while the rest
so there's some one of these great others is saying to the pilgrim prayer is so powerful so mighty that pray and then do what you like prayer will guide you write to write and just action in order to please god nothing more is needed than love love and do what you will says the blessed augustan
for he who truly bugs cannot wish to do anything which is not pleasing to the he loves since prayer is the outpouring and the activity of love than when can truly say of similarly nothing more is needed for salvation that continuous prayer so this is this whole focus if i can just pray
continuously that i'm a christian if i can't i'm not really a christian yet and how do i pray all wins well the been system jesus prayer and you can take bad or not as it is a good that's the means and again the underlying theology here again i think is this a gabi approach that we've
heard in other terms in the cloud but now down here at the base of the mountain
and so but what is no love his prayer it's the same thing what is prayer but the outpouring the activity of love and i think this summer st thomas might even say this on so that you've got this basic disposition of heart of wanting to will god wanted to will god's glory and honor a good etc
if it's authentic prayer you put that into act you go from potency to act were doing that in thomas seminar so then it goes on eloquently pray and think what you will prayer and pray and do what you will pray and do not labour much to conquer your patients by your own strength
prayer will conquer them for you praised somehow or other only pray always be disturbed by nothing be gay in spirit of peaceful bring to god at first just quantity that is within your power just pray more more more more and god will pour upon your strength in your weakness
prayer dry and distracted maybe but continuous will establish a habit and becomes second nature and turn itself into prayer which is pure luminous flaming and worthy to really takes us pray always very seriously almost to the point where it up it's dangerous you
know if we sit down and try to day to say ten thousand jesus prayer you know i can kind of flip this around the hidden how many if you have read salinger's franny and zooey here with a little girl the gal has a full nervous breakdown trying to do with this they the edges at all
what the heck and just lets it go up so you don't want to take this into mechanistic away and you want to read this of only dialoguing in an ongoing way with your spiritual director etc but it is the whole eastern monastic tradition of what a monk is all about
in the eastern church when a monk makes his first bows of his vows he's given the habit but he's also given the jesus prayer grocery this is to say now be a monk bread the jesus prayer and it's this whole thing of up constant prayer
new questions comments objections about any that yes yeah i think the a pilgrim he was possessed answer at the beginning of cause it's kind of crafts angelus prayer we will make effort but gradually become chicago kind of at on the prayer pray
thanks he said we are so it's it's not it's not try a person chris i mean if that's the case that he's he's not happen well was the in the world is god watching the solar his prayer pray sing it sound so human sleepy he was
oct is a walking up with things gradually his family a stream of revenue stream running out of type of gaming cpu tendencies as clear somehow was some happens southwards that's right no customer
we were from now the per can become coordinate with a breath it can become coordinated with a heartbeat etc and as you say at a certain point it it prays itself and then at the end he talked about these glorious moments just when all of creation is full of light and everything is the jesus prayer
air and absolutely so as you say it's hard work at first will cure the very same phrases with brother lawrence except he does not use the tool of a prayer prayed over again and again but just a simple being with god and saying whatever comes to mind and for the baker also this is where the eastern method offers a very
a specific way that for some is liberating and exhilarating and disciplined for others it's a little too narrow and tight but it's the same thing with a brother lawrence who went through ten years of just real hard but at the end he could not not be with god and this is just joyful peaceful
so the same thing absolutely
but the goal is this constant prayer to take seriously god is is always with us i want always to be with god as the lover would want always to be united with the beloved even when they're physically parted even when the lovers thinking about something else etc but it's within that conta
text it's in that dynamic of the love that unites them so that whatever else he does it's for her and with her et cetera and he'll use you know me he might phone her through the day or keeper picture on his office some desk and that can think so they'll be helps ways to help center
flowers and said drift but up to him to stir up that basic commitment of of the heart of the will
okay and then in the west we have all these different voices including some like father augusta baker we just been reading dating gertrude more was his disciple if you are listening closely ah was some interesting stuff there but in terms of be
being in the english tradition not doing a lot of meditation imagining the sure up at the creativity and good if i do that it's make believe jesus really isn't now a babe off in bethlehem and i'm not really there etc
but god is really here
and so on i can just be there with god so if you were listening what was a couple of up refectory years ago we were hearing about dame gertrude more as prayer life under the influence of father augustan deep within her was an ability of the will to tend dirt
