Spirituality for Beginners

Fr. Bede's almost-daily reflections. When it comes to the spiritual life, we're all beginners. I also send these out by email. Contact me at bcamera@anselm.edu. God bless!





Thursday, July 16, 2015

Prayer without words

A 90-year-old man used to come into the church every day and sit before the tabernacle for three hours. One day, as he was leaving, the Pastor asked him what prayers he said when he was sitting there. “Oh, I don’t use words,” he replied. “I sit there with him, and he is there with me, and that’s enough.”

Think of a couple who have reached a point in their relationship where they are able to simply be with one another without speaking, who are fulfilled just by being together. Can you pray like that?


Evagrius of Pontus (4th century) said this about prayer: “When your intellect, in an ardent love for God, sets itself gradually to transcend, so to speak, created things and rejects all thinking . . . at the same time filling itself with gratitude and joy, then you may consider yourself approaching the borders of prayer.”

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