A Kind of Furnace

Today, January 5^th, Cheryl and I prayed with about 150 other members of our local church during our annual morning of prayer. Praying with one another for our local and global ministry and outreach is one of the privileges of an active church membership.

Praying with our brothers and sisters in Christ is energizing and renewing and may be the best work of all.

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right words to describe a church or what it is like to experience the ways God works through his people. I like Raniero Cantalamassa’s description of it as “a kind of furnace . . . incinerator . . . hearth . . . and home”:

“We should have an understanding of the Church that is very different from the way the world sees it. The Church is the furnace where the Spirit ‘burns’ in order to destroy sin—a kind of ‘incinerator’ always alight, always at work to do away with the refuse of the soul and to keep the city of God clean. There is a hidden hearth, with welcome fire burning, in the inner privacy of our home which is the Church, and blessed are those who know where to find it and who make a habit of staying close to it, until it becomes their heart’s favorite spot, to which they hurry back every time they feel burdened by guilt and in need of a fresh breath of life” (Come, Creator Spirit, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville Minnesota, 2003, page 119).

Cultivating Your Inner Life

In 1926 Evelyn Underhill described how the three chapters of her book Concerning The Inner Life were first delivered as informal talks given to a school for clergy in the North of England. Concerning The Inner Life is one of my favorite books because it is a thoughtful guide for anyone interested in deepening their prayer life. The book’s three chapters are:
The Heart of Personal Religion; The Goals of Inner Life; and Contemplation and Creative Work.

Underhill addresses the needs of parish priests and religious teachers. But anyone who aims to share his or her faith, anyone who wants to encourage others to grow spiritually towards Christ-like maturity, will benefit from her practical insights on how to cultivate the inner life.

“The very first requisite for a minister of religion is that his own inner life should be maintained in a healthy state, his own contact with God be steady and true . . . this fostering and feeding of the inner life is often in some ways far more difficult for you, than it is for those for whom you work and whom you teach” (Concerning The Inner Life, Oneworld Publications, Oxford, England, 1999, page 12).

Whatever role or responsibility you have as you care for others' spiritual growth, make time to feed your own mind, heart and soul. Make David’s prayer, your prayer:

“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him” (Psalm 62:1).