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Looking through those composition books I wrote in for years at Lebh Shomea, I see quotes from various books by the same author. I recall that I would go on a pursuit of more books when I liked what a certain author was saying. That was the blessing for me that Lebh Shomea had (and has) such an extensive library. I remember reading books by Anthony Bloom when our oldest son was in his first years at Texas A & M around 1997.
Anthony Bloom or Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (1914-2003) was a monk and Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was founder and for many years bishop - then archbishop, then metropolitan - of the Diocese of Sourozh, the Patriarchate of Moscow's diocese for Great Britain and Ireland (the name 'Sourozh' is that of the historical episcopal see in Sudak in the Crimea). As a bishop he became well known as a pastor, preacher, spiritual director and writer on prayer and the Christian life. (from Wikipedia)
Today I will copy a few of the quotes I kept from that long-ago reading of Living Prayer by Anthony Bloom:
"We should never try to squeeze out of the heart any sort of feeling when we come to God; a prayer is a statement, the rest depends on God." (60)
quoting Theophane the Recluse:
". . . ask yourself: 'Am I doing God's will better than I did before?' If you are, prayer has brought its fruits; if you are not, it has not, whatever amount of understanding or feeling you may have derived from the time spent in the presence of God." (62, 63)
"Whatever we have felt belongs to the past and is linked with what we were yesterday, not what we are today. We do not pray in order to provoke any particular experience in which we may delight, but in order to meet God with whatever may happen as a consequence, or to bring him what we have to bring and leave it to him to use it the way he chooses." (104)
"Our prayer always reaches God but it is not always answered by a sense of joy or peace." (108)
". . . .a silence in which, as Julian of Norwich puts it, 'Prayer oneth the soul to God.'" (111)
Anthony Bloom or Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (1914-2003) was a monk and Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was founder and for many years bishop - then archbishop, then metropolitan - of the Diocese of Sourozh, the Patriarchate of Moscow's diocese for Great Britain and Ireland (the name 'Sourozh' is that of the historical episcopal see in Sudak in the Crimea). As a bishop he became well known as a pastor, preacher, spiritual director and writer on prayer and the Christian life. (from Wikipedia)
Today I will copy a few of the quotes I kept from that long-ago reading of Living Prayer by Anthony Bloom:
"We should never try to squeeze out of the heart any sort of feeling when we come to God; a prayer is a statement, the rest depends on God." (60)
quoting Theophane the Recluse:
". . . ask yourself: 'Am I doing God's will better than I did before?' If you are, prayer has brought its fruits; if you are not, it has not, whatever amount of understanding or feeling you may have derived from the time spent in the presence of God." (62, 63)
"Whatever we have felt belongs to the past and is linked with what we were yesterday, not what we are today. We do not pray in order to provoke any particular experience in which we may delight, but in order to meet God with whatever may happen as a consequence, or to bring him what we have to bring and leave it to him to use it the way he chooses." (104)
"Our prayer always reaches God but it is not always answered by a sense of joy or peace." (108)
". . . .a silence in which, as Julian of Norwich puts it, 'Prayer oneth the soul to God.'" (111)
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