THE INNER AND OUTER LIFE -- We
live in a highly efficient world – a very busy
world. In fact, our society places a great value on
being busy. It’s the badge of honor today. If a
person is not busy, we think that they are either
lazy or useless. But God has placed a need inside of
us – a need for quiet and prayer, and if we neglect
that need, we will be out of balance. And just as
our bodies become unsound when something is not
going right physically, so our spirits will be
unsound if we neglect the quiet and prayer which we
so badly need.
We need to pray! God made us in such a way that we
need to nourish our inner life as well as our outer
life. One without the other just doesn’t work. One
of the sayings that comes from the lives of
contemplative men and women is “work and pray”. Do
the outer work and the inner work. In the world in
which we live in today, there is an almost complete
emphasis on the outer work.
Don’t be fooled by all of those pictures you see of
saints wrapped up in the ecstasy of prayer. They
seem to be looking up into the heavens, unaware of
the earth upon which they are kneeling. Prayer is
rarely like that. Often it is a struggle just to
remain for a few minutes in God’s presence. Prayer
needs a lot of commitment and a great deal of
perseverance.
If you want to make a start on prayer, a good place
to begin is with the prayer of thanksgiving. “If you
live gratefully recognizing the good when you have a
cup of tea or a comfortable seat or a nice
conversation, then when something difficult comes
along, this will not be the first moment when you
wake up. Ninety-nine percent of the time we have an
opportunity to be grateful for something.” (Brother
David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B.) This Eucharist is our
great prayer of thanksgiving and praise. May we take
this thanksgiving out into our day to day lives.
