Tuesday, March 31, 2015

When I Have Become Prayer (PrayerLife)

Wall of Herod's Temple, Jerusalem
I woke up praying again today. This is now my common experience. It's as if I cannot not-pray. 

There was a time, a long season of my life, where praying was unnatural to me. I had to force myself to pray. Now what began as forced, disciplined prayer (which is good) has become a way of life (which is better). I see that I am a praying person. 

This morning I read this from one of my worn-out devotional books. Thomas Merton once prayed: God, "let my eyes see nothing but your glory, and let my hands touch nothing that is not for your service. Let my tongue taste no bread that does not strengthen me to praise your great mercy." (From New Seeds of Contemplation. Cited in Merton, Through the Year with Thomas Merton, 55.)

When my entire being has become a prayer, when I am prayer, then shall I know by experience what it is to see sub specie aeternitatis