Scripture: Matthew 6:5-8
Journal: What is your life of prayer like these days? What words best describe it? What do you most deeply long for your
experience and practice of prayer to be like?
How will you move in that direction?
What does shutting the door look like for you right now?
Reflection:
Now Christ, who seldom gave detailed
instruction about anything, did give some detailed instruction for that
withdrawal, that recollection which is the essential condition of real prayer,
real communion with God.
“Thou when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet—and shut the door.” I think we can almost see the smile with
which He said those three words: and those three words define what we have to
try to do. Anyone can retire into a
quiet place and have a thoroughly unquiet time in it—but that is not making a Retreat! It is the shutting the door which makes the
whole difference between a true Retreat and a worried religious weekend.
Shut the door. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to
do. Nearly every one pulls it to and
leaves it slightly ajar so that the whistling draught comes in from the outer
world, with reminders of all the worries, interests, conflicts, joys and
sorrows of daily life.
But Christ said Shut, and He
meant Shut. A complete barrier
deliberately set up, with you on one side alone with God and everything else
without exception on the other side. The
voice of God is very gentle; we cannot hear it if we let other voices
compete. Our ordinary life, of course,
is not lived like that and should not be; but this bit of life is to be lived
like that. It is no use at all to enter
that closet, that inner sanctuary, clutching the daily paper, the reports of
all the societies you support, your engagement book and a large bundle of
personal correspondence. All these must
be left outside. The motto for your
Retreat is God Only, God in Himself, sought for Himself alone.
The object of Retreat is not
Intercession or self-exploration, but such communion with Him as shall
afterwards make you more powerful in intercession; and such self-loss in Him as
shall heal your wounds by new contact with His life and love
You would hardly enter the
presence of the human being you most deeply respected and loved in the state of
fuss and preoccupation and distraction in which we too often approach God. You are to “centre down” as the Quakers say,
into that deep stillness which is the proper atmosphere of your soul. Remain with God. Wait upon the Light. Speak to your heavenly Father who is in
secret. These are the words that
describe the attitude of the soul really in Retreat. Do not think now of the world’s state and
needs and sufferings or your problems and responsibilities; this is not the
time for that. Do not think too much
about your own sins. A general, humble,
but very tranquil act of penitence and acknowledgement of your faithfulness is
best. “Commune with your Father, which
is in secret.” There is always something
dark, hidden, secret, about our real intercourse with God. In religion we should always distrust the
obvious and the clear. The closet where
we speak to Him is not very well lit—but the light that filters into it has a
quality of its own; it is a ray of the Eternal Light on which we cannot easily
look: but as we get more used to it, sun ourselves in its glow, we learn, as we
can bear it, to see more and more. Therefore we must be content to dwell with God
in that dim silence. Gaze at Him darkly,
as the mystics say, offer yourselves again and again to Him. “All friends everywhere,” said Fox, “keep all
your meetings, waiting on the Light”—a perfect prescription for a good
Retreat. (Fruits of the Spirit by Evelyn Underhill)
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Teach me to seek you, for I cannot seek you
unless you teach me, or find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in my desire, and desire you
in my seeking. Let me find you by loving
you, let me love you when I find you. ~St. Anselm
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