Chapter 2 looked at 7 scripture passages selected to focus our attention on some specific aspects of looking inward by people in the Bible (with my personally assigned title for each):
- Isaiah 55 (Free Spiritual Food)
- John 3:1-8 (You must be born again)
- 2 Cor. 4:7-18 (The surpassing value of eternals)
- Matthew 15:1-20 (The superiority of God's commands)
- John 15:1-17 (The life-relationship of the vine and the branches)
- Ephesians 3:11-21 (The mystery that is Christ)
- Matthew 11:25-30 (The mystery of resting in Christ)
The hymn for the week was "It Is Well With My Soul".
The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Igumen Chariton of Valamo, Dorothee Soelle, Anthony Bloom, Emilie Griffin, Evelyn Underhill, Edward J. Farrell, Elizabeth O'Connor, Thomas R. Kelly, Norman Cousins, Tilden H. Edwards and Kenneth Leech. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)
Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
- "The (prayer) closet is twofold, outer and inner, material and spiritual: the material place is of wood or stone, the spiritual closet is the heart or mind...."
- "Each step of one's own (on the journey of religious experience) is worth more than all the knowledge and insight of others."
- "People who pray, really pray, don't talk about it much. ... In order to find a person who prays, you have to look for clues: charitableness, good temper, patience, a fair ability to handle stress, resonance, openness to others. What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life. That is not to say that they are any less active. They may be competent (professionals). But their hearts lie in the inner life and they are moved by that."
- "Each of us is the artist of his own life."
- "To know oneself is a vital element in prayer."
What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 2 not referenced) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.
John
2 comments:
I found the meditation by Emilie Griffin, Clinging -- The Experience of Prayer to be the most thought provoking in a Spiritual sense. She says "What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life."
That sounds very much like a Wesleyan understanding of Holiness and Sanctification. Isn't that the way we understand Sanctification to be? Isn't it the Holy Spirit indwelling us and causing us to live outwardly as we are being made pure inwardly?
What do you think?
Yes, I agree. And what a wonderful thing it is to look back at some point and realize that that's what's been happening to you, even though you might not have realized it at the time. Someone else expressed it as "a long obedience in the same direction".
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