Essence of Prayer

Sr. Ruth Burrows (not her actual religious name) offers a nice introduction to deepening one's prayer.Using the via negativa or negative way, you first have to know what something is not in order to knowwhat it is. Most of us think prayer is about our own effort, something that we do. Rather, prayer isprimarily something that God does for us if we allow him and remove the obstacles to his presence.Prayer is not a feeling, although sometimes it may result in various religious feelings (or not). It is adecision, to live in a certain way, in love, in the commandments, as friends of Jesus. Prayer also is notan intellectual exercise, although it requires some such activity. To know Jesus, we must hear him inthe Gospels and throughout the Bible. Burrows is familiar with contemporary theologians like Catherine LaCugna.God comes down to us, so it's not necessary to "climb a ladder". Here Sr. Ruth goes into her Carmelitetradition. St. John of the Cross taught about the dark night of the senses and dark night of the soul,where certain consolations are withdrawn to bring the person closer to God. Then there is St. Teresaof Jesus, who had the profound reflection on the seven mansions as God dwells in the soul in everdeeper union. Some writers speak of the stages of purgation, illumination and union. But Burrowssays, perhaps the best place to start is with the Little Way of St. Therese the Little Flower, being aspiritual child of God.Burrows has fine insights into the great Carmelite women. Teresa had lots of personality. She wasattractive, charming, funny, and was able to direct all this toward God and his people. She requiredquiet, contemplation and meditation, separation from the world, and yet was engaged with the world,with extensive correspondence. It reminded me of Thomas Merton. She had already detached fromthe world and could be "in the world but not of the world". But the beginners need to observe therules, as new nuns to become aware of the temptations and allow God to transcend them.Therese, on the other hand, for many late moderns feels at first "flowery" and perhaps "sappy", very mucha French late 19th century woman. Her culture placed some limits on her imagination, and yet she allowedGod to do so much with her. For instance, it is clear that she knew the Bible remarkably well, such as1 Cor 12-13 with the body of Christ and the hymn to love, or the Psalms with flying away like a bird.But she did all this with a knowledge of only certain parts of the Bible. All is grace, and it's marvelousthat she has been recognized not only as a saint, a holy one, but a great teacher of the Church for all time.Her name "Therese de l'enfant Jesus et de la sainte face" contemplates Jesus at the two most vulnerablepoints of his life, his infancy and his passion.Finally, there is St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. This offers a glimpse into the humorous style of Sr. Ruth. It showshow the saints are all different, but all allow God to transform them in prayer."What of Elisabeth? Many features of her short life fit the pattern of the 'wunderkind' thus described. However,a critical, even sceptical study of her writings and of authenticated facts in her life yields the conviction that hereis the real thing, here is sanctity. She lacks, it is true, Therese's charm, her humor and playfulness. Moreover, her258 extant letters from Carmel are 'much of a muchness': read a dozen and you have read the whole lot. Their toneis uniformly 'elevated' and, when read one after another, they are, frankly, boring. The only difference in theircontent is a sensitive, compassionate allusion to her correspondent's particular anxiety or need. Yet what a warm,caring heart they reveal! Elisabeth is solemn and takes herself very seriously, but none could doubt the passionateconviction behind every word.The phenomenon of the genuine young saint always forces us to examine our ideas of holiness...It can never be ahuman achievement. Holiness is simply the gift of God's self in love, received and surrendered to in love. Elisabethlet God love her".

This book offers a clear, concise, accessible primer on the nature and practice of prayer. Direct but not dumbed-down, the author discusses in this text her understanding of the importance and spiritual efficacy of the believer's practice and knowledge of prayer as the way of meaningful Christian living.

I read Ruth Burrows' books in the 1990s while I was an Oblate of a Religious Order and liked them a lot, so I decided to revisit her writing with Essence of Prayer. I would have to say, that although my spiritual position has moved quite a bit since the 1990s, that I enjoyed this book very much. I don't know that I agreed with everything she said, or maybe it's that I now question the benefits of some aspects of the cloistered life, but I can say that I enjoyed this book greatly and even agreed with the vast majority of it. I found myself asking if I hadn't evolved as much as I thought I had or if the author has changed as well. In any event, I recommend this book if you are a person interested in contemplative prayer or Carmelite spirituality. The only criticism I really have is that the font in the Kindle edition is horrible and resembles the font used by Tan books in the 1950s and 1960s. For me, it impacted the readability of the book at times as my eyes became fatigued.

