Posted by jimB on 11/27/2008, 2:33 pm, in reply to "Comparing Consubstantiation to Prayer"
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My only issue with a discussion of the various "substantiation" theses is the assumption that we either can or need to understand what happens. Theologians are necessary, but they are a lot less important than they like to think and sometimes prone to explaining things that require no explanation.
So frankly, I do not really care much except I am always inclined to laugh when the "plain meaning Bible believing" try to ignore the simple fact that Jesus said He would be there. After all, if the sacrament is what Jesus said it is, He was a poor Calvinist!
That said: I recall my first spiritual director saying to me, "the reason to pray is to become more like a person who prays." It has taken me some decades to understand his point, if indeed I do. But I keep trying.
Every mystic, be he clergy or lay, monastic or secular knows the time when prayer leads to a dry, empty place -- nothing of the hoped for relationship with God is present.
The only thing one can do is keep praying. I have worn our rosaries in that valley St. John of the Cross called, "the dark night of the soul." What keeps a person praying is the knowledge, however weak our faith in it, that the valley does and, the dawn does come. And perhaps the unyielding gentle persistence of the spiritual director.
I have a dear Jesuit friend who tells of his going to his spiritual director just as he was entering the last class period before ordination. He told the priest, "Father I think I have lost my vocation and even my faith." The response was "I know my son, keep praying." He said, "But Father, I cannot see the light ahead when I pray!" "I know my son, keep praying." "Father you do not understand! I don't think I can be a priest!" "I know my son, keep praying." 7 months later the co-celebrated his first mass.
It is hard, long and sometimes dark. It is also the path to God. Pray without ceasing.
FWIW
jimB
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