The Spirit of Prayer is a pressing forth of the soul out of
the earthly life. It is a stretching
with all its desire after the life of God.
It is a leaving, as far as it can, all its own spirit to receive a Spirit
from above, to be one life, one love, one spirit with Christ in God. This prayer, which is an emptying itself of
all its own lusts and natural tempers, and an opening itself for the light and
love of God to enter into it, it’s the prayer in the Name of Christ, to which
nothing is denied for the love which God bears to the soul. His eternal, never-ceasing desire to enter
into it, to dwell in it, an open the birth of his Holy Word and Spirit in it
stays not longer than till the door of the heart opens for him. For nothing does, or can keep God out of the
soul, or hinder his holy union with it, but the desire of the heart turned from
him. And the reason of it is this. It is because the life of the soul is in
itself nothing else but a working will and therefore wherever the will works or
goes, there, and there only, the soul lives whether it be in God or the
creature.
Nothing does or can go with us into Heaven. Nothing follows us into Hell, but that in
which the will dwelt, with which it was fed, nourished and clothed in this
life. And this is to be noted well, that
death can make no alteration of this state of the will. It only takes off the outward, worldly
covering of flesh and blood, and forces the soul to see and feel and know what
a life, what a state, food, body and habitation, its own working will has
brought forth in it.
Tell me, is there anything in life that deserves a thought,
but how to keep this working of our will in a right state, and to get that
purity of heart which alone can see and know and find and possess God? Is there anything so frightful as this
worldly spirit which turns the soul from God, makes it a House of Darkness, and
feeds it with the food of time at the expense of all of the riches of
eternity? On the other hand, what can be
so desirable a good as the Spirit of Prayer, which empties the soul of all its
own evil, separates death and darkness from it, leaves Self, time and the
world, and becomes one life, one light, one love, one spirit with Christ and
God and Heaven.
Think, my Friends, of these things with something more than
thoughts. Let your hungry souls eat of
the nourishment of them as a bread of Heaven, and desire only to live that with
all the working of your wills and the whole spirit of your minds, you may live
and die united to God.
Prayer is an opening
to light and love
How do you remember
being taught to pray? What is your experience
with prayer? How has your prayer life
changed over time?
From A Time To Turn by Christopher Webber
William Law
(1686-1761) was one of those who refused to take the oath of loyalty to George
I and therefore was forced to live outside the established church. His Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
nevertheless became one of the most widely read books of devotion ever
published. He served as tutor to the
father of Edward Gibbon and lived a life of great simplicity, working to
organize schools and almshouses.
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