There is no dearth of spirituality books these days. Occasionally one will be a gem which nourishes like few others. Ruth Burrow's books tend generally to fall into this category and the Essence of Prayer certainly does. (To Believe in Jesus is another.) Sister Ruth is a pray-er and she knows what prayer is and is not. She knows that it is not we who pray but rather that God prays within us. In the Essence of prayer she encourages us to get away from our focus on method and into praying itself. In other words Sister Ruth is the real deal and writes as one who KNOWS prayer and is known in prayer. It is this lived experence that allows her to write with frankness, compassion, gentleness, and humility. The distinctions she draws are significant and may be surprising to those whose idea of prayer is saying prayers. They will be challenging (and potentially freeing) to those who are bound up by their concerns about their own achievements in prayer or those who do not not truly desire to pray or be intimately known by God. They will also be surprising to those who think that lives of prayer are meant for a privileged few. Really excellent and foundational book.

This is the only explanation, or guide to prayer that I have read that is comprehensible to me. It is simple. The author writes as though she were across the room speaking to the reader, not at or down to the reader. Her concept of the relationship of God with Man his creation is clear, immediate and left me with no temptation to argue a different view. I’ve been trying to get these things for 60 years, and now I think I just might. Now to practice my new understanding of prayer.

Fr. Ron Rolheiser recommended reading Sr. Ruth in his video on the dark night of the soul. Reading her reminds me of reading Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. She is so powerful and moving that I can only read so much and then I must stop. I am trying to think about her teaching each day. She also reminds me of Heschel because she speaks to the primacy of the Father. I now understand the gift of Jesus more deeply and how He is teaching me to become the gift God created me to be.You will never be the same after inviting her to guide you spiritually. This is truly a gift from the Holy Spirit for the journey back home.

It came promptly and is a very excellent read! I have been enjoying learning more about prayer! Would recommend and well worth the price!

