Session Five
Chapter thirty nine
“Prayer is nothing but an intense longing for God.”
The author encourages us to pray simply and with the entirety of our being.
Use one little word, like for example, sin, to express our desire to depart from evil and wrongdoing.
Likewise use one short word, like for example, God, to express our sincere desire for God.
For the period of prayer commit your entire self to departure from wrongdoing and a desire for God. Do so with a simple word as the symbol of your desire.
Chapter forty
The author counsels the reader to gather up all one’s wrongdoing and errant ways symbolically in one word - sin. Offer all our sins to God collected in one bundle by silently saying the word, sin, in our prayer. Don’t get into listing specific misdeeds, just offer the entire collection of sins to God in the one word silently offered on the altar of your own heart. Then proceed to give yourself in full surrender to God by silently saying the word, God. This subtle teaching on prayer is intended to invite us to keep prayer simple and train ourselves to constantly turn toward God and away from sin. This is very similar to Br. Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God.
Chapter forty one
Practice extreme fidelity to contemplative prayer. In order to do so you must remain healthy. “Learn what rest is.” If you get sick or fall down, don’t worry, just “wait on God’s mercy.”
Chapter forty two
If you want to know how to do anything, just “do the best you can” and maintain a strict devotion to your contemplative practice and your practice will lead you to know what you need to know and do in all things.
Do not practice moderation in your practice of turning to God in ordinary activities. Offer God the one word, Sin, thus you will tuck all creation under the cloud of forgetting, and then follow by offering God yourself in the cloud of unknowing with the one word, God. Everything else you need to know about this life will follow. Trust God and keep up your discipline of prayer.
Chapter forty three
Let go of all that is not God. Begin by letting go of your attachment to the exterior environment, sights, sounds, etc. Then let go of your attachment to the interior environment namely thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. Finally, let go of self. Let go of your sense of self, your separate-self-sense, the sense you have that you are other than your surroundings, other people, and God. Let go of your sense of being distinguishable.
Chapter forty four
God’s grace is a pure gift, without it nothing happens. However, though it is a gift and you can’t make it come your way you do have to be open to receive. Grace does not force itself on you.
Godly sorrow is a deep awareness of our nothingness without God. Godly sorrow springs from an awareness of my incapacity to provide for my own happiness needs. In Godly sorrow I surrender the entirety of myself to God who leads me grace-fully to the trailhead of the path of joy which I can only walk after immersing myself in sorrow over my sins, that is my propensity to miss the mark of love. Godly sorrow does not lead to low self-esteem, rather it leads to gratitude for the presence of God and the gift of an all consuming longing for God.
Chapter forty five
Be careful; beginners in contemplation “mistake a high strung excitement and warmth in their cheeks for the genuine fire of love kindled by the grace and goodness of the Holy Spirit deep within our hearts.” Don’t over exert yourself physically or emotionally for this is what the devil uses to mislead you. The work of contemplation is a gently returning to God and a light letting go of all created things. Working hard with strenuous effort excites pride in the beginner and he or she becomes mistaken about what is happening thinking that they have done something to cause God to turn toward them with favor.
Chapter forty six
Don’t work too hard. The work of contemplation should not exhaust one physically or mentally. Working too hard in this way can lead to pride which is counter-productive to all our efforts at letting go.
“Learn to love with gentleness and joy.” The subtle move of letting go is a sort of effortless effort. You don’t have to go at the work in a muscular way, rather practice a strict devotion to gently returning to God. Put your strength into being faithful to your practice, relax your straining muscles (mentally, physically, and emotionally) when it comes to letting go. Simply let your attachments flow easily from your open grip.
Chapter forty seven
Hide your longing for God from God as best you can, so that a desire for reward and notice won’t get in the way of your drawing close to God by letting go.
The false self (egoic drive) will secretly request notice and consolation while your true self is loosening its grip on such. Thomas Merton said, “Beware the enlightened false self.”
Chapter forty eight
Practice a gentle suspicion of consolations and sweetness that come from exterior things and wait patiently on inner nudges of God’s goodness and love.