Description
In this book I have sought, as the bride in the Song of Songs, to “bring out both what is old and what is new, laid up for you, O my Beloved” (Sg 7:13), and as a gift, also, to the reader, so that you may hopefully find a greater space of confidence, understanding, and desire opening for you to draw near to the One who ceaselessly draws near to you. I hope that my words, however imperfect they may be, will help dispose you to encounter him who wants to espouse himself to you in the inner sanctuary of your heart, made the tabernacle of his presence, and indeed to sanctify and transfigure your entire being, body and spirit, and every moment of your existence, to be radiant and transparent with his own love and with the intimacy that he shares eternally with the Father in the kiss of the Holy Spirit.
From the text:
If the path into deepening intimacy with God passes by way of the harmonization and integration of my body and spirit, of the movement towards him and the authentic movement towards created reality, then this has deep implications for the experience of prayer. Particularly in our Western culture, we practice a prayer which is far too cerebral, far too intellectual, and also far too volitional, far too will-based. We pray primarily, or even only, with the head and with the will, and not with the heart and the body. We pray by thinking a lot, by reflecting, by formulating words and ideas; and then, from these words and ideas, we make resolutions, self-directed resolves, which we then try to carry out with the energetic activity of our own will. Even in the way that many people are taught to approach Scripture, to engage their faculties in reflecting on the Word of God, the focus is primarily—however subtly—on what the human person does, rather than on what God does. And yet this is not, in fact, an over-emphasis on the human dimension, but an under-emphasis on the divine presence and activity. And it is not that the mind and the will have no place in prayer, but that their place is always secondary, ancillary, to be awakened, sustained, and to remain always at the service of, the living and unmediated contact with the reality of God and the reality of his creation, occurring, in and through the body, in the living experience of the heart.
I hope that my words, however imperfect they may be, will help dispose you to encounter him who wants to espouse himself to you in the inner sanctuary of your heart, made the tabernacle of his presence, and indeed to sanctify and transfigure your entire being, body and spirit, and every moment of your existence, to be radiant and transparent with his own love and with the intimacy that he shares eternally with the Father in the kiss of the Holy Spirit.
