What are impurities of the soul ? How do we get rid of impurities in our souls ? What does it mean to have impurities inside the soul ?  Answers to these questions and others  in the article Spiritual Progress Through Purity.

IN CONTEMPLATION, ONE IS AWARE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD. Often a person in prayer remains in complete silence, reflecting on spiritual things. Through “centering prayer” and other approaches, contem-platives take time to get behind the busyness, noise, wordiness, and information overload of today’s world. Contemplative prayer does not replace all other types of prayer. It simply balances words and activity with silence and repose.

The Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton’s description of his way of praying is as good a definition of contemplation as any: “I have a very simple way of prayer. It is centered entirely on the presence of God and to [God's] will and [God's] love.”

Due largely to Merton–who exposed many to contemplative life through his books The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation–as well to the efforts of his brother Trappists, Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, and William Menninger, the modern contemplative movement seeks to restore a tradition somewhat neglected in the history of Christian spirituality.

Since the Protestant Reformation, Catholic spirituality has been dominated by prayer involving words and formulas, obscuring the contemplative tradition evident in figures such as Gregory of Nyssa, John Cassian, Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, and Thérèse of Lisieux.

But God’s first language, contemplatives remind us, is silence. Before creation, there was utter silence, and that silence has remained, like a backdrop to the universe. Contemplation is a movement beyond conversation with God to communion with God and a more powerful sense of God’s active presence in every person and situation of our lives.

Though the ex-perience of contemplative prayer may produce relaxation, inner peace, greater creativity, personal insights, a greater acceptance of others and circumstances, and even lessening of compulsive behavior and painful emotions and thoughts, these effects flow out of its main purpose of developing a deep relationship with God that carries over into the rest of life.

While not asceticism or self-denial, contemplation moves us beyond selfishness and attachment to a place where our true and natural selves find completion, transformation, and fulfillment.

At Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky, for many years the home of Thomas Merton, a sign on one of the library shelves reads: “Silence is spoken here.” By connecting to that silence through contemplation, we can hear the “voice” of God.

- Excerpt from an article by Joel Schorn

God

let us see the many ways

you are working in our world ,

in my world.

Let me feel your constant presence

and the warmth of your love.

Amen

- Joan of Arc : God’s Warrior

God,
open my eyes
and my heart
to see you and hear you.
May I really listen to all you are telling me today.

From Joan of Arc: God’s Warrior

Dear God,
help us to listen
to all the angels and saints you send us,
especially those disguised as
our fellow companions in faith.
Amen.

-  from Joan of Arc: God’s Warrior

Penitent’s Rose 

When we pray for our inner healing , we permit Jesus to visit all those areas  of our life where we have been wounded . At the base of these wounds , we discover the potential for forgiveness . This is the door through which we pass in order to take up our life as filled with the love of Jesus . When we encounter the One who forgives , we forget the anguish of the past and are able to forgive ourselves.

- The Journey Within : Prayer as a Path to God

A most beautiful, powerful, yet gentle prayer by Mother Teresa . . . . . .

Deliver me, O Jesus,

From the desire of being loved,

From the desire of being extolled,

From the desire of being honored,

From the desire of being praised,

From the desire of being praised,

From the desire of being preferred,

From the desire of being consulted,

From the desire of being approved,

From the desire of being popular,

From the fear of being humiliated,

From the fear of being despised,

From the fear of suffering rebukes,

From the fear of being calumniated,

From the fear of being forgotten,

From the fear of being wronged,

From the fear of being ridiculed,

From the fear of being suspected.

Amen

- Blessed Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered ; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives ; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies ; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, they may cheat you ; Be forthright anyway.

What you spent years building, they may destroy overnight ; Build anyway.

Give the world the best you have , and it will never be enough ; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God ; It was never between you and them Anyway.   ;-)

A thought to ponder on . . . .

I wonder what would happen if we treat our Bible like we treat our cell phones.

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets.

What if we turned back to get it if we forgot it.

What if we flipped through it several times a day ?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text.

What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it.

What if we gave it to kids as gifts.

What if we used it as we traveled.

What if we used it in case of an emergency.

- Anonymous

As children bring their broken toys,  with tears for us to mend.

I brought my broken dreams to God, because He was my Friend.

But instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone.

I hung around and tried to help, with ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried, “How can you be so slow?”

“My child,” He said, “what can I do? You never let go.”

-author unknown