directly to god alone so deep was this instinct that she was scarcely aware of it and yet so strong that she acted according to have in spite of herself the book mentioned she was quite an extrovert had an active woman and she was involved in everything that was happening in the in the cloister and yet
she was with god and remember all our business about the wheel with central with this is tied into this kind of english tradition i be not have great feelings or insights are just there with god contemplative prayer the prayer of living of of simple loving attention to
god beyond all images and words a soaker will tend toward god of it's own accord and no amount of thinking made any difference to it's instinctive moment movement silver in other words she did not have to think of reasons for loving god she simply loved him
and up then she could reactivate us through the day in different kind of pauses between doing this that how he's effective acts of love these prepared her for genuinely contemplative prayer and void or up through times of darkness validity so father augustus he has a whole section
in his holy wisdom and not the title it's not called holy love it's called holy wisdom
so the and you got all these devout exercise is all these phrases for he oh sweet jesus and
some of them are quite long for the yeah but their to stir up the heart and then if you go to chapter four of the first section of prayer without ceasing nice as we really also as benedictine should tend towards is this isn't just as he cast stuff for the extension of prayer
where this is our lord's command that we should never met this duty of praying he proceeded latin music group benedictine report that simply are or are a new the future it it's necessary always to pray it not to let off we are always to pray and not to cease when it goes out how and again he says it
explicitly and can't be in in specific vocal prayer we can't always be in church same law it's or something like that but the heart can always be cleaving to god wherever my eyebrows were doing
to preserve our souls in an uninterrupted attention to god and tendencies spirit to him so that whatever so actions we do they should be accompanied with the most fervent and persistent for this is our goal and in the meantime it's not through vocal prayer no other mm
manner of prayer but the internal exercise of the will in holy desire can meet this precept of our lord
ah and so he quotes to the customer if thou dost continually desire god thou dost continually pray since prayer is simply this will cleaving to god so that's his answer and is basically the answer i think of east and west it just that east ties as prayer to it to facilitate
eight keeping the will there
ah questions comments
we're all gonna go up pray so now having ten that we come right to the doorstep of brother lawrence which will begin next time and hopefully and next time but be thinking in the meantime i think we're rather facilitate
did in this place in this life because literally everything tries to sustain us in one way or another as contemplative the whole plant the way it set out the place of the church the place that the individual cells the refectory the time it's given to this that
this will sustain a guy for a lifetime in god's presence
and well we're so i think so much more fortunate if you live in a business office where it's all if you work in a business surface eight hours a day where it's all geared to keep you involved with i don't know investment or whatever you're doing in your business officer if if you in the bank and you're there at the window eight hours a day
day and you've got to take those deposits to figure out the us withdraws and all about of that's something else and then you go home and your house is set up a native but here the whole thing is used to favor of this practice the presence when you think about it so we
might just give a few moments to that next time and then plunge right into brother lawrence but he writes set for everyone he writes that for people out there in the world rabbinate our job and then come home to screaming kids and angry why for maybe a loving wife or whatever but i think we should be good
grateful that i say we've got this set up the whole setup is to facilitate all three of these dimensions including this this basic one so be thinking about how the place in the schedule does and maybe in some ways doesn't facilitate it and will look
explore that a little extra measurement of yours
they've certainly facilitated her sacramento presence of the compassion of god so that's a beautiful point thank you father
kid
just to review a bit we had our magnificent image of the mountain that cannot be presented in full technical or because we have all these code
so that's quite big and at the bottom you see all these new towns and cities and all that is within all these different areas of our psyche and at the top and so not whipped cream is probably even suggested he of on this simcoe and started out of doing
and that is always there whenever we do you don't put it there can be active the wheel because that is simply the reality of being old the morning yeah okay
so all that is just the reality of the inevitability of goal we can ways to will and to discipline the cloud below will called of forgetting but we don't want to get all the time you don't want to forget for instance about declares showing tend to the apparently
so but in any case that at other cloud is always going to be summoned and then with all nba town centre bottom then you remember last time this to why attic shape and dynamic and tempted to you know was your overall net ball but bruno said we should bring and
things together at the end so we've done does brought over here and we're going to suggest as shooting correspondence and is the site rare into the total mystery of god et cetera that corresponds in this image to news so it
and would turn cook for i think working appropriately are who is in some sense read in the middle it's a sacred place of signs gestures