A wonderful book. I hope the following synopsis whets the appetite to purchase the book.Chapter 1: Reflections on prayer. Prayer is not, essentially, something we do, but something God does - how God addresses us, how God looks at us, the giving of God's spirit to us. Christian prayer is rooted in the firm belief that Jesus shows us God, and shows us the complete love of God for us. Our life then becomes rooted in the love of God shown to us by Jesus. In prayer we are loved by God, who is love. In prayer we must learn to let go of seeking something for ourselves and learn to simply seek and desire God. We must learn to trust entirely on Jesus, and not in ourselves or in any `method'. We must leave our safe boat and walk out onto the water with Jesus, trusting completely in Him, without assurance from outside or inside of us. Though we may follow a `method' of prayer, the method is not the prayer. The prayer is the inflowing love of God, recreating us, and this may often occur while we are unaware of it, though slowly the fruits will show. Scripture feeds us, and scripture in the context of the mass, with its rich theology of Eucharistic prayers, collects, doxologies and prefaces are the fullest way to experience the feeding by scripture. The Eucharist is then the highest form of God sharing with us - we receive from the overflowing love of God; we become mingled with the love of God.Chapter 2: Growth in prayer. In this chapter sister Ruth sets out the underlying relationship between us, Jesus and the Father which runs through prayer, emphasising that prayer is ultimately a relationship, not a technique. Our relationship to the Father is different to our relationship with Jesus. It is Jesus, as our friend, who brings us to the Father. In the Father we find unending love and compassion, but we also submit to the Father as a child submits to their parent. It is a relationship based on complete trust and obedience. Jesus identifies himself as our friend, and promises that through him we reach the Father. Jesus also models for us that trust and obedience, a trust that on the cross was shown to be complete - trusting in what was to be, not in what was already realised. In order to aid our relationship with Jesus we are shown his teaching, his values, his person in scripture. A good knowledge of the Gospels is important in good prayer, relationship with Jesus. The gulf between man and God is immeasurable, but the Father gives us Jesus to span that gulf. Sr. Ruth then talks of faith, not as intellectual certainty or felt conviction, but as a sustained decision to take God, with utter seriousness, as the God of our lives , and we take on the way of living God has decreed for us, showing compassion, kindness, lowliness, patience and forgiveness, loving others as God has loved us, becoming an echo of God.Chapter 3: Faith, trust and surrender to God. This is prayer. Prayer should be simple and uncomplicated. On our side prayer is simply being there: open, exposed, and inviting God to do all that He wants. Prayer is God's activity, not ours. The surest way to help ourselves and others is coming to grips with the Jesus of the New Testament and the constant plea for greater faith. Nothing else is required. Solitary prayer, communal liturgical prayer and the prayer of grace-filled activity fill the life of the Christian, so that prayer absorbs all. We need no assurances, no feeling, no proof - we simply come before God (as children; He is Father) with trust. On our part we can, and should, set aside some time each day for prayer, and keep to it as a sign of our commitment. As that time draws near we can prepare our heart and mind to be with God in prayer. We should also read scripture, at least a little each day, as preparation for prayer. No one `method' of prayer is better than another, all may simply bring people to the edge of prayer and leave them there ready to take the step into prayer themselves, each in their unique way. God works with us often below our level of consciousness.Chapter 4: Prayer that is Jesus. We are truly alive, truly human, only when our whole life is prayer, our life being directed towards and from God. No-one can come to the Father except through Jesus. As far as we get caught up in and with Jesus we are carried to the Father. As far as we are caught up in our own self-centredness and self-possession we avoid contact with the Father. We can bring nothing to God, apart from being with Jesus and following Jesus in our lives. Prayer is not an achievement, or a feeling - it is God taking control of me, often with me not being aware. Jesus has said that if we seek, we will find, if we knock, the door is opened - with that assurance we need not worry about what we feel or what we don't feel - all is well and God is working as He will.Chapter 5: If you knew the gift of God. We have problems seeing God as He is. We have problems seeing Jesus as He is. We're apt to colour them with our own ideas. To know Jesus better, to allow Him to correct our assumptions, we must keep our gaze on Him who went to the cross out of love for us. "Our soul is so preciously loved of Him that is highest that it passeth the knowing of all creatures. That is to say there is no creature that is made that may fully know how much, how sweetly and how tenderly that our Maker loveth us". Julian of Norwich. Sr.Ruth rejects the cross signifying the wrath of God - "Any notion whatsoever that sets a figure of divine wrath over against Jesus, who not only demands it of Jesus in our stead, a Father who imposes an appalling sacrifice on the Son while He Himself remains aloof, untouched, in the realms of the divine can only be considered blasphemous by us today, whatever its pedagogical value to former generations. It is the Father's excess of love or us that, in filling the heart of Jesus, drives Jesus to His self-emptying. In keeping nothing back from us, loving us to the