Status Updates From Opening to God: A Guide to ...

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“True knowledge of God always goes hand in hand with a painful self-knowledge…

As the wood burns, it becomes blackened, it cracks and steams, and all the knot holes and flaws are exposed…

The process is painful but it is the mark of real growth in union with God. That is why good souls who are making real progress often feel they are regressing and getting further from God.”

“In the first place, we can speak of techniques for coming to quiet, for bringing ourselves to that stillness in which the voice of God can be heard. Secondly, we can speak of techniques for positively disposing ourselves to encounter the Lord.”

“The [daily] office is…primarily…a way of coming to quiet before the Lord-of being reminded of his love and providence at certain pivotal moments of the day…”

“A second basic rule of discernment for the beginner is the following: for those who are sincerely seeking to serve and love God, he always works in peace, and usually slowly?

Why in peace? Because, as St. Ignatius explains it, the soul seeking to serve God is basically attuned to him and, while there may be things in such a soul that God wants changed, he does not want to create turmoil…”

“…love and friendship are not means but ends, and hence prayer, which is our love-relationship to God, cannot be relevant in the sense that we simply use it, whether to change the world or to achieve peace of heart”

“Christian prayer is grounded in a very specific conception of God: a personal God who encounters his creatures in love.”

“As Teresa of Avila says in the Interior Castle, "The important thing (in prayer) is not to think much but to love much."" The goal of prayer is the encounter with God in love.”

“As we learn to listen with attention and sensitivity, all the events of our lives become encounters with the Lord, become prayer…Ignatius speaks of the mature apostle as a contemplative in action, someone who can "seek God in all things." It is in this sense that everything-work, play, and rest-becomes truly prayer for the mature pray-er.”