and at once can mediate the dream the deepest mystery which you can you can get a name to an ordinary life
it's not at the total somebody to create a bit small or people like on a gene might be a ball but it's up it's involved in the area of appear of fox considerations insurance etc but all those are explicitly set aside for the workshop of the inevitable
lol she kind of immediately now what we want to get to today and maybe next time and see articles is as other dimension of authority i think has to be of interest in his hobby
contemplative these two are contemplative an immediate and way not even that mysterious immediacy of apathetic per but we are also mean that everything comes to us with the seriousness etc so these two damage to prayer help incarnate us
sandy translate to render us in parliament and as reduce stress last time music whole interplay between these two so that each and every reinforcements and strengthens the other and so much about and we've got to ascend and said so you don't want to do to this class is can
district or thought at what is contemplative prayer just to those summer months and i've been working to find a real abruptly celebrate that there's that and then there's all these other mysterious moon said really came to value and reward especially these ruins the ordinary moments throughout the day wouldn't said
when he went into his hermitage and solitude he actually got guess when the mind blowing experience is up here there was a mysterious and more sense of god diffused through the day god is kind of their else or and their else
this genius behind it all or within at all sexual and for some people this is a remain focus and how to build a contemplative location so we wanna get some all good were already time and it's also the cloud console just don't think guess
ah will be looking at other organs is a classic expression of this dimension contemplative prayer he gives very long time to these two so on and so when i finally like a would try to pick we can all win with the spirit of historical city so it's interesting how how
different ah kind of temperaments can go towards more where the other but i think it's a healthy for contemplative life wants to we've all these three in yeah sending to the very summit event the rejoicing a pivot point and then the decision to pack the towns values and
sometimes even into the dark areas and we've mountain we talking to get into that but that's a very fascinating you our bodies present to us in some kind of fall powerful we also tomorrow or interesting dreams who's talking about dreams human human caused so many comments or questions about
this
yes wrote
i'll just didn't read
kind of community alive and well being care and attention that
the first money to control by the second one both okay
hello
and i'm wondering also been the thing cause and he's going up gem cry
and we know these things is kind of a now
you know well why do you can be me
then prepare their the different dark knight well crawford
well
we've seen it with for brother lawrence had a long period of dark knight yet a period of ten years of dark darkening string attempts and impression that he was to to hell of were it came up in this most serene simple brother just more or less produce europe old lady yeah you're after europe and european so i
i think that's interesting to come through there can be a dark night liturgy offered were just nothing seems to be happening and were very distracted etc and doubt to be dark night out here and tell me monsoon from noise a person it's towns and situated in the else would so much shorter version and
i am going gonna be read making the eastern prayer will hard and purchases to down here this is the attempt to make the prayer continue continue rail
but it's deepest levels it's certainly have here and you can certainly be brave also to choose where in the literature at the moment so of liturgy so i'm hoping it all we used together
hundred and five the red bad for him or a deeply connected
offering one of just giving much they well
an elegant reaching multiplicity you have bath or version of get the the political complexity of and willard and then to the even read like the ones that
no piney cars blessing simplicity that get here and that creative complexity because you see this as baltimore would have to been all about so yeah we were worrying about the and cassidy trial that foam separate out this morning it's hipness know here and then just go
into the total a simpler standard and then give them a surgical therapy mediated by taking some of the stuff down here are some of the symbols images and events and read written specifically sacred of video washing
in the song totally and group sadness etc and so on i think it all it can be a magnificent hall we don't i think want to be anti in one of them are we can all honesty say that one or another speaks much less to learn in a certain period sometimes when might be
surprised some people get very little lot of liturgical prayer for the longest time and then suddenly everyone rooms and nourishes them or there's nothing appearance and it have become central or whatever so to remain open to the surprises plenty they're meant each to really nourish and strengthen the other
and in the eastern of revisions oh shoot me the average energies are certainly if you know what zero tibetan buddhism they have women that are too small so you doing so and in but they also either subdued science an amateur woman so using the mantra
top it hindu women when they're sweeping i think a squishy prevent or are sure they repeat a mantra as the singing together as they're looking kind of thing and if you go about an outpost to come back in the chris to but bunch much emphasis on the surgical prayer and wanted to sell
but it also have the i guess either soaps and center but the jesus' birth throughout the day special of series now is very industrious
