Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner

About two years ago I was sitting in my grandmother's living room, and we were discussing the books that we were reading. I do not remember what books we were discussing, but I remember her interrupting our discussion of a certain book to ask me if I had ever read The Way of a Pilgrim, I said that I had not, and she proceeded to tell me that it was her favorite book. She pointed it out to me on the shelf and told me that I should have it. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to give it away because it was her favorite book. She said to me that she had read it ten times already, and she figured that she would not need to read it again in her lifetime. Fast forward to last month, and I am presenting this book to my newly formed book club. We read it together in a month and spent a few hours discussing the book over wine, cheese, and crackers. My brief thoughts on the book are as follows.

Firstly, I would like to say that this book is a wonderful book to read. It flows like a simple adventure novel, but it has the benefits of a classical spiritual text. The book follows a pilgrim as he pursues the answer to the question: What does it mean to pray always?  He does not give you a clear answer by the end of the book, but it is within his journey that I have found guidance in my own journey.

The main takeaway for me in the pilgrim's journey of prayer is that prayer is not something to be accomplished. It is something to be experienced. At one point, the pilgrim encounters a man who reads the Gospels every day and that man asks him which is better to pray, the Gospels or the Jesus prayer. The pilgrim responds by telling this man that they are the same. The Gospel is summarized in the Jesus prayer, and the Jesus prayer points one's heart to the Gospels. The goal of prayer is not to do a thing, it is to seek communion with the Living God. Both the Gospels and the Jesus prayer are ways of doing this. 

How often do I allow myself to be bogged down in choosing a certain devotion or in committing to a devotion that I do not find myself capable of completing? Would it not be better for me to pray the Jesus prayer all day than to busy myself with praying different Psalms at different hours? One could even argue that it would be more fruitful for me to just repeat the simple name of Jesus for thirty minutes than to pray a rosary. God does not desire worldly accomplishments, he desires conversion of heart. Why would I waste my time considering the faith when I could just be living it?

Often when I spend time with scripture, I spend much of my time intellectualizing the truths of the faith. The pilgrim would tell me that this is not prayer. He would tell me to let go of my intellect in moments of prayer and to focus on my heart. He would tell me to lift my heart up to the Lord in my devotion and to allow the Lord to shape it to be more and more like His. This should be the goal of prayer. 

This is perhaps the answer to the question I plagued myself some time ago: What is the difference between thought of God and prayer with God? It seems the difference is what part of me I am using. Am I using my head, or am I using my heart? The pilgrim would ask me to use my heart in prayer. To use my head is prideful. Using my head in prayer is communicating to the Lord that I must think about Him in order to connect with Him. It is actually the other way around. It is the Lord's Will that has created and that continues to create me. All I require is to let go of my own will and to give Him my heart.

This is what the pilgrim calls me to. This is what the Lord calls me to. Submission of my will to the Divine Will. Submission of my intellect to the Divine Heart. Submission of my pridefulness to His Divine Mercy.

In these words and in this book lies the purpose of this blog. It is an attempt to document my own reflections on my own pilgrimage: on my own to turn my will towards the divine. To reflect upon my own pursuit of Christ. 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sorrowful Sorrowful Sinner!

More from A Pilgrim's Platen

To See The Sun No More

Image
I recently traveled to Houlton, Maine, to participate in a seemingly national cultural event: the viewing of the total annular eclipse. It was not a journey that I had really planned out beforehand. The decision to go at all was in question up until the hour before I left. I made the trek up to the northern half of the state that I have learned to call home with a close friend of mine who had also awoken that morning, unsure of his participation in the journey. As we drove up with plenty of time to spare we could not help but notice the immense amount of traffic on a hundred-mile section of the interstate which rarely sees more than three cars at a time. It was clear to us that people wanted to see this eclipse. As rather lukewarm astronomers, we were unprepared for the mass of people we would encounter when we reached our viewing destination.
Read more

A Time for New Creation

Image
Morning exists for prayer, Daytime Exists for production, Evening exists for thought. This is a line that I laid out on my typewriter a month or so ago with little awareness of what I was writing. The framing of the sentence seems like it could be a profound one, however, when you actually read it and take two seconds to think about it, it is clear that it is far from profound. In fact, it may be utter nonsense. With that being stated, I will now try to defend the statement as true, at least in my personal experience. Morning is for prayer. I pray the best in the mornings. There is something uniquely peaceful and fruitful about offering your day to God before the day has begun. There is something about spending time reflecting on His word and listening for His voice in the morning that is different than any other time of day. It may simply be that it is the first thing and, therefore, it feels the most important. Or perhaps it is the other way around: it is the most important thing, so...
Read more