Wednesday, October 24, 2007

On Prayer

Wednesday evenings this fall, I have been a volunteer "welcomer" with the pre-R.C.I.A. program at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan.

R.C.I.A. -- which stands for Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults -- is the program through which adults can become Catholic or come into full communion with the Church.

For the past two weeks, one of our topics of discussion has been prayer. One of our materials tonight included this thought-provoking quote on prayer from the 20th Century Trappist monk Thomas Merton (pictured):

"In prayer we discover what we already have ... We already have everything, but we don't know it and we don't experience what we already possess ... The whole thing boils down to giving ourselves in prayer a chance to realize that we have what we seek. We don't have to run after it. It is there all the time, and if we give it time it will make itself known to us."

1 comment:

Casey said...

Wow - - doesn't that sound like "The Secret"? (Thanks to Ed for that one . . . ) That's what it all boils down to, the fact that we have everything we need. We just need to realize this fact and as soon as we do, it will appear before us.