uppermost, giving us His all, we know that it is the Father living in him who is keeping nothing back from us and giving us His all. In giving us Jesus He gives us His all". God's love enfolds us and is our uttermost security both in this life and in death and beyond - so we cling, mind and heart, to the Son of God who loved me and sacrificed himself for me (Gal 2:20). In that clinging we do not serve God, but come to God as children - letting go of our own self-importance and self-sufficiency. As with Mary sitting at the foot of Jesus, and Peter who in the end allowed Jesus to wash his feet, we sit and receive from Jesus. We serve God insofar as we then serve our neighbour.Chapter 6: Prayer in the Trinity. Jesus joins with us in the "Our Father" - we always have the Son as a companion in that prayer. Sr. Ruth then explores her own understanding of the Trinity. Nothing is possible without Jesus - by joining with Jesus we join the love between Father and Son. Sr. Ruth experienced extreme dryness of prayer and felt disillusioned with her life that was dedicated to prayer. She was `saved' by realising that it was not up to her, and her experience did not matter. What mattered was to take Jesus seriously. The Holy Spirit upholds us in our weakness, praying in us when our hearts and minds seem mute, uttering our own most authentic desires. The spirit is that communion between Father and Son, and we join with that communion.Chapter 7: Amen: The human response to God. Jesus's mode of existence was complete submission to the Father, painfully expressed in the Agony in the Garden. In and through Jesus the Father fulfills His will, His love for humanity. To enter into this love of the Father is to enter into total and trusting obedience, as modelled by Jesus. As we surrender we become conformed to the Son's image (Rom 8.29). The Christian life is an ever-deeper integration of our baptism, sharing more and more in the life, love and obedience of Jesus Christ. The grace of redemption is encountered no more powerfully than in the sacraments where we encounter God's redemption at the deepest level. Redemption is God's work, not ours. Our `cunning' though may may make us create another reality, one apart from love and obedience - a world of our own self-sufficiency apart from God, a world of pride, a world bounded by our own understanding. We create an "I" that we defend at all costs - it is that "I" that dies in faith. In faith we work for something apart from ourselves (Jn 6:27) and that work is to believe not in ourselves but in Jesus (Jn 6:29). Our faithful attendance on God's communion with us through Jesus, through the sacraments, through prayer, through life loving our neighbough, ever deepens our belief as God works in us. Our prayer is "Amen", "Let it be". This life of prayer, sacraments and obedience to God does not rely on our senses; our senses may even shout denial - great trust is needed in God and God's work through prayer, sacraments and life. Our life rests on faith. Every moment of the day is an opportunity to respond to God's love being poured out on us - God meets us in the real world, at this moment, in this person, in this trivial task - our life is sufficient for God's work (we need not, for example, create more suffering or mortification). We may be tempted to look for more fulfilling ways of praying - ways to make us feel more fulfilled and holy. We need not do that - we need only trust in God apart from our feelings. We are not trying to find our own holiness, but we trust in sharing in Jesus's holiness (which will lead to a sharing in His sacrifice and suffering for others).Chapter 8: Distractions in prayer. Distractions in prayer are common-place and always occur. If we worry that prayer is our work, and that the quality of prayer depends on our total concentration then we will always have anxiety about prayer. If we trust God is using prayer as He will, with our distractions (even using our distractions) then it no longer matters what we feel about our prayer experience. We come before God as we really are - sometimes upset, angry worried, emotionally at sixes and sevens. This real self, this distracted self, is what I place in the gaze of God - He deals with us as come to Him.Chapter 9: The way to perfection. In this chapter Sr. Ruth talks of Teresa of Avila who founded the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa dedicated herself to God in everything. In that she did not shun her gifts for managing money or even her charm, but dedicated everything to God's use. Her holiness was found in the everyday as well as the quiet times of prayer - she embraced all that it was to be human and poured her humanity into serving God, surrendering everything. Life in a convent, while appearing other worldly, can be consumed with all the trivial matters as in any other life. There are also jealousies, resentments, ambition, covetousness. Life can seem colourless and monotonous. Prayer can be difficult, living with others difficult and strained. In this way the convent life has many parallels to life outside of the convent, but can be made more intense by the setting. God gives us all, in convents or not, everything (including trials and struggles) we need in our lives to be united with Him. We are called not to be God, but to be fully human in the gaze of God. All have the same path to holiness.Chapter 10: Doctor of the Dark Night. This chapter concerns John of the Cross, a friend and supporter of Teresa of Avila. John of the Cross identified with the cross of Christ. In this identification we should think not so much as pain and torment, but obedience and passionate surrender to God. For John the dying to self was an act of purgation - the inflowing of God purging the soul of ignorance and imperfection, the substitution of the ego by the life of Jesus. Suffering plays a role in this transformation - suffering shakes our assumed self-security, reveals