For the last post I made a few suggestions from my own experience about how to pray in the Dark Night when the prayer once used can no longer help. I chose the prayer Jesus himself made upon the Cross,
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’? When I felt in the pits I turned to the
De Profundis –
‘Out of the depths I cried to thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer’. However what I found, and what you’ll find, is that in time the full sentence will be too long, and you’ll feel the need to reduce it to, say, just
‘My God, my God’ or ‘
Out of the depths’. Then the time will come when a single word will be all you need, like
‘God’, or
‘Jesus’, or
‘mercy’. I can’t give you rules when to change down from many to few, you’ll know for yourself. It’s like changing gears in a car, once you get used to using them you know automatically when to change down.
read on ....
For the last post I made a few suggestions from my own experience about how to pray in the Dark Night when the prayer once used can no longer help. I chose the prayer Jesus himself made upon the Cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’? When I felt in the pits I turned to the De Profundis – ‘Out of the depths I cried to thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer’. However what I found, and what you’ll find, is that in time the full sentence will be too long, and you’ll feel the need to reduce it to, say, just ‘My God, my God’ or ‘Out of the depths’. Then the time will come when a single word will be all you need, like ‘God’, or ‘Jesus’, or ‘mercy’. I can’t give you rules when to change down from many to few, you’ll know for yourself. It’s like changing gears in a car, once you get used to using them you know automatically when to change down. read on ....
so nice to read a modern writer who connects with me, whp knows what it is like to go through all the stages from experience
ReplyDeleteThank you for this Melanie. This is the very nature of prayer. So many turn away believing they are on the wrong path. Continue on your journey into love and wait upon God. The highest teaching in St Luke’s gospel on prayer, known as ‘the gospel of prayer’ is ‘waiting on God’.
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