“Do not work for food that
perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man
will give you.” (John 6:27)
It occurred to me recently that
a lot of the thoughts I think—indeed, most of the thoughts I think—are nothing
more than wasted words amounting to nothing, leading nowhere and accomplishing
no purpose at all. In fact, most of them are in the service of things that
perish, things that feed my ego (which is itself an illusion) and things that
in the grand scheme of things are absolutely not important and have no value in
and of themselves. Have you found the same thing to be true?
I also discovered during these
first few days of the Easter season, that there are thoughts I can think that
actually do endure for eternal life. Most of them are simple phrases and verses
that come to mind if I set my sights on the things of God, on the things that
matter. I’ll give you a short list here:
·
O God come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste
to help me.
·
Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
·
Hail Mary, full of grace.
·
Guide me, Lord.
·
Help me, Lord: I can’t but You can.
·
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for me.
·
Christ is risen, alleluia!
·
He has come to set me free.
The first of them is the verse
we use to begin every hour of prayer in the monastery. It is also a favorite
mantra of St. John Cassian. Of all of them, however, my favorite is the second
one, the one known as the Jesus Prayer.
If you take any one of these
phrases, or another one of your own choosing, and repeat it to yourself during
your time of meditation, or during short moments of prayer, what you will
discover is that once you’ve said it enough, it will begin to come to your mind
automatically and lead you away from vain and useless thoughts to a special
place of prayer where God is with you intensely and you are in tune with Him
and you will know that He is risen and He is guiding you “into the way that
leads to peace.”
Peace be with you this day.
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