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The daily practice of meditation is the single thing in one's life that gives one a greater sense of well-being, increased energy, higher productivity at a more conscious level, more satisfying relationships, and a closer connection to God.
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One can lovingly and confidently cast all of one's anxiety on God because he cares for us - Thomas Merton expresses this beautifully in his prayer.
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Background information is given for Alexander and Eva Peck.
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Acknowledging the many people who have guided us to where this website became possible.
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In meditation, our stillness is not a state of mere passivity but a state of full openness and full wakefulness to the wonder of our own being; full openness to the wonder of God, the author and sustainer of our being; and a full awareness that we are at one with God.
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This section deals with developing an awareness of the Divine presence within, in the depth of our being, through meditation.
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The prayer of the heart introduces one into deep interior silence so that one learns to experience its power - for that reason the prayer of the heart has to be always very simple, confined to the simplest of acts, and often making use of no words and no thoughts at all.
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One has to withdraw from time to time to be silent and still – to get perspective, to look beyond this world and to search for the origin and purpose of all.
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Meditation, morning and evening, every day, is the best and most direct method of getting in touch with reality.
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A bibliographic listing of the authors and titles of works quoted on this website.
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Enlightenment can be seen as a process of remembering that in the heart of a little child there is purity, and it is this pure divine love and acceptance that is the ticket to the kingdom of heaven .
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This section welcomes visitors to share any comments or ideas about the website; to ask questions related to prayer of the heart; and to request prayer for a need, if desired.
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The Desert Fathers and Mothers who lived in the Egyptian desert during the fourth and fifth centuries, as well as other early Christian contemplatives, offer us important perspectives on simplicity for our lives as Christians living in the twenty-first century.
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Listening to the voice of love requires that we direct our minds and hearts toward that voice with all our attention - the most fruitful way is to take a simple prayer, a sentence or a word, and slowly repeat it.
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This section touches on encountering God - it explains how in silence, stillness, and solitude, one may perceive the voice of love in one's heart.
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Contemplative prayer or meditation proceeds from the “center” of a person’s being; his or her “heart” renewed in the Holy Spirit, totally submissive to the grace of Christ.
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Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy - the true contemplative is not the one who prepares his mind for a particular message that he wants or expects to hear, but who remains empty because he knows that he can never expect or anticipate the word that will transform his darkness into light.
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Simplicity is the essence of any spiritual practice - to over complicate, over accumulate, and over analyze, leaves one with an underlying feeling of being overwhelmed.
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Living a life of simplicity means no longer falsely identifying ourselves with our ego.
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Periods of quiet, undistracted meditation provide precious opportunities to get in touch with qualities that will gradually grow through cultivation and pervade even your busiest activities.
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The great test as to whether one's meditation is working, or whether one is making progress is: Am I growing in love?
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Silence guards the inner heat of religious emotions - this inner heat is the life of the Holy Spirit within; silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive.
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To be silent and still is an art to be learned - it has its own discipline and difficulties, but the learning is essential, lest one be trapped in the purely secular and the material, escaping from the emptiness of the former by indulging in the attractions of the latter.
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In reaching out to others, one can be present and listen to those God has called us to be with.
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In heartfelt listening to the stories of the underprivileged, vulnerable, wounded, and poor, one finds that the realm of the heart is reached.
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Home page for prayer-of-the-heart.org website
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In prayer, one encounters God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of one's neighbor, and in the loneliness of one's own heart.
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The purpose and challenge of meditation is to allow ourselves to become silent enough to allow the interior silence to emerge - silence is the language of the spirit.
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The night calls us to set aside time outside the practical demands of the day and to connect with that dark but grace-filled mystery in which we are immersed - once the bright light of day dawns and the demands of the day begin, it is easy to forget the sacred, timeless dimension of our lives.
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The theme of entering the heart is described in the reflections of a variety of spiritual writers.
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A deep spring exists within each person - this deep spring is the Spirit of God.
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A method of communing with God – which incorporates both verbal and nonverbal prayer – is lectio divina (a Latin term meaning “divine or sacred reading”).
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Prayer is the discipline of listening to the voice of love - without prayer, one becomes deaf to the voice of love and becomes confused by the many competing voices asking for one's attention.