if you remember right back to our first class raniero can't be here i threatened to quarter and even if he's not here he said his contemplation about sending to the height so isn't going down into the depths of our humanity and off putting bruno over there and in this power it's both as
and so in all kinds of ways it can be a somebody without much there's a solid base and all of this and we need to acknowledge that and claimant had not try to be just pure angel spirits out of the summit and it's sad when the present all that even though we leave it back
i'm to the cloud of forgetting but also the time comes as with table and transfiguration to descend from mom to go back into the city and byways and don't preach the word and that in our life here on means doing what he's doing now taking care of they
philip and up the guest house or rest of that the pretreatment cetera but that doesn't mean leaving behind a whole contemplative dimension
a jax his and things if if you're in the bakery never see to let's rush this job and just get it done so we can get onto for him the job itself is the practice is the prayer to do it
but in a are mindful and present way and hopefully a careful way
so it's both an of getting down into the depths of our humanity individually and collectively and all things that have to be done and to render that also contemplative and then also the moment of the of silence and people are deeply the one that can be very deeply and avail
herbal in the other
know what other quite available one of the market rather than there's something for kids and of them you to be reconstructed an experience that the continuity of the sort of feeling
when regulatory regime
or you can be written to watch you're doing and that's quite different and other which you can be trying to continue to continue to continue to experiment with god as go to prison or you translate that into some the health and which you're not really remember that
you work related to think no no
and i think sometimes i think sometimes we want to do to one and sometimes we want to be better sometimes we need to do the other and with full serenity not with a kind of a tense if we're working on something complicated on our computer writing a letter that needs to be written or something like that we need to be fully present to
it and not to hold over the i split or am i not have tried through on a puncture way better than during another attack you know
me what oh this kind of anticipated but when these people will say is it might be that if you have a fundamental disposition of hard did you want to do it all in and through god and you know that god is somehow in and through also the writing the letter if it's done well that even if it's not their consciously
or inexperienced but some deep level maybe it is there and there is continuity
yeah the the mysterious key is disposition of heart that done what is a prayer of intention and brother philip's in the morning it's not bad you'd like to offer all your prayers and all your works all your joys and sufferings of the day if you do that and then kind of renew it throughout the day that's getting
in two years you should put the phillips curve
we have think five girls are printed the a strict so much and one euro getting them all just take home walking to warm up data breach that and by this year distinction between down the tree is kind of friend
does it cause when you're doing things
that's one thing if you're driving
people
jacqueline per package more dreadful jesus
patrick
but there's something else to be talking roasting
or the amazon were you totally up to the you have to be present in that the i'm not really thinking about it is no it would not have to keep the counted worthy of a feeling of girl the next with you ready
ah such quite differently to different kind of attention to the kind of international
at the drink work with the realizes that well tommy online paper on your life i'm going to be burned absolutely with and here you get into a kind of spiritual gluttony thing you up there at the top of amount and it can be for those mind-blowing experiences and at the bottom we can be to strains that i never forget god kind of thing and
both of those were wrong and this
the serene giving myself to what needs to be done but to give well and with the right intentions it's all that we need to have that freedom even if afterwards we realized well i wasn't fully empowered all the time
absolutely and that's what going down the mountains all about
it is the case for instance and spiritual direction one of the young
books well i think it's our famous journal maces if you can be with the other and have some sense it it's not just you to you know it's in this larger context to god that you're both seeking that really adds different dimension and some we
try to return to that regularly
so i would hope they're not you know to radical port but maybe some kind of continuum and we have to go back and forth kind of thing but that that is two very different senses and what we don't want has been totally distracted where i neither have the intention nor am i focused on the work normatively i god that's not good at sometimes when we get rattled
that's what happens so to come back at least to the focus on what to be done and with the basic contention to do it for god and neighbor and then if that can move into some kind of mysterious being with god at least intermittently of i think brother lawrence will
see that can really help at least
well so we've looked at the mountain and scripture to the cloud in scripture if we're to look at references to literature and scripture we find it all the way from certainly the first books of the old testament as a fundamental way to will pray and again i won't say much about the energy
not because it isn't important it might be the main focus of some here but because hopefully your father area it will be coming in and picking up that
