Chapter 14

Stage Four: Being with God

ArmchairMystic

Chapter 14

Contemplative

Prayer

Being with God

• This stage is the objective for the whole adventure of prayer

• All of my efforts in prayer are to arrive at this place

• Thus, prayer is defined as:– Recognition of God– Transformation by God– Union with God

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The Still Point

Cardinal Bernadin said that prayer leads the pray-er to

“the soul…that still point at the heart of every person, that deepest center, that point of encounter with the transcendent yet incarnate Mystery of God.”

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The Still PointPrayer is a microcosm of all that I call “Me.”

Microcosm (Greek)– Micros = small– Kosmos = world, universe, or cosmos

Prayer then is the small universe where all the stuff of me exists (the good, bad, ecstasies and agonies of my life)

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The Still PointThis state of being is as close as I can come to the core of my very self – the essence of my existence.

As a pray-er we are like astronomers trying to understand the entire universe I call “me”…My worlds must be put back on their proper axes, orbiting around the true Son.

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The Still PointThis re-centering is actually a re-perceiving, for God was, is and always will be God.

What is in need of repair then, is the blindness that keeps me from understanding my divine origins and from experiencing God as the universe wherein my star shines.

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Prayer is Recognition of GodSaint Ignatius said, “God works and labors for me in all creatures upon the face of the earth.”– God’s answers to our deepest questions need not

be given to us in prayer as they’re already embedded in creation

– The trick is not to get God to answer me during prayer time, rather to allow God to teach me how to perceive the answers that have been around me all along.

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Prayer is Recognition of GodThis disposes me to hear God’s voice in the ordinary moments of my day.

Therefore I should not ask“God, give me a sign.”

But rather“God give me sight.” Armchair

Mystic

Chapter 14

Prayer is Recognition of God

Jesus, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus, “Let me see again.”

(Matt 10:51)

Prayer is Recognition of God

The process of prayer is the act of turning down the noise of the world in order to hear the voice of God.

(e.g. car engine running rough and turning up radio)

When I leave my prayer time and return to my noisy life, I can still hear the Lord’s voice because my prayer has made me attuned to it.

GODISNOWHERE

GOD IS NOWHERE

GOD IS NOW HERE

Prayer is Recognition of GodWhen I pray, the Lord gives me lenses to restore and clarify my perception of reality.

What God says to me in prayer is not as important as the ability prayer gives me to hear God’s voice in my everyday life, in every person, and at all times.

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ArmchairMystic

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Prayer is Transformation by GodGod brings me to this stage of solitude and nothingness so that my focus mightShift from: To:

Concerns with prayerEarlier stage= comes out of my prayerFinal stage = comes out of my prayer

whatwho

what is going in inside prayerwhat is happening inside me

Prayer is Transformation by GodPrayer transforms my life from the inside out.

In contemplative prayer – just sitting with open arms – I learn to submit to God.

I allow God to be my God, not for the favors he might bestow on me, but because of the love he has for me.

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Prayer is Transformation by GodWhen I leave the state of Being With God and return to my daily activities, I do so with a whole new disposition.

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Being disposed to God’s

lordship in every moment

and every aspect of my life.

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Prayer is Union With GodWhen it comes to speaking of the union with God one experiences in this final stage…no description seems to get at the overwhelming sense of God and me as one.

The best that one can do to understand this phenomenon is to recall the most intimate moment of one’s past, when one felt most connected with another person…then you know the experience is a transcendent one.

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Prayer is Union With GodThis transcendent experience• Goes beyond any ordinary experience• It cannot be communicated to a third party

because it is indescribable.• It is not the realm where words are formed• To understand it, one must experience it.

Prayer is Union With GodThose who have had such an experience• Know that you do not exit it

untouched• The imprint of the other is

permanently burned into our hearts

• I, alone, no longer make up a complete whole – a part of God dwells in me.

• Somehow, it seems as though God feels it too.

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Prayer is Union With GodThe outflow of Being With God is, in a way, more extraordinary and more important that the experience itself.

Experiencing God in this most intimate way during prayer is astonishing. But even more so is the subsequent union I fell with God in my everyday life.

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Conclusion: Three in One• I become attuned to

the presence of God in my everyday life.

• I begin to surrender all of my life to God’s lordship during prayer

• I come into mystical union with God, a oneness not severed when I rise from my prayer time.

Recognition of God

Transformation by God

Union with God