Friday, May 2, 2008

Prayer: Plowing the Memory

Perfect prayer is like plowing. It grinds and recycles the dirt of our memory and our experience, and reinvigorates it with the oxygen and nutrients of God.

When I have a painful memory, a memory that I don't want to think about, I will push it from my mind. No, I tell my thoughts, don't go there, it will hurt.

In prayer, though, I can let my mind go there because in prayer there is no fear. As I invite God into my thoughts and experience, he baptizes them with his love. Then, they hold no more pain. They become the scars of purgatory, the sign of purification.

Through this spiritual processing, I can become whole again. I am reunited with my past flaws, mistakes, and the pains inflicted upon me by myself and others. They are no longer blemishes, but witnesses to the great grace of him whom I was created for.

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