Guarding the Mind and Heart in Prayer

Above all St. John’s writing on prayer works to break through the myopic vision that we have of life, of prayer, and of God.  Like so many of the fathers, he will hammer away at anything which prevents us from experiencing the fullness of God’s love and mercy. Thus, he both rebukes and encourages. 

We began this evening with a warning about admitting fantasies into our mind and heart during prayer. The demonic provocation at such times will be to use religious ideas, visions, etc., to distract us from the beloved and the encounter with him in silence. However, John tells us, if we hold fast to this prayer we are given an invincible assurance; there is a loss of all doubt and the certainty of God’s love is all that remains. The encounter with God Himself is proof of the unprovable!

We must give great care to put on the mind of Christ. We must be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful. To allow ourselves even to think of justice is going to immediately pull us down. For there is no justice! What has been revealed to us is unconditional love, mercy, and compassion. To turn a harsh eye toward another is to turn our eyes away from God.

Furthermore, we must allow God in his providence to set both the time and measure of prayer. We cannot treat it as something that anything else in our life is equal to in importance. This is especially true in those blessed moments where God fills the heart with compunction and the eyes with tears that cleanse the soul. We must not break away or abandoned prayer until we see that by divine Providence both the fervor and tears have diminished. “For perhaps you will not have such a moment for the remission of your sins again in all your life.“ We must always choose the one thing necessary.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:15:36 Una: The Catholic psychologist Dr. Raymond Lloyd Richmond   00:15:53 Una: ChastitySF.com   00:31:09 Anthony: Why are Roman Catholics so fixated on justice? I've thought it's due to inheriting the legal notions of Roman imperial law and German folk law.  But we're so focused on law, that being a Roman Catholic is sometimes not appealing.  Thank God for persons like St Francis of Assisi.   00:33:15 Victor Haburchak: Americans are impacted by English Common Law. We’re more rigid than Italians it’s been said.   00:34:42 Anthony: I went to Italy. Naples and South. It's so different   00:34:56 Victor Haburchak: Reacted to "I went to Italy. Nap…" with 👍   00:38:00 Victor Haburchak: On the monastic rules for fasting my grandfather, a Ruthenian immigrant from Eastern Europe, said they were practically starving & yet there were constant calls to fast throughout the year while he was slaving in coal mins v   00:38:47 Victor Haburchak: Coal mines….   00:41:16 Victor Haburchak: He was a Greek-Catholic so experienced strictness of G-C priests.   01:05:38 Anthony: So that prayer also is as quick as breath   01:16:48 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:16:51 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:51 Myles Davidson: That was a great hour. Thankyou Fr ! God bless you!   01:16:53 David: Thanks Father!   01:16:55 Cindy Moran: Thank You Father!!!   01:16:57 Jeff O.: Thank you! Great to be with you all.