Essence of Prayer

Book excerpt: Often, when Christians talk about prayer, they seem to have in mind something that they themselves must do. But, seen in that way, prayer confronts us with questions, problems, confusion and discouragement. Ruth Burrows is convinced of the importance of correcting this view. Faith, she insists, assures us that prayer is essentially what God does, how God addresses and looks at us. And what God is doing for us in prayer is nothing other than to give us God's very Self in love. At its simplest, we do not look for success in prayer to provide us with the reassurance we crave. Rather, we hand ourselves over to divine Love and find all the reassurance we need in living, not for ourselves, but for God. Here, says Burrows, we have the core of the message revealed to us in Jesus. It is the unconditional love of God for us, for each one of us: God the unutterable, incomprehensible Mystery, the Reality of all reality, the Life of all life. God is that self-communicating Love who desires nothing other than to bestow that love on us. In this simple but profound insight we find the richness of vision of a contemplative nun whose message counteracts the tendency of so much modern writing about the spiritual life to imply that we reach God by running faster. It answers to a prevalent interest in the contemplative and monastic life and a growing desire to draw from the wealth of its spiritual tradition. Book jacket.