I'm leading a prayer seminar this Saturday in Turlock, California. If you're in the area, please come. CLICK HERE for more information.
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Why do we purify the heart? It is the chosen dwelling place of God. It is the "palace of Christ in which he retires" (St. Macarius). It is the very seat of eternity, the gateway between heaven and earth---the Holy of Holies. If your heart is like a house where clutter (beautiful and good things as well as ugly and evil things) is the rule, then all that's holy is hidden, covered, and ignored. Tragic . . . for you can know so much more.
The key is not merely to get rid of the clutter, but to become so unattached to it (and that which causes you to love it and keep it around), so that you no longer feel compelled to have it around anyway.
This is the fruit of interior prayer---that watchfulness, awareness, and non-attachment to thought-clutter that comes from continual, unceasing returning to Christ in prayer.
Cleaning the house, purifying the heart, make it more hospitable to the indwelling of Grace. Nonattachment keeps it open and pleasing to the fullness of the Trinity of love.
From my journals, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 I am again humiliated. It's not so much my sins I see but my poverty of love. I enter my heart but find it full of pride, anger, fear, resentment. Where is my Love, my Lord Jesus, who promises to dwell there? Was he ever there? He has vanished? Or, has Love gone deeper in, leading me on, deeper, deeper, past my ego's many layers?
So what am I to do?
Lament my sins? The obstacles? God's elusiveness? My ego's expansiveness)?
There's nothing to be won by this---only the spiral into real despair.
No, instead, love still more. Follow the passion of your heart. Love leads you on; your heart must find the Beloved . . . and only Love can guide you along this twisting path. The saints testify that Love is the only true guide. You can trust them; they've been down this path and found what you seek.
I've stumbled upon a book that parallels my own teaching on prayer. And since my own book is bogged down or delayed, I suggest you pick it up. John Main (deceased) and I've read much the same historical material and come to similar conclusions and practices drawn from the wellspring of historic Christian spirituality.
From the Amazon.com review:
This is his classic book on how to practice contemplative prayer, or Christian meditation. Stepping aside from the busyness of our daily lives and being still in the presence of God is the key to discovering our true selves and knowing God as 'the ground of our being'. This book offers a twelve step programme in learning meditative prayer, but as the author says, it is not so much about mastering a set of techniques, or escaping from life's challenges and difficulties, or cultivating a self-conscious piety. Its purpose is to teach us how to be at peace with ourselves in order that we might let the presence of Christ flood our whole lives and our relationships.
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From my journals, Sunday, May 20, 2007 Note: I'm staying at the St. Macarius Monastery in the Eastern Libyan Desert of Egypt. The site of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world. This is also an excerpt of my little ebook, Returning to the Center (a free download here).
Father Zeno and I spoke for quite a while tonight. I asked him about the path to wisdom.
"Remember that you are nothing," he said. "And remember that you are everything---bought as precious by Christ. And if you're everything, so are others; you are to love them, embrace them. You will find yourself in them, and you will find them in you. Love is the path to wisdom. When you are nothing, you have nothing and need nothing and you are free to live in love."