B
blessedstar
Guest
Distractions, I think, are an ordinary course of a person’s prayer life because we are human and spiritual. We cannot ascend to the spiritual purely this side of life and to try to do so by any means is a futile effort and somewhat of a temptation. We simply cannot get there; we are to raise both our humaness and our spirit to God in Christ Jesus Who is both man and God.
I don’t know one person in my community who does not have distractions in the natural course of prayer. It is only when God completely takes over the ordinary course of our prayer that these distractions disappear.
As a Carmelite Secular in a Community in our formation prayer plays an important part; prayer as a Community and prayer as an individual. We discuss prayer and are directed in our spiritual life by a Spiritual Director. No-one is left to their own devices. I have spoken at length to my Spiritual Director about distractions (and dryness in prayer) and also have listened at length.
It is very frustrating to desire to be alone with God with many intruding thoughts you don’t want to slip into thinking at the precise time you desire to be close to God. However these distractions are an integral part of the process of a developing prayer life and we are all developing and no-one has arrived.
Distractions (that are not willful) are a healthy part of our prayer life and God may allow such distractions as they illuminate to us our ‘self’, our concerns, our ‘occupations’ of the heart and mind and serve to redirect our souls to what increases virtue, what we may need to recognise about our ‘self’ and change in our lives. This way distractions can serve as purgative. One cannot fail to reflect on the self when one is engaged in prayer with God as God always illuminates the soul even without the soul knowing it.
Insofar as distractions occur these can be reduced by the way in which we approach prayer. To have a mindful heart of what we are saying to God, the meaning of the words, the movement of our hearts, whether this is mental or vocal prayer and to have a firm purpose to pursue the prayer. We focus on and refocus the vital meaning why we are drawn to prayer: we do not pray to master prayer, we do not enter prayer to perfect a system, method or approach, we do not pray to successfully deal with distractions, etc, these are not the focus of our prayer, the focus is, we pray because we want to please God and we love God and He has drawn us to love Him and to pray because primarily He loves us.
We must remember that St John of the Cross taught that the less view we have of our prayer, then all the better, that indeed darkness is true light, not light as we see it, but true Light, the Light of God.
That is not to say we can be lazy about prayer and let our mind trot off here and there, that would be disrespectful to God. We are to remember we are in God’s Presence not only in times of prayer but during our whole life which is as much prayer and equally will lead us to God if offered to Him.
However we are not to make the ridding of distractions the focus of our prayer. These distractions come and go and we musn’t upset ourselves over them. To recognise the distractions in the Presence of God and perhaps to examine them and see what we are being led to notice is of no problem to the prayer life, God knows us and knows our human nature intimately as He clothed Himself with it in His Incarnation. Therefore to say to Jesus in prayer, ‘See now I am thinking of my bills’ then make some short petition is of no problem in prayer as He knows all the occupations of the heart and every movement of our self and spirit. I believe all distractions serve a purpose in the spiritual life and are a gradually stripping of the soul and as this is so we can recognise that distractions will remain always with us, no soul can rid themselves totally of distraction to gaze purely on God unless God act upon the soul to do this. I challenge any soul to try it and St Francis’s lesson will come clear to anyone who goes about trying to rid themselves of thoughts and distractions. The scene goes like this (someone may know the story more fully). A man asks St Francis about distractions in prayer and states he doesn’t have any. St Francis says to him, that if he has no distractions in prayer he will give him his horse. So they go off to pray together and as they are praying the man turns to St Francis and says ‘Will you give me the saddle also?’
What was this man’s distraction telling him about himself, I wonder!Continue to pray with a heart focused on the reason why you are praying and stay little and humble as you are following the Holy Spirit in prayer and everything will be fine.
Pray and persevere in prayer.
In the Living Prayer of my life