where is this whole idea of abiding with god being always we've got is that in scripture at all reset just my brother lawrence seventeenth century
french school are sufficiently that is are we deeply read it returned or a deeply rooted in scripture you are we not deeply rooted in scripture never leaf

there was always the one or the other abiding with them yeah
sonia how the covenant community that they can travel of the the presence
a
they kept that within the hour they didn't just a and then probably out and you know and these are the great objective symbols that god is with them always
the songs strong presence of was indeed of i know
will remember this so what we pray yesterday morning and this morning
oh song fifteen i will bless your door you give me council and even at night direct my heart i keep you lord ever in my site since you are at my right hand i shall stand firm that we didn't pray that this country catch goddamn since you are
they keep you born every my site this ever always this is a theme and comes up sometimes and down
here we prayed monday
my eyes are always on the board who were rescue my feet from the snare etc
so well this is a dream that comes out in the songs
cinderella why to and says that god is always thought daughter i mass precisely right we'll see the yeah this is just our response to the objective given so this isn't some heroic decision we make and but given that god is always with us we just want to or
always be aware of that
so absolutely so i will always praise your name and day after day fulfill my bows a great thing for the has he cast tradition when the name is used to abide with god so this is so
what we would have prayed to day or things now this is what will pray tomorrow and what we did create a day because it's for the apostles someone and then update it goes on they shall pray for him without ceasing and bless him all day so this is a aspiration in the songs
where routes and scripture i shouldn't prepared you kind of us
you add me to read
john all
oh catherine kind of the capital models
the factors you packed by the capital and then a new testament that transferred each by that's right
yeah the the the a badge yeah you're buying bashes absolutely have no i also he says he's caught the last supper those love
by i thought about the come pick got a boat
and where i e
ah
repeat frequently asked for a job
so yeah you through about four five tex there in each word of the would want to be looked at very carefully and meditated that they certainly ground biblically this endeavor but that first when you mentioned support of do you not know that you are god's temple in the spirit of god dwells in you so all of the
that stuff we saw in the old testament about the art being there and the club this now isn't curie arised and personalized each one of us and the body do you not know that your body is a templates so it becomes very incarnate so that's important and then up that should paul and the amazing parallel
when john if anyone loves me you will keep my word my father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him this is interesting for our own a theme of love it's somehow this
commitment of the world to god that a brings god and the son and spirit into then that time as you say john fifteen
for that whole theme of a bind so it's not some intermittent every now and then kind of thing
as a father has loved me so i have loved you abide in my love with you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as i have kept my father's commandments and abide in his lot so he starts out saying i define divine where the branches if we're cut off from divine we can't do anything so
you've got to abide with as abide in me than he goes into this sub synonym abide in mind love so this is the challenge for all of those prepared to are all caught up into this
amendment
it was like a sense of god's presence or are going on
whereas realize it going the empty spaces between the levels
which is very original was a local jail
no for mystical were somehow goddess there in the whole thing in the reading of the proclaiming of
then does jesus ever have anything to say about this
we've got paul here we got well of course we just had to buy me that's the job and nine jesus what about the synoptic jesus now we're into loop this is his feast day
i'm haunted spirit is is given them threatened with
yeah bites with us
yeah need a worms buildings
yeah you can say though that that's in a certain sense intermittent they've got into send from about a from but that he taught them a parable that they should pray without ceasing luke twenty one thirty six this is just a classic text for the desert fathers and mothers for the whole as he cast tradition then he goes
on tuesday to talk about the insisted widow remembering names on the door before a judge day and night and or floor learned to loop is doing that to tell me try to keep up patrick cassidy away from us we have the trial today going on so he taught them a parable that they should pray without ceasing
then there's an amazing echoed this in support for smithsonian's pray without ceasing
so this is just the kind of fun basic exhortation that the early monks to very rigorously you can take it as a kind of bob semitic i purple that means you know we regularly pray you can take prayer seriously kind of thing but the desert fathers had hey at least this is something we want to aim
matt how to pray without ceasing to they really anguish over that
but job and we'll see the various answers a come up with and that's basically the whole as he cast her to shoot and the they or in the western poor thing of the practice of the presence of comparable needs to assumes what's increment
in other questions were so it's very much in scripture and to of develop an ear again in the psalms and my own solder i underline that kind of text has to do with mountains or clouds or love or wisdom your i don't like wisdom other boom there's the inside
