A local beauty - the rhododendron in front of my house.
I'm reading Franciscan Prayer by Ilia Delio in preparation for a retreat I will be doing with my support group of five other priests. It has been very helpful in understanding Franciscan spirituality and in thinking about how I would describe my own spirituality. The centering prayer that I do seems quite different from Franciscan prayer.
One of the things that I want to keep in mind as I look more closely at my relationship with God is that my prayer and my spirituality are not the results of my efforts. Sister Wendy Beckett in her simple book on prayer insists over and over that prayer is God's work.
I was reminded of this by this quote from Thomas Merton in the last chapter of Delio's book: "The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved." All our love, as well as all our prayer, begins with God's freely given love for us and God's activity within us.
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