From the prayers of the Desert Fathers:

Just sit there.
Sit here right now.
Rest.

For our separation from God
Is the hardest
Work of all.

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The religion of Christianity is based on these words of Jesus as his summation of all scripture:

.You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

(from the Gospel of Matthew, New Revised Standard Version)

Although simple words at first glance, it takes a life time to understand and truly live these words. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote Four Degress of Love way back in the 12th Century. I have not yet found a better understanding of how to live these two commandments of Jesus Christ.
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When someone says “I prayed about…” or “I pray and God never seems to answer,” that person may be speaking of a form of Prayers of Petition. Crying “Help!” to God is perhaps our common prayer, known almost universally in times of fear or despair. Unfortunately, this prayer is often done with an attitude similiar to a child sitting on Santa Claus lap – let’s call this the “Santa Claus” prayer.

On one hand, becoming like a child has merit. A story of Jesus from Matthew 18:2-4 goes like this:

He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

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I cannot remember a time when I did not know the presence of God. In fact, it was quite a shock to me to realize that many people seem to have no awareness of the reality of God’s presence. My desire to share the experience turned me into an evangelist – I remember baptizing my little brother Dale in our backyard pool when I was 9 years old. Dale just couldn.t seem to get the whole God thing. He still doesn.t! My evangelistic efforts seem to have come to naught but at least he didn.t drown.

This joy I know .in my bones. I have come to understand is a form of mysticism. I understand this to simply mean living in the light of God’s presence. For a more complete definition see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mysticism

I seldom read books more than once. The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity by Martin Palmer is an exception. I have read it three times in the past several months. http://www.brogilbert.org/christ-culture/5christ_tao.HTM The beauty of the progression of the Christian experience in the earliest centuries, moving from it’s roots in Palestine to the hills of China, challenges and enriches my own experience. An example of two liturgies (i.e.prayers said in group worship) from this ancient and oriental understanding of the Trinity follows.
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The Eastern Orthodox prayer book directs the disciple to pray Psalm 51 (Psalm 50 in the Orthodox Bible) daily. This is the prayer of David asking for forgiveness when he woke up to his sinful and abusing behavior towards Bathsheba and her husband. Rape, murder, arrogance of power – sins most respond to with utter horror and calls for life in prison if not the death penalty. And this from God’s beloved chosen king.

I’ve been praying this psalm daily for about four months now. It never seems to get old to me. Each time I read it, speak it, meditate upon it, it reaches to someplace deeper.
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I was at my sixth silent retreat in four years. Three days of not speaking and only deep listening in prayer. This is the first time I have been able to keep the silence – no calls on my cell phone to the outside world. No attempts at conversation. No taking notes. I got a peek at the depths of God’s love

An older gentleman sat down across from me at luncheon. We acknowledged each others presence with a nod. Small sayings from the lecture portion of the retreat were scattered around the table. We took turns looking at each one.

He began to weep in silence as he read one contrasting the experience of self-acceptance in the light of God’s grace versus the experience of inadequacy, fear, greed and control in the spaces of life called our ego. I watched him weep and wanted to comfort him. The silence required me to only silently expand my heart to him.
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From The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky “The mystery of the divine Being, which is the distinction between the one nature and the persons, is graven upon humanity, called to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity. The two poles of human being – nature and persons – find their fullness the one in unity with the other in absolute diversity; for each person is united to God according to the mode which is proper to him alone.”