My friend shared this quote with me.
Feeling it was too good a gift not to share…I just had to present it to you, today.
Abbot John Chapman wrote:
‘The time of prayer is passed in the act of wanting God. It is an idiotic state, and feels like the most complete waste of time, until it gradually becomes more vivid. The strangest phenomenon is when we begin to wonder whether we mean anything at all, and if we are addressing anyone, or merely repeating mechanically a formula we do not mean. The word God seems to mean nothing. If we feel this curious and paradoxical condition, we are starting on the right road.”
This quote can sound like one of two things, mainly:
1. Super weird, if not heretical.
2. Just what you need to hear and strangely comforting.
….okay maybe option 3. Confusing. (you’ll have to let me know)
When prayer feels useless, it’s not. But, prayer doesn’t have to look and feel like you’ve been taught: active, powerful, transforming.
Takeaway: You don’t have to feel guilty when you feel nothing at all.
Some feel repelled by the silence or felt absence. It pulls them toward agnosticism or even atheism, but silence and other mysteries can also bring us toward the contemplative stream of spiritual growth.
What did the quote sound like to you?
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