{"id":20131,"date":"2021-05-13T09:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T13:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20131"},"modified":"2021-05-13T09:30:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T13:30:34","slug":"spousal-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20131","title":{"rendered":"Spousal Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/raAI00RvdRg\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>The soul who deeply desires\nto remain in Christ\u2019s holy company, and is sincerely grateful for the intimacy\nwith him that is possible, and finds herself truly in love with this Lord who\ndoes so much for us\u2014is the soul whom I consider to be most evolved.<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014St.\nTeresa of \u00c1vila, <em>The Book of\nHer Life <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Spiritual teacher and psychologist John Welwood has written extensively about intimate human relationships as a \u201cpath of conscious love.\u201d To engage deeply with another, we must allow the spontaneous nature of passion to bloom within us. He writes, <strong>\u201cSince our very being is open to begin with, it naturally resonates and wants to connect with what is greater than ourselves\u2014the vastness of life itself. <\/strong>Passion is the feeling of life wanting to connect with life. . . . <strong>Unconditional passion has no agenda. It is like the freely radiating energy of the sun.<\/strong>\u201d [1] Though we may need to be careful about where we direct our life-force in our everyday lives, we needn\u2019t hold back any passion we experience for divine life itself! Passion is essential to our relationship with God. &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tessa Bielecki, a modern mystic, friend, and\nauthor, writes about how this type of passionate love, which she calls \u201cspousal\nprayer,\u201d is available to all\u2014no matter what our relationship \u201cstatus.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Contemplation and mysticism are synonymous terms. They both mean <\/strong><em><strong>loving experiential awareness of God:<\/strong><\/em><strong> not ideas in the head or on the lips, but personal living experience.<\/strong> In the Teresian tradition, this experience takes a special form [sometimes called] . . . \u201cspousal prayer.\u201d . . .&nbsp; In spousal prayer we come to know God the way a human spouse knows the spouse, the way a friend knows a friend, the way a lover knows the beloved. Spousal prayer is for men and women, for married couples and celibates, for people raising children or living in monasteries. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spousal prayer does not make God the divine rival of a human spouse. Human love prefigures divine love. Spiritual matrimony with God may be the goal of our human longings. Is this our real desire when we marry another human person? In the deepest relationships, <strong>lovers do not turn each other into idols, but recognize one another as icons, leading them through their love into the very bosom of the Godhead. . . <\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spousal prayer lies at the very heart of the\nChristian mystical tradition. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will never know God spousally if we think\nthis prayer is impossible, improper, or unimportant. Even if we accept the\nreality of spousal prayer in general, we may preclude it by saying, \u201cBut it\u2019s\nnot for me.\u201d For many years I believed that this particular kind of prayer was\nnot meant for everyone. But St. Teresa has convinced me of the opposite. She\ninsists that everyone is called to this prayer to some degree or another, at\none time or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>May nothing hinder us from begging God for this intimate friendship. We need ardent desire and what Teresa calls \u201choly daring.\u201d She chides us for being content with so little. God wants to give us absolutely everything. Why do we settle for less?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>THANK ME IN THE MIDST of the crucible. When things seem all wrong, look for growth opportunities. Especially look for areas where you need to let go, leaving your cares in My able hands. Do you trust Me to orchestrate your life events as I choose, or are you still trying to make things go according to your will? If you keep trying to carry out your intentions while I am leading you in another direction, you deify your desires. Be on the lookout for what I am doing in your life. Worship Me by living close to Me, thanking Me in all circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 PETER 5:6\u20137; <br>Humble yourselves, therefore, under God&#8217;s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. <sup>7<\/sup>Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSALM 62:8; <br>Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. O my people, trust in him at all times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> 1 THESSALONIANS 5:18; <br>give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God&#8217;s will for you in Christ Jesus.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The soul who deeply desires to remain in Christ\u2019s holy company, and is sincerely grateful for the intimacy with him that is possible, and finds herself truly in love with this Lord who does so much for us\u2014is the soul whom I consider to be most evolved.&nbsp;\u2014St. Teresa of \u00c1vila, The Book of Her Life [&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\/20131"}],"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=20131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20135,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20131\/revisions\/20135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}