In the wake of Saturday's "Beloved" event, which brought hundreds of women together from across the campus of Franciscan University, and focused on the theme of "Desire," we thought it would be fruitful to share some of Christopher West's thoughts on desire. As we enter into the middle of the week, take some time to reflect on and pray with the words below.
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"Luke tells us that the purpose of the parable we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel reading is to teach us “the necessity … to pray always without becoming weary.” Is this even possible? It depends how we understand prayer. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “The Fathers of the Church say that prayer, properly understood, is nothing other than becoming a longing for God.” Let that sink in. The Christian life is never a matter of annihilating our longings. It’s a matter of redirecting them towards their true object. It’s called prayer. To “pray always,” then, as this Sunday’s Gospel admonishes us to do, one must learn how to live within the painful “ache” of constant longing for heaven, for the Marriage of the Lamb. To the degree that we remain “attached” to the pleasures of this world, we have not yet learned to pray. “So brethren, let us long, because we are to be filled,” says Saint Augustine. “That is our life, to be trained by longing; and our training through the holy longing advances in the measure that our longings are detached from the love of this world.” How do we pray always? Augustine concludes: “Desire is your prayer; and if your desire is without ceasing, your prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.” Lord, teach us to pray!"
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Christopher West's Blog, and this original post, can be found at:
http://corproject.com/cor-thoughts-173-to-pray-always-is-to-desire-always/
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