| PRAYERTry to think of prayer
simply: it means putting yourself near God, with God, in
a time of quietness every day. You put
yourself with him just as you are, in the feebleness of your
concentration, in
your lack of warmth and desire, not trying to manufacture pious
thoughts or
phrases. You put yourself with God,
empty perhaps, but hungry and thirsty for him; and if in sincerity you
cannot
say that you want God you can perhaps tell him that you want to want
him. Thus you can be can be very near him
in your
naked sincerity; and he will do the
rest, drawing out from you longings deeper than you knew were there and
pouring
into you trust and love. Forgive me for putting this so clumsily. I am
trying
to say that you find you are "with God" not by achieving certain
devotional exercises in his presence but by daring to be your own self
as you
reach towards him.
The daily time of being quietly with God becomes "adoration". And
because you are with him and near him whose name is love you will have
the
people you care for on your heart. In this way adoration turns into
"intercession", the bringing of people and needs and sorrows and joys
and causes into the stream of the divine love.
ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL RAMSEY
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