Monday, November 3, 2008

Finding



I have come to believe that most people in the world are slowly asphyxiating. People are not getting any "air" because their souls are not "breathing." To pray is to breathe. And people are not praying, so they are spiritually dying...or they may never have actually lived. Unfortunately, they do not know it and thus their situation is all the more dangerous.

To pray is to breathe. No more than the body can do without oxygen can the soul do without prayer, that is, without breathing God's life. . . . It is not that we pray simply because we have a few extra moments or we believe that it would be a good idea to pray. No. We pray because we must. . . . [W]e pray always by opening our hearts to the ever-present God.

--Fr. Stephen Rossetti, When the Lion Roars (70-71)

2 comments:

Rufus McCain said...

IC, you're doing a beautiful job with this. Thank you. I blew the first two days (for the most part) but today's bit about prayer as oxygen for the soul inspired me to take a walk along the river. And I took with me a print-out of evening prayer from universalis.com which combined nicely with your meditation to make for a thirty-minute perambulation of body and soul that was exceedingly rejuvinating.

The Ironic Catholic said...

Thanks. I'm really glad to hear this has helped. Honestly, it's a kind of deliberate reflection for me too, just choosing pieces and photography.