, making our actions into a perfect dish to set before the Lord of all things. Then it is right that we should receive the fruits of our labours, overflowing onto us through all eternity, if we have been offering them to him throughout our lives.
Prayer is the light of the soul, true knowledge of God, a mediator between God and men. Prayer lifts the soul into the heavens where it hugs God in an indescribable embrace. The soul seeks the milk of God like a baby crying for the breast. It fulfils its own vows and receives in exchange gifts better than anything that can be seen or imagined.
Prayer is a go-between linking us to God. It gives joy to the soul and calms its emotions. I warn you, though: do not imagine that prayer is simply words. Prayer is the desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man but brought about by God’s grace. As St Paul says: For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be put into words.
If God gives to someone the gift of such prayer, it is a gift of imperishable riches, a heavenly food that satisfies the spirit. Whoever tastes that food catches fire and his soul burns for ever with desire for the Lord.
To begin on this path, start by adorning your house with modesty and humility. Make it shine brightly with the light of justice. Decorate it with the gold leaf of good works, with the jewels of faithfulness and greatness of heart. Finally, to make the house perfect, raise a gable above it all, a gable of prayer. Thus you will have prepared a pure and sparkling house for the Lord. Receive the Lord into this royal and splendid dwelling — in other words: receive, by his grace, his image into the temple of your soul.
(St John Chrysostom. Second Reading, Friday after Ash Wednesday)
The practice of the presence of God is good indeed, but what is even better, I think, is the practice of doing the will of God in every action; the one includes the other. Moreover, he who holds himself to the practice of the presence of God may, for that very reason, sometimes not be doing the will of God. And tell me, isn't it being in the presence of God if one does God's will and takes care to form one's intention for that purpose at the beginning of every work and to renew it as one goes along? [pp. 53-54]
(St Vincent de Paul. From Jacques Delarue, The Holiness of Vincent de Paul, Geoffrey Chapman Ltd, London 1960, 132 pp)
APERI, Dómine, os meum ad benedicéndum nomen sanctum tuum:
munda quoque cor meum ab ómnibus vanis, pervérsis et aliénis cogitatiónibus;
intelléctum illúmina,
afféctum inflámma,
ut digne, atténte ac devóte hoc Offícium recitáre váleam,
et exaudíri mérear ante conspéctum divínæ Majestátis tuæ.
Per Christum, Dóminum nostrum. R. Amen.
OPEN my mouth, O Lord, to bless thy holy name:
cleanse also my heart from all vain, evil and distracting thoughts;
enlighten my understanding,
inflame my will,
that I may worthily recite this Office with attention and devotion,
and deserve to be heard in the presence of thy divine Majesty.
Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.