our helplessness and brings home, with sometimes cruel force, that we cannot control our lives. We are brought up against a life that seems unfair. Superficial images of God need to be swept away to be replaced with something altogether more profound. Contemplation, for John, was the inflowing of God into the souls, and was for all and not just an elite. We are never called by Jesus to inflict pain on ourselves though - ordinary life is sufficient. In the midst of suffering God calls for us to embrace him even more strongly - to hold onto Him when life around us (even the Church around us) appears to be shaking. We are each called in our own unique lives - we all have different histories, gifts and temperaments. No-one can tall another how to follow Jesus in our own lives - our vocation is unique to us. We must each live in the Lord and act accordingly. The transformation by God is wrought in our everyday lives, our everyday struggles, in work, play and love - as the ego is replaced by Jesus.Chapter 11: St Therese of Lisieux and the Holy Child. Without Jesus we would not know the Mystery in which we are inescapably enfolded is one of absolute unconditional love from God. That love is never withdrawn, but calls for an appropriate response. Therese of Lisieux lived out her short live surrendered to Jesus, inspired particularly by Jesus's infancy and Passion - two occasions when Jesus was defenseless and vulnerable. Therese understood that Love can only be love and nothing else. In Jesus as infant and in His Passion Therese found an image where she could love Jesus tenderly and turn upside down our usual desire to be loved ourselves. This love and tenderness for Jesus then becomes the model for daily life for Therese - loving in the ordinariness of life.Chapter 12: Thoughts on the Doctorate of St Therese. Therese's simple writings stands out among the doctors of the Church, yet her writing profoundly takes us to the simple Gospel message, focussing our eyes on Jesus and on Abba Father and taking us away from our own self-interest and our own "spiritual lives". Therese was very "normal" in her holiness - she had wandering thoughts in prayer, and knew what it was like not to feel the presence of God. She demonstrates that God chooses the ordinary, except in her passion and love. She trusted her "littleness" entirely to God - every little action became dedicated to responding to God's tender love, using every opportunity given to her. Therese shows us that we all have everything we need for sainthood - each unique life contains all the ingredients necessary to come fully to God through Jesus.Chapter 13: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. St Elizabeth was another Carmelite nun who died young (26). Therese and Elizabeth show that great saints are not always those who have lived a long life of labour - people don't earn sainthood through their labours, rather sainthood (holiness) is a gift. Elizabeth's message was simple - "let God love you"; that then becomes the fount of our holiness, as we have no holiness of our own. When we recognise God within us even the most ordinary of tasks are part of our relationship with God. Therese and Elizabeth show the uniqueness of all journeys - we are all called by God in our own circumstances.Chapter 14: Carmel, a dream of the Spirit. Carmel is a gathering of women prepared to give all, for an exclusive focus on God. A dream of God, Mary-like. A soil carefully tilled waiting day and night to nurture its precious seed. Carmel is not for the great people of the world, but representatives of the ordinary, to show that the Kingdom is for all. The grace of God is available to all, no matter their gifting. We are all apostles. We may all then ask "Am I living my vocation flat out?". All will say "No", and we can all ask "what more Lord?". It is not rules or asceticism that make entering the narrow gate difficult, but a giving up of one self, giving up of self-centredness to become God-directed."Let us then open our hearts to God that His Spirit may take possession of us and the dream of God become a reality in our lives - the dream of our vocation - God alone"Chapter 15: Sustained Passion. Terese of Avila, and her reformed Carmelite order, are characterised by zeal, by Passion. The nuns live in an atmosphere that encourages passion for God, but nothing else. The life combines hours of solitude each day but then a coming together for liturgy, meals and leisure each day, so that the nuns talk to each other daily. Their life is stripped of non-essentials (with no private ownership) but they are still faced with all the regular challenges of life - selfishness, a desire to be esteemed, ambition, etc. The nun must learn to live in submission and obedience. Living in community gives self knowledge and opportunity to share love. The solitude hours enable the nun to confront her weaknesses. The community aspect is important support "the holier they [the nuns] are the more sociable they should be with their sisters", so that people are "not frightened or put off by virtue". The sisters may speak to each other to give support. This love and friendliness extends to outside the cloister, especially to people having dealings with the convent. The prioress was expected to ask people's opinions and talk things through.Chapter 16: Alone with Him Alone: St Teresa's creative understanding of eremiticism. "This will always be the aim of our nuns - to be alone with Him Alone" St Teresa of Avila. All human maturation and growth towards union with God demands a creative tension between solitude and community. Teresa's nuns must bring the same passion and fidelity to both aspects of the rule, even when they may prefer to be alone when with others, or with others when alone.Chapter 17: Carmelite Prayer. Neither Teresa or John of the Cross propose a particular method of prayer. Teresa encourages freedom of prayer, though with