Encounters With Silence

Rating:
Summary: Karl Rahner, the mystic encounters with silence
Review: A faithful mystic, in fellowship with the desert fathers:
It is not strange that a Catholic utters these prayers of the noia (heart of thinking) in his ever continuos metanoia. In this moving work Karl Rahner expresses in modern language the daily utterance of the mystic abbas and ammas of the Church.
In his book: The Spirit in the Church (Seabury,1979); he appropriates:
'The testimony of the mystics': "they experience grace, the direct presence of God, and union with Him in the Spirit, in the sacred night, or in a blessed illumination, in a void silence filled with God."
Blessed are you Evagrius Ponticus, you preserved Macarius' arrow prayer, and the fellowship of unceasing prayer of the desert fathers in the Praktikos and the Chapters on Prayer (Cisterian publ,1981)

God of my life:
When I abandon myself in love, then You are my very life, ... The farther Your infinity is removed from my nothingness, the greater is the challenge to my love.

God of my Lord Jesus Christ:
Grant, O infinite God, that I may ever cling fast to Jesus Christ, my Lord. ....... But I have still one more request. Make my heart like that of Your Son.!

God of my prayer:
How can a man hope to speak with You? .......How can I pray with love, when the prayer of love is the absolute surrender of the heart from its deepest roots,...?

God of knowledge:
Truly my God, mere knowledge is nothing. .....how can we approach the heart of all things, the true heart of reality? Not by knowledge alone, but by the full flower of knowledge, love.

God of Law:
But, Lord, what of the commandments imposed upon us by men, issued in your name?.......The burden about which I was complaining in the stillness of my heart is mainly our burden, the burden of Your priests,.......set upon our own shoulders.

Enjoy the above quotations:
Read this book, before you pray, even if you do not pray, since you will discover you are in a continuos prayer, with the whole universe even if not aware of it. (Ps.19:1-4)

Rating:
Summary: The Silent but Loving God
Review: Traveling the Christian Mystic path, many may end up with silent prayer, experiencing the holiness of God in one's heart & afterwards in death. When the scripture "I shall know even as I am known" will become a reality for us all. Karl Rahner, an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, & mystic writes in an almost 'Martin Buber' poetic fashion expressing in words what can't be spoken. Questioning, Reflecting, & Meditating on such topics as 1. God of My Life, 2. God of My Lord Jesus Christ, 3. God of My Prayer, 4. God of Knowledge, 5. God of Law, 6. God of My Daily Routine, 7. God of the Living, 8. God of My Brothers, 9. God of My Vocation, 10. God Who is to Come. Each topic is done within a short chapter, all in 87 pages. This book is very 'Universal' (one of the meaning behind the word Catholic) for Protestants & Eastern Orthodox to read with a careful eye overlooking a few 'Roman' references. Read a topic chapter a night before going to bed for best spirtual effect.