Prayer

A Lay Cistercian reflects on two dimensions of Prayer. If you look at reoccurring themes in any body of work, there are cross-cutting themes that transcend one book or volume and may be found running throughout an entire body of work. A good example is the purpose of life found in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 6, the Shema Yisrael, and the statement from Jesus telling us the purpose of life in Matthew 22:37. In fact, they are identical. Prayer is such a cross-cutting theme in all of the Scriptures. These thoughts of mine come from a retreat I made with other Lay Cistercians on February 4, 2018. The theme was Prayer and the insights I offer here are inspired by my thoughts about, not only how Prayer crosses covenants in the Old to the New, but also how there is incredible depth to prayer, particularly two dimensions: Prayer of the Head (mind) and Prayer of the Heart. Prayer is lifting both the mind and the heart to God. Problems arise when we only lift the mind to God but forget the heart. You may find other thoughts about Prayer and Lay Cistercian spirituality at my blog site. www.thecenterforcontemplativepractice.org I call the blogs messages from the edge of time because I do not know from whence they came, somewhere out there, I reckon. Like SETI's antennae (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), prayer picks up signs of communication with I AM. The Holy Spirit must be at work in me saying, "Just keep your mouth closed and listen."