a novice recommends talking to her Divine Companion and Friend Jesus, pondering on His love and what He wants of her. Prayer for Teresa is primarily relational, with the image of Jesus as enthroned in the middle of a gleaming castle, drawing us through outer rooms and getting ever closer to the Beloved. If we give time to prayer God is always successful in what he wants to achieve. We must simply let ourselves be loved, let ourselves be given to, let ourselves be worked upon by this Great God, and made capable of total union with Him. Preparation for prayer involved getting to know the Jesus of scripture - reading, studying (including reading commentaries). Sr Ruth encourages reading scripture, especially part of a Gospel, and putting ourselves in the position of the person to whom Jesus is speaking. We must trust completely that Jesus reveals God to us. We must have faith that God is at work in prayer, no matter what we feel. Doubts arise when we see prayer as our activity rather than God's activity in us. Our part is simply to be there, as simply and as humbly as a child.Chapter 18: Carmel - A stark encounter with the human condition. Convents are self-supporting, so must maintain income and business from behind the enclosure. All the everyday stresses of money worries are known to Carmelite nuns. Convents also rely on new vocations - a lack of vocations may force closure. The community knows insecurity, as do the individual nuns who may find themselves depending on other nuns who they are struggling to get along with. No individual or community can feel they have full control over their lives. Fear is our most pervasive emotion, and we must recognise our inner anxieties. As Christians we have the blessed security of the love of God - we are loved into existence, cherished in our existence, and affirmed absolutely in death and beyond. This love is independent of our merit or demerit. Nothing whatsoever can separate us from this love. We are exposed to the infinite. To assent to that love is to embrace our vocation; we are made for union with that divine love. As we commit to this love then existential anxiety is subsumed. We do not loose the feelings of fear and anxiety, but faith enables us to brave their challenge. Carmel is an intense experience of the reality of human existence - a leap of the self into total trust in Divine love. Feelings of helplessness and failure exist in Carmel, and are intensified there as there are fewer ways of escape or detraction. The new-comer has often been successful "outside" and is overcome by the challenges of the new way of life. She must be supported through this by her sisters. After giving her life over to prayer nun may then feel a failure at prayer, especially during dry times - they may feel they are doing nothing useful for God. But being brought to that point of feeling total failure the nun then may realise it is not her job to bring something to God, but simply to receive from God, to live with truly empty hands. A danger lies in trying to find "better ways" of prayer, as that may detract from finding out our helplessness before God. The nuns "service" to God and others becomes a witness of belonging absolutely to God.Chapter 19: The consecrated life. The consecrated life is a privilege - they live the affirmation of the love of God. This desire must come from God. The nun must live by faith and not by feeling, even the feeling of conscience - Christianity stands on objective truth, not on subjective intuition, perception or reasoning, either as individuals or as a community. Christians must look totally to Jesus. God gives us our very self, in Him, as His loving gift. Faith is a constant surrender to this truth of our identity with and in God. The inflowing of divine life then transforms and purifies. We approach God with total passivity - we can only receive His giving to us, as children receive from a parent, renouncing any notion of spiritual importance. It is not up to us to make ourselves into a nice shape for God, but it is God who shapes us. The sacraments teach us that all is given to us; our "work" is simply to receive with empty hands. We can trust in our lives that God supplies us with all we need to be open to divine Love - here and now. Divine love offers itself `in the sacrament of the present moment'. We accept our failures, our longings, our sense of inadequacy and bring those to God without looking to feel better or more fervent or "fuller". We mustn't give in to despondency, hiding from God when we feel ashamed, silly, humiliated, a failure, dirty even - God is in all this reality and wishes us to look into his compassionate eyes. Faith lives nakedly exposed to God in the experience of our lives and in prayer. God knows what it is to be human. We live with God from within our weaknesses, not apart from our weaknesses - we look to God for our completeness.

I cannot praise this book enough for its clarity, its honesty and its insight. Many of us struggle with prayer, thinking we're not "doing it right", but this book points us away from our self-centred angst to the foundation of our faith, God's love, given to us in the form of Jesus. Every Christian, of whatever denomination, should read this book.

Following Jesus, Sr Ruth turns our natural ideas of prayer, holiness, religion and God Himself upside down and inside out. It's not about us - our goodness, our "spirituality", our "holiness" , our feelings - it's about God's love, and this is the lesson we need to learn our whole lives.

No-one who wishes to know what prayer truly can not find a finer guide than this. The Kindle version I have just bought is my third copy. The previous two paper copies have worn out.

Every spiritual written book carries it's own message to the receiver. This wonderfully written work of art, through which the Lord has a message for everyone, spoke very clearly to me - the message is for all to find.....