Good morning…
This week the Summer Zoom Study group completed our first book, Henri Nouwen’s The Way of The Heart. Thoroughly enjoying this read, we discovered several fascinating, new insights.
One nugget of nourishment is found on page 63: “The Desert Fathers did not think of solitude as being alone, but as being alone with God. They did not think of silence as not speaking, but as listening to God. Silence and solitude are the context within which prayer is practiced.”
Be alone with God.
Listen to God.
In silence and solitude, we practice prayer.
The next few sentences also stay with me: “The literal translation of the words ‘pray always’ is ‘come to rest.’ The Greek word for rest is hesychia and hesychasm is the term which refers to the spirituality of the desert. A hesychast is a man or a woman who seeks solitude and silence as a way of unceasing prayer. The prayer of the hesychasts is a prayer of rest. This rest, however, has little to do with the absence of conflict or pain. It is a rest in God in the midst of a very intense daily struggle.”
Now I check out Biblegateway.com and find different translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray always.”
AMP – be unceasing and persistent in prayer;
BRG – Pray without ceasing.
CSB – pray constantly,
CEB – Pray continually.
CJB – Pray regularly.
CEV – and never stop praying.
DARBY – pray unceasingly;
Through every translation, God whispers to us, “Come to rest.” “Come to rest.” “Come to rest.” If our private prayer life was summed up in two word problems, here is how our everyday experience would read.
Be alone with God + Listen to God = Prayer.
“Pray always.” = “Come to rest.”
Practicing a life of prayer, we constantly, continually, regularly come to listen, resting alone with God in the midst of a very intense daily struggle. Resting with God in the heart of our heart is the single thing we can do, day and night, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, until through death we finally rest in peace, forever and ever.
Amen.
…Sue…
