Solitude: Removing Ourselves from the Need for Recognition and Approval
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent – March 3, 2015
EVAGRIUS PONTICUS wrote, “Notice whether or not you are truly in God’s presence when you pray. It could be that you are looking for recognition and approval from other people. If this is your motivation for prayer, it is a hollow prayer.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 361.]
The Desert Christians took solitude very seriously. In one of the most famous sayings of the Desert, the wise Abba told the young seeker, “Go into your cell. Your cell will teach you everything.” The monk’s cell was his/her living quarters, usually a cave or a hut, and for these Christians, the quiet and solitude of the cell was where a person was most likely to confront his or her interior darkness. The cell became a kind of “furnace of transformation,” as some called it.
Going into one’s cell meant withdrawal from other contact and concerns. In fact, most of these men and women fled into the desert to escape the wordy world of social manipulation where the powerful controlled the weak.
Jesus himself taught that the place of prayer was the quiet inner room (Matt. 6:6-8), not the street corners where there would be crowds and the possibility of applause. In the quiet interior, we are connected to God. Solitude, or the interior sense of being set apart for God, is essential. Prayer connects us to God. It is not primarily a spectator sport that seeks the approval of others.
Bill Moyers was a seminary-trained Baptist who served on Lyndon Baines Johnson’s staff in the 1960’s. Someone told of a meeting with a room-full of Johnson’s administration, in which President Johnson said to him, “Bill, why don’t you start us off with a little prayer?” Moyers began his spoken prayer. A few seconds later, LBJ loudly interrupted, “Speak up, Bill! We can’t hear you!”
Moyers replied simply, “I wasn’t talking to you, Mr. President.”
Evagrius said that prayer which is looking for applause, approval, and recognition is hollow prayer.
EVAGRIUS PONTICUS wrote, “Notice whether or not you are truly in God’s presence when you pray. It could be that you are looking for recognition and approval from other people. If this is your motivation for prayer, it is a hollow prayer.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 361.]
The Desert Christians took solitude very seriously. In one of the most famous sayings of the Desert, the wise Abba told the young seeker, “Go into your cell. Your cell will teach you everything.” The monk’s cell was his/her living quarters, usually a cave or a hut, and for these Christians, the quiet and solitude of the cell was where a person was most likely to confront his or her interior darkness. The cell became a kind of “furnace of transformation,” as some called it.
Going into one’s cell meant withdrawal from other contact and concerns. In fact, most of these men and women fled into the desert to escape the wordy world of social manipulation where the powerful controlled the weak.
Jesus himself taught that the place of prayer was the quiet inner room (Matt. 6:6-8), not the street corners where there would be crowds and the possibility of applause. In the quiet interior, we are connected to God. Solitude, or the interior sense of being set apart for God, is essential. Prayer connects us to God. It is not primarily a spectator sport that seeks the approval of others.
Bill Moyers was a seminary-trained Baptist who served on Lyndon Baines Johnson’s staff in the 1960’s. Someone told of a meeting with a room-full of Johnson’s administration, in which President Johnson said to him, “Bill, why don’t you start us off with a little prayer?” Moyers began his spoken prayer. A few seconds later, LBJ loudly interrupted, “Speak up, Bill! We can’t hear you!”
Moyers replied simply, “I wasn’t talking to you, Mr. President.”
Evagrius said that prayer which is looking for applause, approval, and recognition is hollow prayer.
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