Reading Ruth Burrows, a cloistered English Discalced Carmelite (1923 – 2023). A writer of many highly acclaimed books and articles on the spiritual life, she is acknowledged as a mystic and spiritual master.
- Prayer is not just one function in life, not even the most important; it is life itself. We are only truly living, truly and fully human when our whole life is prayer.
Jesus surrendered, poured out, emptied, is the truest image we have in this life of the heart of the Godhead. Jesus, therefore, is central to our life in God. With this understanding, prayer is not primarily what we are doing for God but God’s Self-offer to us in love: what God works in us, if we allow him.
Our part is to be there, receiving, assenting, and surrendering in response. We realize, too, that our whole life must be involved. The time set aside exclusively to conscious receptivity and response is meaningless unless it is an expression of what we want life itself to be.