or pray without ceasing the heart these odd for me are themes that link what's happening who seem to the glory of his name rendered glorious praise name children
so that's
hello lovelies your dwelling place god of hosts by so as long born in europe and try on my soul ring up enjoy etc so up to somehow claim the text also at this level of contemplative prayer i think as home
so as we've mentioned
this isn't just kind of a pious devotion i am going to pretend that god is here so i imagine god here and know god use here i'm just trying to become more aware of it and then when i go back to my cell god will be there than a eucharist to be there are at lunch he'll be there of the same of the rosary out
lunch will be there at every moment he's there so this practice is is akin not nadal that meant to leave kind of thing if anything it can be called reality therapy
t s eliot is of humankind cannot stand too much reality so we're basically most of the time running away from this awesome thing that god is here and we did not know it so this practice wants to bring us back to this harsh almost a horrifying reality that tub guys
everywhere
i remember in college ah europe at this bar and tables in the evening and that we were all religion meters and talking about this mystery of god be everywhere and i was kind of tweeting this girl thing don't you like a is everywhere it is not i don't want her to be here for instance it is
very painful this thing and i think part of a monastic courage is to slowly slowly allow so to speak of god to be everywhere
but if you get into the whole theology of that you know we wanted to that certainly if you go into one the classic
thomas theology and i guess we're all classic thomas by now in what sense is god everywhere theologically speaking there's at least four different levels to this classic thomas thought so as we go into the presence of god we go into a mystery deeper and deeper it's not an easy thing
what are the different ways in which god is present
from so tourists
well first of all simply as god being god god to put a production cannot not be everywhere we as creatures can't be everywhere
same time in the same way be back at myself the norfolk compelled the and down at san diego or beach san diego this weekend but i'm not there now when i'm down there i can't be here this is just part of the human condition in terms of space and in terms of time being here in this section of time i
i can't in the same way be back in the sixteen hundreds when the seventeen hundreds with brother lawrence sir wrong
so that's the definition of creature is to be defined by one time in one place that the very definition of god as god is ubiquity is being everywhere
and every time and in the fullness of god so this is a great mystery to ponder that we can't keep god out of anywhere and god can't keep god out of anywhere and this is the darkest experience we want to get into that it might be an inner psychic so
state of anger of fear of phone god is their god is right there at the heart of that that might be when i'm actually distracted and can think of god god is there it might be in that darkest most stone in some ways diabolical place of calvary where people were killed and
dump
god is there
oh so that's the first way that god is everywhere simply as god a second yes
yeah absolutely
now we're gonna go precisely into that specific meaning that god is everywhere simply as god and then it's some kind especially god is god as creator so every little baby that double that is conceived god is directly involved in that conceiving and that in some way as a new incarnation
because i will baby is directly the work of god in a definitely an analogous way to the way the jesus is the work of god so god is not just hanging around but god made the whole thing and since we're not deists were god makes it him and walks away god is ca
constantly intervening to sustain things in existence this is that important distinction between the essence and existence of all creatures we are radically contingent in our existence we can conceive of ourselves as not existing the whole world doesn't fall into absurdity if i try to think of the way
world without a without nine year old for instance suppose he were to die suppose he said a heart attack in there and the world goes on you know
love to change the worst
of suppose there had never been or on yellow stolen can conceive of the whole universe you know
but when can't conceive of the universe without god that kind of thing so we are constantly sustained in our existence that we can continue in existence through this direct intervention of god creating and re-creating and recreating which of is simply sustaining in existence good the image
that i love is the singer singing out the note and the notice there and it's got its beauty that the moment the singer stopped singing
the note falls into silence into nonexistence so we are that note constantly being sung through the constant active creative intervention of god so that anything i see anything i do oh it's and in putting me in direct contact with god's activity that's why
why what father bruno was mentioning is totally legitimate if i'm fully mindful in irreverent wait to brother philip or two
whatever writing the letter or
oh i'm within that define dynamic even if i'm not calling it to mind and feeling great things about the divine presence etc
so that each of each one of us each creature is this startling witness and proof of the direct and immediate activity of got not just ubiquiti not just the presence of god as god but the active creative and
sustaining presence of god
so these are good things to true on to kind of give a substance and commitment to this practice just as there's all kinds of theology about the ineffable prayer cod is as god totally other totally ineffable so that cloud has to be
