October 29 - Relevance to prayer - practical application
At the end of the 1st chapter”From Relevance to Prayer”, Nouwen writes: “For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required” (and, should you have forgotten the Nouwen definition on “mystic”, from page 42 “a mystic is a person whose identity is deeply rooted in God’s first love”). How does the movement from moral to mystical apply to your life or your spiritual community? If, as a mystic, your identity was rooted in God’s first love and not in being pro-this, anti-that, how would you effect change and how and your community be different?
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November 20th, 2007 @ 9:29 am
I discover that God talks in my deepest contemplation. Today, commuting to work, I just found myself confronting a deepseated insecurity about being unloved, rejected. I believe that this is a result of deep prayer and the Holy Spirit found me prepared to handle this truth about myself. I felt God’s embrace the whole day, even as I nursed some deep feelings of hurt about the experiences of rejection.
November 7th, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
For me, contemplative prayer is sheer gift. There are a few things I can do to prepare myself for it, though.
I am very fond of Henri’s tape Who Are We?
He speaks of Jesus as my first love. The very first!
He also talks about putting everything under the blessing, even our brokeness.
We are chosen, blessed, broken, and given. May this be true,and we will be in contemplative prayer!
Colette
November 4th, 2007 @ 8:49 am
I cannot claim to be a mystic or anything else like that in particular. I only know that my prayer is much less that of petition to that of praise and ‘the unknown language’ St. Paul talks about when we lift our hearts in prayer to
our God. At the present time I am the ‘leader of my family’ as we live through a difficult time. I am also working full time and moving this week, so each day I thank my Jesus for another new day and pray for the compassion, love and understanding I need to go through this day with whatever it brings. Then I just go into praising Him and the prayer flows from there. I do not know what
is said, only that my heart is united with his.
I start and end my day in peace and confidence and am more able to calm the fears of my family and friends and remind them to be positive and pray that all comes out well. Jesus, the Father and the Spirit are a deep part of my life all day - and often I do not have words - just a mantra to start me off. Thus if I am myself and share when asked, one person at a time, my Church community as well, will be effected.
November 4th, 2007 @ 8:41 am
If my identity was rooted in God’s first love, “every word spoken, every word of advice given, and every strategy developed (would) come from a heart that knows God intimately” (p.44) and I would listen to the “voice of love and find there the wisdom and courage to address whatever issue presents itself” (p. 45).
I just finished reading Out of Solitude by Henri - a really small book that you can read in less than an hour. It goes along with what we are reading now.
He talks about the difference between cure and care. When we want to fix everything quickly(cure), there isn’t room for relationship and caring. Caring, on the other hand is ongoing, attentive, and from the heart.
But the only way to go from curing to caring and to live in our first love is to be “securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life” (p.45).
Now that’s living!
November 4th, 2007 @ 6:55 am
If Henri Nouwen was writing this book today, he would probably be sure that his comment about politics being the key conversation topic is fulfilled. He might not, however, be too pleased to see that some of the loudest “politicians” are those who are pastors of large congregations.
I think our society would be very different if all of us, certainly including me, could stop talking politics and begin to find ways to talk and act in love. (See 1 Cor. 8 and Romans 14 and 15).
My wife and I worship at a church that has been going through senior pastor problems for the past three years. I see no end in sight. Many of us “have well informed opinions about the burning issues” regarding the life of our church. The voice of love is too quiet.
This little chapter and especially page 45 was written by a wise man!
November 4th, 2007 @ 6:18 am
I find this exercise to pray for the gift of contemplative prayer very humbling and struggle to do so. I am taking a great deal more time to read Henri with the group and see I have not been truly pondering the message before. May my prayer life become even deeper as I do so.
November 3rd, 2007 @ 7:22 am
I would ask for God’s grace and the strength to treat all as if they were Christ, knowing full well the obstacles, resistance and consequences such an approach could evoke.
November 1st, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Yesterday, during contemplative prayer, God reminded me through the Psalms, Isaiah, and Luke of how He has always been there even when I was absent. He is telling me to trust that He is always present and always in control–while I need to be more humble, obedient, and loving of others on the highway that he has paved for me in Christ. The “burning issues” of the past weren’t as burning as they seemed to be at the time, thanks be to God.
It’s difficult to think of myself as a mystic, however, do agree with Henri (pg.47) in the movement from the moral to the mystical being required to be fruitful.
Ironically this morning a friend, which I haven’t heard from in a while, called to ask if I would be in prayer for him to break a habit, he thinks is sinful. We prayed together on the phone right after his request.
God, we know you love us, please teach us to not be afraid to trust in you always, to be available to you, to be in communion with you, and to stay on your road and not ours. In the name of Jesus, we pray!