Simplicity: The Heart of Prayer

In this beautiful book by Dom Georges Lefebvre, we are invited to rediscover the essential simplicity of prayer, in rediscovering the simplicity of life, of faith. "It is not necessary," he tells us, "to see clearly all that is in our heart for us to offer it simply in a gesture of confidence. To believe peacefully that we are loved: that is still true, even if we do not seem able to feel it. That which is most true in us is hidden in the deepest place of our heart. To guess its secret, we must not violate it." There is no need to carry over into our prayer the hectic quality of modern life, nor the desperate need to succeed, to prove ourselves, to be conscious of where and who we are. These meditations can help us to rest in that cradle of love which is the source of all that we are and do: "the eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." They are a convincing exposition of what pure, living faith means. It means that God loves us, and that that is enough. In a way both deeply theological and wisely human, Dom Lefebvre brings us back to the centre, to the one thing needful. In so far as we learn to see things aright, in their true perspective, it will be difficult for us not to pray.