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Carmelite Family – Bulletin of Lay Carmel
Number
23, Winter/Spring 2005.
Contents
· Editorial
· In the
Spirit and Strength of Elijah – Lecture by Titus Brandsma, O.Carm
·
Interpreting St Teresa of Avila –
Becoming a Carmelite Nun (XIX)
·
Carmelite Spirituality – Prayer
and the Holy Spirit
(below)
·
Evening Prayer Psalm
·
Carmel Belongs to Mary
·
Mary in the Annunciation (IV)
·
Jesus and Abba
Carmelite Spirituality
Prayer and the Holy Spirit
M. O’Neill, O.Carm.
The way we live and
the way we pray are closely related. We might even say that the way we pray
is the way we live and the way we live is the way we pray. In prayer we
engage our own thoughts and desires and feelings. There is so much of
ourselves that we put into prayer and the more of ourselves that we put into
prayer, the more complete and life-giving our prayer turns out to be. The
Commandment to love God with our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole
mind is fulfilled in the way we pray (Luke 18:9-14).
Prayer can never be
simply a routine appointment that we make with God. It is ever so much more
because it is the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives – “The Spirit
Himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God”
(Romans 8:16). The Spirit of God who knows the depths of God, and our depths
too, speaks in the heart of each one of us, giving us knowledge of God. We
respond through an ever-growing sense of the presence of God and an
increasing acceptance of the action of God in our own lives, and in the
whole of creation (Luke 1:34-37).
If all of this is
true, why does so much of what we see in ourselves, and around us, seem to
be so ungodly. The only answer we can give is the answer of the Scriptures
gives -that we are slow to learn and that we are being taught gradually by
the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Our best prayer, therefore, is to ask God to
continue His work in us and in our creation. In fact, this prayer can be so
deep that it engages our whole being and even creation itself — “From the
beginning to now, the entire creation has been growing in one great act of
giving birth, and not only creation but all of us who possess the first
fruits of the Spirit we, too, groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be
set free” (Romans 8:22, 23).
What is this groan?
Because the human person is created by God and is created for God, the life
of the human person is marked by a longing to be at one with God. The human
person can feel lost or in pain and not know why, until the moment when we
realise that our fundamental longing is a longing for God and that we will
not rest until we rest in Him (St Augustine). The Holy Spirit keeps this
longing alive in us and provides the answer to that longing in those moments
when we are most open to what the Holy Spirit reveals to us about ourselves
and about God.
This one spirit
speaking in the heart of every believer creates a unity of desire, a unity
of understanding and a unity of love. This community of believers is what we
call the Church. The Church, therefore, as the community of believers, lives
by the Spirit. In the Spirit the believers come to know God, not as an item
of information but much more in loving intimacy. Perhaps we have to search
our own experience to find those moments when we were at one with God. To
deny that we have had those moments would be to say that the Holy Spirit
does not know us, or that we were not created by God. To accept that we are
created by God means to expect the encounter with God and to long for that
encounter brought about by the Holy Spirit.
In that encounter we
come to know God in the way that God reveals His own Self, and the fullest
revelation of God is in Jesus Christ. Our prayer, therefore, gives us that
knowledge of Jesus Christ that satisfies the human heart. The promise of
Jesus Christ made to his Apostles comes true in prayer: “From now on the
Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you
all things and remind you of all that I have told you” (John 14:25-26).
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