{"id":22225,"date":"2023-03-13T09:16:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T13:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22225"},"modified":"2023-03-13T09:53:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T13:53:17","slug":"22225","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22225","title":{"rendered":"Prayer Leads to Purpose\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MercyMe - You Are I Am (with lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KWwL4Hguluo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Author and interspiritual teacher Megan Don introduces the Spanish mystic Teresa of \u00c1vila (1515\u20131582) as an exemplar of action and contemplation:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teresa\u2019s life provides us with an exceptional example of bringing the contemplative and active life together; it displays both a profound internal depth and an exceptionally productive outcome.\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the age of twenty, after much deliberation, she chose to enter the Carmelite Monastery in \u00c1vila. She did not make this choice because of a vocational \u201ccalling\u201d but because Teresa understood it to be a favorable alternative to marriage\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her fascination with the world continued while she lived in the monastery, since it was not an enclosed order, and a stream of visitors occupied much of her time\u2026. Prayers were ordered and recited by rote, which left her soul dry and uninspired. She<strong> attempted to enter her own \u201cprayer of quiet,\u201d but finding the thoughts in her head far too noisy and disturbing, she gave up any attempt to develop a more meaningful way to pray<\/strong>. Her relationship with the Beloved [God] at this time was fairly superficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For twenty years she lived a divided life. On the one hand her ego desired worldly attachments, while on the other her spirit was calling her to a deeper communion with the divine. At the age of forty, Teresa finally <strong>surrendered completely to her Beloved.<\/strong> Her real life and work had begun. She returned to her prayer of quiet, allowing the Beloved to lead her, no longer relying on her own techniques. <strong>Meditation became essential to Teresa in establishing a clear and firm foundation with the divine, and as she walked further on her spiritual pathway, she came to understand that this external Beloved also \u201crests within.\u201d It was to this place that she would constantly return to receive guidance, love, and a feeling of deep peace that she could not find elsewhere. [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>From that place of peace and inner authority, Teresa worked to return the Carmelite order to its original emphasis on prayer, poverty, and simplicity<\/em><em>, going on to found seventeen new convents and monasteries. Don continues:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrary to popular belief, <strong>the pinnacle of the mystical life is often lived\u00a0<em>in<\/em>\u00a0the world, even though it is not\u00a0<em>of<\/em>\u00a0the world. <\/strong>Having come into a full consciousness of the reality of existence, the mystic is now <strong>returned to society, displaying an extraordinary energy for the work required. <\/strong>This energy is none other than the <strong>divine force working in and through this willing worker of the Beloved, and it far surpasses anything we human beings can do alone. <\/strong>Teresa\u2019s life is one such example of a person in and through whom the Beloved worked, and throughout her life she reiterated that the ultimate purpose of the sacred marriage [or union with God] is to give birth to good works in the world. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Perfection Is Practicing Love\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In his foreword to&nbsp;<\/em>The Way of Perfection,<em>&nbsp;Teresa of \u00c1vila\u2019s book on the practice of prayer, Richard Rohr asks:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u00a0<em>is\u00a0<\/em>\u201cthe way of perfection\u201d? (<strong>It isn\u2019t about\u00a0<em>our\u00a0<\/em>perfection, by the way, but the recognition of\u00a0<em>God\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>seamless perfection, woven into the fabric of our life and present all along.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saint Teresa writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><strong>Let the truth be in your hearts, as it will be if you practice meditation, and you will see clearly what love we are bound to have for our neighbors. [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Teresa teaches the way of perfection as <strong>practicing fraternal love, nonattachment to material things, and authentic humility. <\/strong>Some aspects of this wisdom might seem counterintuitive to readers today. Forgive me, but\u00a0<em>these\u00a0<\/em>virtues of nonattachment and humility don\u2019t often make the vision boards of contemporary spiritual seekers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why is this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What the mystics know, and what we\u2019re having to relearn, is that<strong> it\u2019s through a kind of\u00a0<em>luminous darkness\u00a0<\/em>of nonattachment and humility that we come to be seized by\u00a0<em>real\u00a0<\/em>love, God\u2019s love.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wonder if the only way that conversion, enlightenment, and transformation ever happen is by a kind of <strong>divine ambush. We have to be caught off guard. As long as we are in control, we are going to keep trying to steer the ship by our previous experience of being in charge.<\/strong> The <strong>only way we will let ourselves be ambushed is by trusting the \u201cAmbusher,\u201d and learning to trust that the darkness of intimacy will lead to depth, safety, freedom, and love.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God needs to catch us by surprise because our very limited, preexisting notions keep us and our understanding of God small. We are <strong>still trying to remain in control. We still want to \u201clook good\u201d!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God tries to bring us into<strong> a bigger world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A world where, by definition,<strong> we are not in control.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A world where we <strong>no longer need to look good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A terrible<strong> lust for certitude and rigid social orde<\/strong>r has characterized the last five hundred years of Western Christianity, and it has simply<strong> not served the soul well at all. Once we lost a spirituality of darkness as its own kind of light, there just wasn\u2019t much room for growth in faith, hope, and love.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So God, as&nbsp;<em>The Way of Perfection&nbsp;<\/em>attests, has to come indirectly: catching us off guard and out of control, when we are empty instead of full of ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is why the saints\u2014including Teresa\u2014talk about suffering so much. About nonattachment to the fleeting passions that put us on a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mystics are not masochistic, sadistic, negative, morbid, or oppositional. They have seen the pattern and, as Teresa says in one place, it is not that we are happy for the suffering. Who could be? Who would be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>No. We are happy for the new level of intimacy with God that the suffering has brought us to.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-4-500x342.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22229\" width=\"736\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-4-500x342.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-4-300x205.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-4-768x526.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-4-1536x1052.png 1536w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-4.png 1822w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cLeave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>The\u00a0Lord\u00a0replied, \u201cMy Presence\u00a0will go with you, and I will give you rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4\u00a0<strong>Rejoice in the Lord<\/strong>\u00a0alway: and again I say, Rejoice.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4<strong>Remain in me, as I remain in you<\/strong>. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on\u00a0the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author and interspiritual teacher Megan Don introduces the Spanish mystic Teresa of \u00c1vila (1515\u20131582) as an exemplar of action and contemplation: Teresa\u2019s life provides us with an exceptional example of bringing the contemplative and active life together; it displays both a profound internal depth and an exceptionally productive outcome.\u2026 At the age of twenty, after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/22225"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22225"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22232,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22225\/revisions\/22232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}