Gaston La Touche. A Maiden in Contemplation.
…Because prayer turns my heart toward God and opens me to the heavenly realms.
…Because prayer roots me deeper and deeper in the soil of God’s nurturing love.
…Because prayer reminds me this is not my true home.
…Because prayer allows the Spirit to pray in me when my pain is too deep for words.
…Because prayer grows gratitude and softens my heart.
…Because prayer frees me from the bondage of my sins.
…Because prayer is a sacred gift that lifts another before the great heart of God.
…Because prayer connects my heart with the heart of the suffering world.
…Because prayer accesses the goldmine within me.
…Because prayer brings God joy.
Jesus waits longingly for me in the living room of my heart, but I rush by, handing Him my requests on my way out into the chaos. I forget to thank Him for things. Then, when I can no longer outrun my sufferings, I return and collapse into His arms, quietly listening to Him remind me of my beauty and His strength. Something in my soul eases and opens. The joy of being known by Jesus transforms me.
From The Hidden Life Awakened p111:
“Every morning, Betty got up before sunrise and sat quietly with the simple desire to spend a little time alone with God. It was her human effort to make a little space in her life for God. She desperately wanted to learn how to love, so she came empty-handed to the altar and vulnerably opened her heart, as best she could, to what God wanted to show her. She was taking the time to come to prayer to receive the Love so that she could go out into the world and offer the Love. As always, God was faithful and met her right there.
‘I was learning very, very gradually to be still and know God as I made the choice to respond to Love. When we are in communion with God, we are drawn into that sweet relationship of love that is going on all the time between the Father and the Son. This is where I yearned to live. As I persevered in prayer, the divine life within me began to wake up and I began to see the world with new eyes. I was being re-created from within through the gift of Christ’s passion and sacrifice. It was from this hidden place in the Spirit, who is always praying through us, that I was going to be able to do the work of transforming my world.‘”
Betty wrote this prayer to help her quiet and refocus: