To pray, I think, does not mean to think about God in
contrast to thinking about other things, or to spend time with God instead of
spending time with other people. Rather,
it means to think and live in the presence of God. As soon as we being to divide our thoughts
into thoughts about God and thoughts about people and events, we remove God
from our daily life and put him in a pious little niche where we can think
pious thoughts and experience pious feelings.
Although it is important and even indispensable for the spiritual life
to set apart time for God and God alone, prayer can only become unceasing
prayer when all our thoughts – beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or
shameful, sorrowful or joyful – can be thought in the presence of God. Thus, converting our unceasing thinking into
unceasing prayer moves us from a self-centered monologue to a God-centered
dialogue. This requires that we turn all
our thoughts into conversation. The main
question, therefore, is not so much what we think, but to whom we present our
thoughts.
--Henri Nouwen, Clowning
in Rome
No comments:
Post a Comment