there if i can clearly defined god that's not god if i could clearly feel god that's not god that's why much of the nasty journey is breaking of the idols etc that's the whole importance of the profits etc
so we need to enter into the darkness etc and so with literature that christ is that body and blood that is the eu christmas and so this is the strong theological underpinnings then there's a final dimension of god's presence that comes with the new testament and certainly also the old as we've seen already
and that's god actually breaking into history journeying with israel coming to us in christ abiding with us his father's son and spirit that is being present was not simply as god not simply as god creator sustainer but as god redeemer's got sanctify or got spouse has got
friend as god mother scott father all these images this is where the whole love thing comes in if anyone loves me he will come in keep arguments we will love him and com etc so this is by grace that god is present to us so sir thomas brilliantly
distinguishes all these to put them back together in a sword so an extremely profound kind of overwhelming way that god is present was always whether there were in sacred liturgy or not whether we're in now seated in not saw zone or not it might be why works emptying
for their jobs close to me colostomy bag or with raniero now are up there in the guesthouse switched up gerard are cooking with martin or whatever
questions comments about any or all of this
disabled apartment well it's a fourth if you distinguish god's creation and then god sustaining us but those are so bent were certainly the big three
but three be god is god and then is god as creator sustainer and then got through grace as our spouse and fred sir thomas says it's like gut
you may know in a kind of abstract way that god is everywhere but if you're not personally involved with god it's like being in a room and seeing someone over there was a total stranger and completely different when you suddenly realize my god that's my closest friend from my early years or something and euro
shh oh word in fact it is so they embrace you and all that that's a very different way of being present so we want to go fully into that way obviously at any level of these being with god
but there's a sense in which this is the foundation of all the rest if we don't accept god is everywhere
up in the didn't quite right to help jesus as the prisoner of the tabernacle kind of thing that and he gets lonely there so we have to go and visit him you can only have a solid deep theology liturgy that has some dignity to it if you're acknowledging that god is everywhere also in the very secular the job
mp's
and the silent prayer is something if it's not just an exquisitely isolated moment but as broome says in some way just the intense and focused movement of all the rest so the thing about when paul preached cheaper in him we live with group and have being
that's and the ground almonds
other questions about this whole theological
and then thirty round response it out and but very subtle ways about we can do anything unless it's knowing that one particular thing in the light of its connections with everything else and then you get everything else with everything else finally you at the whole thing so everything is in the context of the whole than than this him
immediately as to be the whole also with a capital w and so we want to deepen that insight
hmm interesting facts sir
caused by speaking about first i'm a pessimist and as a race me and pressure you watch the best not based on the as panache you said he's been a repented to to nine percents of
simon spirit in set up on was a special ways and race and a special purpose of this year cetera is to be no never in a way or over as friend
very is terrible chasms not to say person has a very pleasant evening us i think that's the strength and christianity it's not just a of mindfulness in the present the void something but it is also jesus and this the spirit fills our hearts in this kind of
thing to think that sustains our ongoing of being
you know a very intensely and then it try not to knowing god i think this is where our themes of knowing and loving come together because scripture to no person is this intense coming out also to marry chapter than the deepest way of knowing so they come together in that intense way of interpreting
nor union which is knowing buttons
so given as
let's look at what these people who push a constant prayer but they have to say about it and it's a whole tradition just for a kind of fun convenience were jumping into the seventeenth century lucky you'd better games but we could do on semester on the hips if i had time and you have the patience we
should but part of your monastic life and lexia should be slowly slowly claiming this whole heritage i just sketched a few chief moans but the constant prayer theme and christian monastic life certainly goes by this also
description as we've seen but then someone i passion of in the conferences a whole thing is how should we pray and in conference ten kind of a culminating moment the building is a how can we pray constantly jesus says we should support us as we should help me do that i can't always be
not a mentoring the local prayers robinson of image in my mind and how do we pray so if you look at that conference is to to ah respond to that anguish question of oh fuck all those desert people connected know i give out
your prey i don't want to print just every now and they're kind of a some time me how can i pray always so that's right an error the beginning and then sir john ominous it stars were and you know his way is through the the verse from the on section be overlooked virgin this
our wrote way back in fifth century and we got the seventh century mount sinai
we've already by explicit reference to as you kenya and the name of jesus it's to be repeated as constantly as the breath