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Twelve practices are offered to help maintain the outcomes of prayer of the heart in daily life.
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This section presents a way to achieve silence and stillness – the path of meditation, or prayer of the heart.
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Silent prayer, sometimes known as meditation, has been practiced by saints and sages from all the spiritual traditions of the world.
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One enters into solitude first of all to meet one's Lord and to be with him and him alone.
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Simplicity dwells within the core of our being - it’s the simplicity that we once experienced as innocent and inquisitive children, first appreciating the simple beauty and wonder of all of our surroundings.
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It is as important to be silent with friends as it is to speak with them.
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One must not take a purely quietistic view of contemplative prayer - it is not mere negation; nor can a person become a contemplative merely by “blacking out” sensible realities and remaining alone with himself in darkness.
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In the stillness of one's heart, one realizes that the heart is the core of oneself as a human person – the centre of one's thinking, feeling, and deciding.
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Moved by God’s preeminent grace, we open our awareness to God whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing – closer than consciousness itself.
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During meditation nothing much seems to occur, nonetheless, inner changes take place through faithful prayer of the heart over time,
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Peace and contentment lie in living the simple life.
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List of nine topics covered in this section.
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Prayer of the heart involves communing with the Divine beyond words, concepts, images, feelings, and acts.
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The privacy statement demonstrates a firm and continuing commitment to the privacy of personal information provided by those visiting and interacting with the web site.
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Meditation involves quieting or stilling the mind - sometimes just looking at a peaceful scene can help to quieten or still the mind. The photos from the natural environment in the galleries in this section are offered as a simple means of quieting the mind before a time of meditation.
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The oldest forms of meditative prayer in Christian practice consist simply of a repetition of words from Scripture in the silence of the heart.
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This section addresses one's hearing and responding to the Divine presence - it shows the need to guard the life of the Spirit within and what it means to be totally abandoned to God in one's response to him.
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Awareness of the Divine within is awakened by grace.
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Daily returning to the stillness of one's heart helps nurture within a quiet inner assurance and meaningful sense of direction in life.
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This section addresses the need for silence in our Western world increasingly characterized by noise, clamor, and complexity.
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Silence enables us to be aware of God, to let mind and imagination dwell upon his truth, to let prayer be listening before it is talking, and to discover our own selves in a way that is not always possible when we are making or listening to noise.
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A prayer for silence in the heart by Henri J.M. Nouwen
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In prayer of the heart, silence, stillness, and simplicity facilitate the journey into the dimension of the heart, where divine life, light, and love dwell.
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This section focuses on simplifying life.
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Simplicity is the state of being simple, uncompounded, or uncomplicated - clear, direct, existing in the most basic form, and free of judgment or perception.
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The most important thing when you are beginning to meditate is to understand the absolute simplicity of it - and then to remain faithful to the simplicity of the practice.
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The “prayer of the heart” (also known as contemplative prayer or meditation) has an inherent simplicity - it is the prayer of silence, simplicity, contemplative and meditative unity; a deep personal integration in an attentive, watchful listening of “the heart”.
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It is a fact of experience across all religious traditions that certain kinds of “simplification” predictably occur as one spiritually matures.
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For Christian believers, authentic simplicity finds its source and inspiration in God.
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Stillness and simply being creates peace and serenity, and allows the Universe to gently guide one along one's precious journey.
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A Divine Oneness penetrates the entire universe.
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To counteract this age of too many decibels, the way of silence and stillness in prayer speaks to us of a deep human need and a spiritual path that is rooted in the “inner desert” of the heart where the Spirit is waiting.
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The “prayer of the heart” or meditation is simply being with God.
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Scripture references for the themes of silence, stillness, and simplicity
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Silence is really absolutely necessary for the human spirit if it really is to thrive.
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To tread the spiritual path, one must learn to be silent - what is required is a journey into profound silence.
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Cataphatic theology (the Divine is described on the level of reason) and apophatic theology (the Divine is beyond concepts, thoughts, symbols, and words)
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The experience of Christian prayer is our union with the one who is One.
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Stillness is accomplished through the act of meditation, which is stilling of the physical/conscious mind to all external stimuli.
