Recovery of passion

I picked up Abba's Child to read again in preparation for a group discussion this Friday. The first of the two chapters for this month is titled "Recovery of passion". Brennan Manning quotes,

"Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me"

(John Donne)

I am no student of literature or the classics and don't know much about Christian poetry in centuries past. But as I read the above, I am drawn by a sense of wonder and longing. Brennan writes about John, the beloved disciple and his encounter with Jesus (John 13: 23 - 25) and says that "to risk the passionate life, we must be 'affected by' Jesus as John was".

The most touching story in this chapter is about an old man who was dying of cancer. He is visited by a priest who assumed that his visit was expected as the old man was lying in bed propped up, with an empty chair beside his bed. On further questioning, the old man admitted that all his life he had never known how to pray. His pastor's teaching on prayer "just went right over my head". A book recommend by his pastor, supposedly the 'best book on contemplative prayer in the twentieth century' was useless to him as "in the first three pages, I had to look up twelve words in the dictionary".

The old man said, "I abandoned any attempt at prayer, until one day four years ago when my best friend told me, "Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because He promised, 'I'll be with you all days'. Then just speak to Him and listen in the same way you're doing with me right now". The old man said that had been his practice every day since. The priest was deeply moved and encouraged the old man to continue on his journey. Two days later the man's daughter called the priest to say that he had died peacefully. But the strange thing was, "Apparently before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside his bed."

Prayer is that simple, passion for the Lord and intimacy with him is that mundane. Within the 'reach' of each and every seeker of God.