and up so most people would try to ah
i'll trace the lineage of the jesus prayer they say at least you have to look at tab these texts john clematis have corresponded with our own for gregory the great and up the ladder of divine ascent sooner or later as smokes you want to pick this up and go through as there's crazy thing said
here the result so glorious things and doubt that the remembrance of jesus be present with each breath and then you will know the value of his yukiya that's a step twenty seven number sixty one and britain as a lovely se and this he says this is just revolutionized eastern spirituality just that verse
because they took that very seriously that the remembrance of jesus this is a technical term already many historians argue for the jesus prayer the name of jesus being repeated with each breath so this so then you will know what has he key
here's about has accused that ideal
hi deal kind of meet you on the arms for being with god that's the whole goal of the monk to abide in hezekiah which has to abide in god
and all this is related to this wild passionate love of the monk who should be a kind of up are crazy lover
bless it as he was obtained such love and yearning for god as a mad lover has for his beloved blessing as you unceasingly strides to be with the lord as others try to please mortals such a person can get no relief from his strong desire
ayer even in sleep even then he called holds converse converse converse converse with them his loved one when it was wounded with loves said to himself i sleep because nature requires is but my heart is awake stag longs and pants for the board with the fire of love
and he goes on and on and it's sub quite lovely stuff
love is notice of illumination levels as a fountain of fire in the major that at wells up in flames the thursday so love as the state of angels love is the progress of eternity with cetera
so here we got these man monks out in the east to say i'm going to pray all the time because i'm gonna be so inflamed with love and that's basically the answer to a plug back and watch the heatsink the i can't be thinking of got all the time i can't be muttering this prayer or that per all the time but somehow i can love got all the time
time this is the model a mad lover does he really stopped loving his beloved it may be more or less present in the consciousness you may be directly talking with her we may not be directly talking with her but if he's passionately love with her there's some sense in which that produce
as through the whole day and then there's the ways yo sustain it in cause it to enflame again that's what the jesus bears all about that's what of a bus and baker recall aspirations are brief prayers are just a moment of reflection or something but it's to sustain that basic commitment
of heart to god
and up
then when job so agree that at the beginning that if we jumped to a very decent expression of this se casse tradition which is one away with pilgrim
how many here haven't read this
well it's a classic and is a crazy look back to it so personal it's not what it pretends to be he pretends to have been written by very simple rushing pilgrim who just set off as a pilgrim wandering and he his question is how on earth can i pray all the time
he that verse from st paul pronounced in he had not church in the context of literature so he starts asking people how can i live it
and he gets a sensory bad and that and then finally finds a has he cast tradition but in fact it's at least been edited the whole thing by a very sophisticated eastern theologian probably on mount athos maybe the basis is a real diary of a pilgrim who came from russia
a got to mount athos it's all been debated now but certainly it was reworked and render very subtle and theological by some of enthusiastic the jesus prayer who puts all kinds of theology into it
got last language but there again to push
rb it's all based on this objective reality that god is always inclining towards us with all this mercy and compassion etc we've gotta be aware of that and respond to it it's not again that god does this every now and then are only the time of the liturgy or only yup
in the evening when it's time to see the evening prayers of but all the time so i just have to be more aware and more grateful for that should set a heavy burden it's a joyful release that at every moment some out every moment should be illumined by this incredible a wild
love of god for us
the boundless loving kindness of god gives bountiful rewards the love of god gives grace a thousand for more than human actions deserve if you give him the nearest might he will pay you back with gold if you but purpose to go to the father he will come out to meet you
if you say but a word short and unfeeling receive me at mercy on me he will fall on your neck and kissed you that is what the love of the heavenly father's like towards us and worthy as we are and simply because of this love he rejoices in every gesture remain toward salvation however small
so the basic gesture were to make sense this author is pray doesn't matter how good you pray don't worry about the quality of it just worry about the quantity of but try to pray as much as possible then slowly slowly god would take care of the quality in some ways again it's a crazy book and it seems to be almost
mechanical and so he starts spraying five thousand jesus prayers one day and ten thousand with an week and cetera
but there is behind a noxious may maybe a wild fanaticism but a deep been do the to basically that every time and same emperor there's some kind of good we all there and slowly slowly i'm opening my heart to god whose present all the time and then set up slowly
can respond here
all the time he learned so that he goes on quoting the blessed a guest and this is something because the east is not always so reverential to send augustan but here on
talking about prayer again up and that