Prayer as Placing Ourselves in the Way of God's Love
In continuing with our series on prayer, this article will generously quote from the book, The Hermit, by David Torkington, and specifically from a dialogue between the narrator, who is seeking spiritual help with his rather dead spiritual life, and a man recommended to him, Peter.
Note: Three books by David Torkington, The Hermit, The Prophet, and The Mystic, comprise a series on prayer written in story-telling form. The narrator is a Catholic priest and the story line is described from a Catholic social/cultural perspective. However, for non-Catholics, a 2010 book, Wisdom from the Western Isles, has basically the same three books together in one volume, but the narrator is now a widower whose wife had recently died with the story line described from a Protestant social/cultural perspective.
In continuing with our series on prayer, this article will generously quote from the book, The Hermit, by David Torkington, and specifically from a dialogue between the narrator, who is seeking spiritual help with his rather dead spiritual life, and a man recommended to him, Peter.
Peter
speaks of how a ne’er do well cousin totally changed his life when he fell in
love and received deep love from a remarkable woman who became his wife. Peter
says, “I was fascinated by the tremendous power of love in action. No power on
earth could have done anything for my cousin. It helped me to realize that if
we could somehow place ourselves in the way of God’s love, put ourselves under
the influence of His creative power, then like [my cousin], we might be
radically and permanently changed; not superficially, but from our innermost
parts.
“When I
began to read the New Testament in earnest, I saw that this is what it’s saying
time and time again.” Peter goes on, “The more I tried to steep myself in the
Scriptures, in the writings of the Fathers of the Church, in the most ancient
and hallowed traditions of Christian spirituality, the more clearly I came to
see that the message was always the same. The burning question was not firstly,
‘how do we love God?’ but ‘how do we welcome God’s love into our lives? How do
we best position ourselves to be the recipients of that love?’ Once we get this
right, everything else falls into place....”
Peter
points out, most people think “we can change ourselves and direct the course of
our spiritual growth by dint of sheer muscle-power and dogged endurance, but we
can’t.” He says, “The exceptionally stubborn might push things to the limit
before they finally crack up in a fit of depression, self-pity and despair, but
the majority settle for a compromise. They sense failure before it comes and
tactfully avoid the humiliation of facing their own weakness by lowering their
ideals and putting off until tomorrow the steps they feel are necessary to
attain them. They reassure their guilty consciences with dreams of tomorrow’s
fresh start, when they will begin again in earnest to take themselves in hand
and get down to the serious business of putting themselves together.” Wow! Can
anyone relate?!
After a
laugh between the narrator and Peter in the story, the narrator basically says,
Hey, but what else can we do? Peter replies, “The only thing we can do is to
swallow our pride and accept the truth that stands out like a sore thumb;
namely that we can’t do anything by ourselves. If the way we make a mess of our
own lives isn’t enough to convince us, then look at other people’s, read a bit
of history and you’ll see where pig-headed conceit gets you. It seems to me
that the Gospel says loud and clear, time and time again, ‘I know you can’t but
I can – if you’ll only let Me.’”
But it’s
not as if we do nothing and God does everything either. Peter uses the
illustration of a farmer preparing the soil, planting the seed, tending the
plants. The end product has nothing to do with him – it was in the seed; but
yet it has everything to do with him. “Now,” said Peter, “God’s love will
automatically grow and develop in us like the seed. It will ultimately extend
to every part of our being until it completely possesses us. And this will
happen infallibly, if we will only prepare the ground, remove any obstacles
required of us to facilitate the full growth of that love.”
How do we
do that? By learning to pray, Peter says. “It’s only in prayer that we come
into contact with the love of God and begin to experience it entering into our
lives. Nobody can experience being loved and remain the same.”
Dibby Green
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.Note: Three books by David Torkington, The Hermit, The Prophet, and The Mystic, comprise a series on prayer written in story-telling form. The narrator is a Catholic priest and the story line is described from a Catholic social/cultural perspective. However, for non-Catholics, a 2010 book, Wisdom from the Western Isles, has basically the same three books together in one volume, but the narrator is now a widower whose wife had recently died with the story line described from a Protestant social/cultural perspective.