Thursday, March 21, 2013

Being in God -- In your day....

 According to a well-known hadith; prayer is the essence of worship. It is the living ground and basis of religion. In Iqbal’s conception of prayer we find the keystone of all his religious ideas. Prayer in the contact of God and humanity. As Iqbal says, “religious ambition soars higher than the ambition of philosophy. Religion is not satisfied with mere conception; it seeks a more intimate knowledge of and association with the object of its pursuit. The agency through which this association is achieved is the act of worship or prayer ending in spiritual illumination.” For Iqbal, each act of prayer is a kind of ‘ meraj’ or Ascension to Heaven ( From "Iqbal on Prayer" by Dr. Riffat Hassan -- found here http://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/oct87/5.htm 

Victor Hugo said, there are moments when whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.[

Prayer cannot stand alone without action emerging from it. Contemplative prayer without action stagnates, and action without contemplative prayer leads to burnout or running around in circles. Contemplative prayer sifts our contemplative vision and our ideas about what we should be doing. It enables us to blend the two and to bring the spirit of our contemplative commitment into daily life. ...God is not just for the time of prayer but for the whole day. The presence of God is going to accompany us into daily life whether in other forms of prayer, in our relationships, or in our workplace. Without trying to, but just by being in God as you go about your daily functions, you exercise a kind of apostolate. In your very joking you may be pouring grace into the atmosphere and into other people. All our activities need to come out of this center.

— Thomas Keating in Intimacy with God

 
 
 


2 comments:

robert said...

Greetings,

Thank you for this post. We can gather around these points.

All good wishes,

robert

CN said...

Yes indeed and so glad you came...

The best of good wishes to you as well.

Connie