{"id":17207,"date":"2018-09-07T09:29:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T13:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17207"},"modified":"2018-09-07T09:39:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T13:39:35","slug":"early-christianity-practical-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17207","title":{"rendered":"Early Christianity; Practical Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Richard Rohr<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Early Christianity<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Practical Prayer<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Friday, September 7, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VeGNgBwPTMA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIn the same way as the early church, the desert Christians were deeply committed to Jesus\u2019 teachings and lived practice. Withdrawal to the wilderness\u2014whether into close-knit communities or solitude\u2014was only for the sake of deeper encounter and presence.<br \/>\nDiana Butler Bass describes the natural flow from prayer to active love:<br \/>\n[Jesus\u2019 invitation to] \u201cCome follow me\u201d was intimately bound up with the practice of prayer. For prayer connects us with God and others, \u201cpart of this enterprise of learning to love.\u201d Prayer is much more than a technique, and early Christians left us no definitive how-to manual on prayer. Rather, the desert fathers and mothers believed that prayer was a disposition of wholeness, so that \u201cprayer and our life must be all of a piece.\u201d They approached prayer, as early church scholar Roberta Bondi notes, as a practical twofold process: first, of \u201cthinking and reflecting,\u201d or \u201cpondering\u201d what it means to love others; and second, as the \u201cdevelopment and practice of loving ways of being.\u201d [1] In other words, these ancients taught that prayer was participation in God\u2019s love, the activity that takes us out of ourselves, . . . and conforms us to the path of Christ.\u201d [2]<br \/>\nThe desert fathers and mothers\u2014abbas and ammas\u2014learned to be sparing and intentional with their words and to preach more through their lifestyle than through sermons. There were few \u201cdoctrines\u201d to prove at this time in Christianity, only an inner life to be experienced. Abba Isidore of Pelusia (5th century) said, \u201cTo live without speaking is better than to speak without living. For the former who lives rightly does good even by his silence but the latter does no good even when he speaks. When words and life correspond to one another they are together the whole of philosophy.\u201d [3]<br \/>\nAn old abba was asked what was necessary to do to be saved. He was sitting making rope. Without glancing up, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re looking at it.\u201d Just as so many of the mystics have taught us, doing what you\u2019re doing with presence and intention is prayer. As other spiritual teachers have taught in many forms, \u201cWhen we walk, we walk; when we chop wood, we chop wood; when we sleep, we sleep.\u201d As you know, this is much harder than it first seems.<br \/>\nBelden Lane helps clear away any romanticism we might associate with desert spirituality:<br \/>\n[The] desert is, preeminently, a place to die. Anyone retreating to an Egyptian or Judean monastery, hoping to escape the tensions of city life, found little comfort among the likes of an Anthony or a Sabas. The desert offered no private therapeutic place for solace and rejuvenation. One was more likely to be carried out feet first than to be restored unchanged to the life one had left. [4]<br \/>\nIn the tradition of Moses and Jesus, the Christians who wandered into the desert entered a wild, fierce, unknown place where they would encounter both \u201cdemons\u201d and \u201cangels\u201d (Mark 1:13)\u2014their own shadowy selves which contained both good and bad. Belden Lane writes: \u201cAmma Syncletica refused to let anyone deceive herself by imagining that retreat to a desert monastery meant the guarantee of freedom from the world. The hardest world to leave, she knew, is the one within the heart.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">September 6, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">ENJOY THE WARMTH OF MY PRESENCE shining upon you. Feel your face tingle as you bask in My Love-Light. I delight in you more than you can imagine. I approve of you continuously, for I see you cloaked in My Light, arrayed in My righteousness. There is no condemnation for those who are clothed in Me! That is why I abhor the use of guilt as a means of motivation among Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Some pastors try to whip their people into action with guilt-inducing sermons. This procedure can drive many people to work harder, but the end does not justify the means. Guilt-evoking messages can undermine the very foundation of grace in a believer\u2019s heart. A pastor may feel successful when his people are doing more, but I look at their hearts. I grieve when I see grace eroding, with weeds of anxious works creeping in. I want you to relax in the assurance of My perfect Love. <i>The law of My Spirit of Life has set you free from the law of sin and death.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><b><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">ISAIAH 61: 10; I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">ROMANS 8: 1\u2013 2; There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.1 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus &#8230;<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Rohr Early Christianity Practical Prayer Friday, September 7, 2018 In the same way as the early church, the desert Christians were deeply committed to Jesus\u2019 teachings and lived practice. Withdrawal to the wilderness\u2014whether into close-knit communities or solitude\u2014was only for the sake of deeper encounter and presence. Diana Butler Bass describes the natural flow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17207"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17210,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17207\/revisions\/17210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}