Praying In Silence

[AccountDeleted]

If you can, spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, kneeling or sitting (if you can't kneel) just "being" in the presence of God. Let yourself "be" with Him, as long as you can. The more time you spend with Him, the more time you will want to spend with Him, but there may be some initial resistance from your senses, that want constant stimulation.

Make yourself aware that He is there in the Real Presence. You can start with mental prayer or even mental recitation of vocal prayers like the Rosary if absolutely necessary at first. When these no longer feel enough, then "talk" to Him in a way that is personal to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to pray for you.

Finally, "listen" instead of talking - not with your ears, but with your heart. Wait. Just wait. Not [u]for [/u]anything. Just wait on God. He is always speaking to our hearts, but we are not always listening, so no wonder we can't hear Him!

Drink Him in. "My soul thirsts for you like a dry weary land without water." (Psalm 63)
Taste Him. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34)
Rejoice in Him and let Him touch your soul. "If a soul seeks God, even more so does the Bridegroom seek her; if she sends him her wishes of love, He sends her his inspirations and his divine touches." (St J of the Cross)

ALLOW God to pray in you.

[kafka]

nice nunsense, very nice.

thanks.

[Slappo]

I would really recommend practicing a mortification of the ears. When you are driving in your car (if you drive) turn the radio off. When walking don't use an MP3 player, when at home don't have music playing. Obviously this doesn't have to be a constant thing, but when most desired, choose to mortify the desire for noise that way you are detached from a need for noise and in prayer you won't feel a need for noise and purposely distract yourself.

Another big help can be participating in a relaxing activity before prayer like going on a walk. Entering into prayer with many anxieties or worries often can be distracting when trying to practice silent prayer as the silence can leave opportunities for the anxious thoughts to arouse. I forget what the word for this is, but one of the older religious orders had a big emphasis on it. It has to do with an emphasis not only on what the atmosphere of prayer itself is, but what the atmosphere leading up to prayer is.

[tinytherese]

I've been listening to Him and I usually get the sense that He is simply saying that He loves me and desires my love.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='tinytherese' post='1852016' date='Apr 28 2009, 11:14 PM']I've been listening to Him and I usually get the sense that He is simply saying that He loves me and desires my love. [/quote]

He thirsts for your love, just as you thirst for His. Being still and silent in love and adoration allows your soul to open to Him, and He is then able to drink from you, as you drink from Him.

He needs nothing from us, but delights in giving us joy in His presence. He is the giver.

[tinytherese]

I still find it frustrating with talking with him since it's not like talking to everybody else face to face. It's not like I get to see Him right before me, get to put my hand in His, or talk back and forth like other people can do. There's no adoration where I'm at currently, yet I'm growing to like looking at this one holy card of Our Lord on it that displays His Sacred Heart.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='tinytherese' post='1852036' date='Apr 28 2009, 11:40 PM']I still find it frustrating with talking with him since it's not like talking to everybody else face to face. It's not like I get to see Him right before me, get to put my hand in His, or talk back and forth like other people can do. There's no adoration where I'm at currently, yet I'm growing to like looking at this one holy card of Our Lord on it that displays His Sacred Heart.[/quote]


We need to get beyond the attachment to sensory simulus. I know this sounds really trite probably, but one of the main drawbacks to progess in prayer, is the need for sense stimulation. That is why St John of the Cross talks about the Dark Night of the Sense before he talks about the Dark Night of the Spirit.

God is beyond anything that we can imagine or comprehend, and therefore, He is also beyond our senses. That is why St J of C also talks about the "nada, nad, nada" of God. God is "nothing" that we can think about or imagine or understand. For me, this was a real stumbling block in the beginning because I love to "feel" and I fought very hard against this teaching. I thought that this compared with the Buddhist annilhilation of self, and rebelled against it, but I totally misunderstood what St JofC was talking about.

God does talk to us - and will even use our senses on occasion when we really need this and He feels it is necessary for our spiritual growth. But real progess is made along the spiritual path when we stop seeking God according to our own needs, and let Him reveal Himself to us as He wills. And this often involves the very painful process of allowing God to purify our senses and strip us of all sense stimulation.

Using thoughts and images of Him in His humanity is a good tool for beginners, as are all other spiritual aids, but as we progess along through the path of proficients, we need to let go of these things if we want to finally reach the stage the perfect (union with God).

My advice is to continue to use whatever images help you at this stage, but be prepared to let these go as God reveals Himself more clearly to your soul, even if this hurts, which it no doubt will. Jeremiah refers to the "seduction" that God uses to capture the attention of our soul, but once we are fairly captive to His love, you can pretty much bet that He will slowly withdraw the external support of sense images, in order to draw the soul more closely into Himself, which is beyond all this.

Why do you think that St Teresa's face in ecstasy also appears to be one of pain? This kind of love is far beyond what a human being can comprehend with intellect or senses or even feelings... it hurts, but it also heals and comforts and exalts.

Let Him be what He is to you... but that is far beyond what you could possibly ever imagine.

Edited April 29, 2009 by nunsense

[tinytherese]

Wow, thank you nunsense.

[trustandgratitude]

When I have trouble focusing my mind enough to just be I have found it helpful to use a book with short meditations. One of my favorite books for that is: Jesus, A Dialogue With The Saviour- by a monk of the Eastern Church translated by a monk of the Western Church.

[Theologian in Training]

"Be still and know that I am God."

Think about this: when we are listening for something, quite intently, we freeze, we stop and remain still, knowing that by doing so we have more acute hearing. In other words, we are putting our entire selves into that act of listening, physically we know what we must do to listen.

When we are listening in the spiritual sense, it is the same thing, we need to stop in our tracks and listen intently. When we do so we realize that nothing is more important than the listening, everything starts to become secondary, the noises outside, the A/C/heater, because even our mind starts to get enveloped by the silence, since its desire is not to run away but to put itself in an acute state of listening.

Why do we put so much effort, time and devotion into this listening? Because we are waiting for Divine Love to speak directly to our heart and it is love that motivates us, our desire is to hear that gentle Word of God whisper in our soul and we stop at nothing to hear it.

We come to realize that silence is not the absence of sound but the longing to hear God speak. It is not boring but exciting, it is not a source of anxiety but a source of peace, because in that stillness, as we wait, we learn the great virtue of patience and come to see that by being still we are like a flame burning on a candle. Though we are stationary and still, we have a burning desire within us, the quiet flame lights our heart and when we finally do hear God speak it is as though that same silent flame grows because it is, ultimately, enveloped by His.

Stillness, silence then is not empty but the doorway through which we find God in His fullness.

Remember Elijah? It was only after he stopped listening to the big stuff that he finally heard the voice of God speak, as a "still small voice"

[i] And he said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13 And when Eli'jah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.[/i]

Edited May 1, 2009 by Theologian in Training