Here's an excerpt from the introduction to my second prayer book. . .you will have to buy the book to read the rest. . .hehehehe. . .
Introduction
Anyone who prays will tell you that praying brings you closer to God. But what does it mean to be “closer to God”? If it's true that we “live and move and have our being” in God, then how is it possible to get any closer? One answer is to say that prayer is the best way to clarify and improve our awareness that we live and move and have our being in God. We don't actually move any closer to God in prayer, but rather we sharpen our sense that God is always with us. God is always with us, but we are not always with God. This is an excellent answer, one that most any good Catholic would give. But being proficient at prayer, being someone keenly aware of the presence of God is only half way to being what our tradition calls a mystic. Now, you might say that you not only have no desire to be a mystic, you have no vocation to living a mystic's life! Though an understandable response given what most people think being a mystic amounts to, it is also an unfortunate one. Why unfortunate? Because being a mystic is what you have already agreed to become. By denying that you are called to the mystical life you deny the very vocation you took on at baptism. What? You thought baptism was all about washing away original sin and becoming a member of the Church? Well, it is! And what do you think being a mystic is all about? Living in a cave, eating locusts and berries, and having visions of angels and such? Not so much. However, that too could be the life of a mystic. It's just not the life that most mystics live. . .
Excellent! I'm looking forward to the new book -- how close is it to being done?
ReplyDeleteSo if prayer and an awareness of God's presence in every fibre of our beings, every aspect of our lives, defines us, we are on the way to having the divine-human communion that will last for all eternity? The same sort of mystical union enjoyed by the three members of the Trinity?
ReplyDeleteJohn, the book is due for release in May 2010. It may be ready earlier than this. The first one made it out early.
ReplyDeleteFragrance, exactly! The technical name for this process is "theosis," or deification: "God became Man so that Man might become God."
Which is the first prayer book? Is it necessary to have read the first to get the most out of the second? The excerpt sounds very interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteRuth Ann,
ReplyDeleteTreasure Old and New is the first book. Both are linked in the right side bar. You need to have read the first to use the second. But buy both anyway! :-)