Another rite of passage in the Swenson household: Nick passed his road test and now has a driver's license. I haven't even really grasped the fact that Sara will be moving out this fall and headed to Hamline. When did all this happen!
Maybe a way to respond to all of this is to pull up some quotes on prayer. (Why would Nick's driving make me think of prayer!?")
In his book, Courage to Pray, Anthony Bloom states: "Interceding prayer means " placing ourselves at the heart of a troubled situation."
True prayer demands that we be more passive than active; it requires more silence than words, more adoration than study, more concentration than rushing about, more faith than reason.." (Carlo Carreto)
Meditation is the deliberate and usually systematic reflection on some truth or passage of scripture. It has a threefold purpose: to instruct, the mind, to move the will, and to warm the heart for prayer.
Contemplation is the awareness of God, known and loved at the core of one's being.
Sam Keen "I suspect that we are all recipients of cosmic love notes. Messages, omens, voices, cries, revelations, and appeals are homogenized into each day's events. If only we knew how to listen, to read the signs."
— The Passionate Life
Richard Foster:
"Spirit of the living God, be the Gardener of my
soul. For so long I have been waiting, silent and still —
experiencing a winter of the soul. But now, in the strong
name of Jesus Christ, I dare to ask:
Clear away the dead growth of the past,
Break up the hard clods of custom and routine,
Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge,
Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word,
Cultivate and water and tend my heart,
Until new life buds and opens and flowers.
Amen."
When you pray, you talk to God; when you read Scripture, God talks to you. (Augustine)
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