Practicing Prayer: Learning and Living the Lord’s Prayer
Week Seven: Sixth Petition (First Half), Henri Nouwen, Solitude and Silence
Review & Sharing Time
A. “Lead us not into temptation”
Attention to Sin, Forgiveness, Evil, and Temptation
Anglican Catechism
202. What is temptation?
Temptation is an enticement to abandon total trust in God or to violate his commandments. (Proverbs 1:8-19, James 1:14-15)
203. What are the sources of temptation?
My heart is tempted by the world, the flesh, and the Devil, all of which are enemies of God and of my spiritual well-being. (1 John 2:15-17; Galatians 5:16-21; 1 John 3:8)
204. What kind of protection from temptation do you ask for?
Knowing Satan's hatred and my weakness, I ask God to keep me from sin and danger. (Luke 22:31; James 1:14; 1 Peter 5:8)
205. Does God lead you into temptation?
No. God never tempts anyone to sin, nor is he the cause of any sin, but, so that I may grow in obedience, he does allow me to be tested on occasion, as he allowed Jesus. (Matthew 4:1-14; Hebrews 5:7-8; Genesis 22; Judges 2; James 1:1-8)
Biblical View of Temptation
1. Translation: Greek periasmos as “Temptation” Or “Test”?
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matt 4:1)
Ido not ask that youtake them out of the world, but that youkeep them fromthe evil one" (John 17:15)
2 Expanded Translations of “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”
Rather, Jesus, teaches his own to pray, "Let nothing become a temptation to us," and thus makes it clear that everything can become a temptation. (Helmut Thielecke)
"Father, as you lead us into the test, do not let the test become a temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Darrell Johnson)
2. Temptations
· God’s character (Genesis 3)
· Pride and idolatry
· Desire to sin, we want temptation (James 1:14)
3. Prayer as the way to engage temptation
Therefore Jesus directs us to resort to prayer when we meet the tempter, and thus shows us that contact with the Father is the chief means by which to challenge the tempter. Only the Father's hand, which we hold on to, can ward off the devil's onslaught. We ourselves are far too ramshackle not to provide the tempter with opportunities to slip through the back door of our heart while we look straight ahead and march out to do brave battle with our well-meant ethos and our honest idealism. (Thielecke)
B. Henri Nouwen
· Biography
· Born 1932 in a small Dutch village, seven years old during the Nazi occupation
· Was a “priest” at the age of six, though actually ordained in 1957
· 1957-1964 Studied psychology and taught at University of Notre Dame. In the midst of his celibacy, lectured on themes of depression, confusion, intimacy, and love. Also serves as US Army Reserve Chaplain.
· 1965 - Participated in MLK's Selma March. Much of his life was involved in social justice issues in South America.
· 1971 – Joined faculty at Yale Divinity School. Publishes 12 books in 10 years. 1983 – Joins Harvard faculty with strict conditions. Self described “cycle of long, hectic days of teaching and service, followed by periods of nervous exhaustion, depression, and insomnia.”
· Several Sabbatical and “breaks” in life where Nouwen lives in Abbey, including 8 month Sabbatical in Winnipeg where he had 2 spiritual directors.
· 1986 – Resigns Harvard, joins L’Arche at Daybreak in Toronto, a centre for community life with those with intellectual disabilities. Learned all sorts of everyday skills, helping a disabled man to the washroom, and that these community members knew much more honest and loving intimacy than he did.
· Spends final years of his life involved in that community.
· Books
· The Wounded Healer (1979) – “In our woundedness, we can become a source of life for others”
· The Way of the Heart (1981) – Modeled after St. Anthony’s 20 years of solitude in the desert. Looks at solitude, silence, and prayer. *All italicized excerpts below are from this text*
· In the Name of Jesus (1989) – “We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.”
· Life of the Beloved (1992) – “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence”
C. Solitude and Silence
To be in solitude is to choose to do nothing. For extensive periods of time. All accomplishment is given up… when we go into solitude and silence we stop making demands on God. It is enough that God is God and we are his. We learn we have a soul, that God is here, that this world is “my Father’s world”. (Dallas Willard)
· Scripture
“Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)
And he said, “Go out andstand on the mount before theLord.” And behold, theLordpassed by, anda great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before theLord, but theLordwas not in the wind. And after the windan earthquake, but theLordwas not in the earthquake.And after the earthquake a fire, but theLordwas not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper (or a sound, a thin silence). (1 Kings 19:11-12)
“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he (Jesus) departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
· Solitude versus Alone/Introvert Time
We say to each other that we need some solitude in our lives. What we really are thinking of, however, is a time and place for ourselves in which we are not bothered by other people, can think our own thoughts... We also think of solitude as a station where we can recharge our batteries… But that is not the solitude of St. John the Baptist, of St. Anthony or St. Benedict…. For them solitude is not a private therapeutic place. Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs.
· Solitude versus Loneliness
Jesus calls us from loneliness to solitude…. We can cultivate an inner solitude and silence that sets us free from loneliness and fear. Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. (Richard Foster)
· Temptation to the False Self - Solitude as Nakedness before God
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” (Blaise Pascal, Pensées 1662)
In solitude I get rid of my scaffolding: no friends to talk with, no telephone calls to make, no meetings to attend, no music to entertain, no books to distract, just me - naked, vulnerable, weak, sinful, deprived, broken - nothing. It is this nothingness that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in me wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something. But that is not all. As soon as I decide to stay in my solitude, confusing ideas, disturbing images, wild fantasies, and weird associations jump about in my mind like monkeys in a banana tree. Anger and greed begin to show their ugly faces...
I give long, hostile speeches to my enemies and dream lustful dreams in which I am wealthy, influential, and very attractive – or poor, ugly, and in need of immediate consolation. Thus I try again to run from the dark abyss of my nothingness and restore my false self in all its vainglory.
· Christian Solitude/Meditation versus Eastern Solitude/Meditation
Christian meditation not about emptying one’s self, or losing all desire.
The task is to persevere in my solitude, to stay in my cell until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone…. The struggle is real because the danger is real. It is the danger of living the whole of our life as one long defense against the reality of our condition…. That is the struggle. It is the struggle to die to the false self…. To surrender ourselves totally and unconditionally to the Lord Jesus Christ… Only in and through him can we survive the trials of our solitude.
· Solitude as birthplace of compassion
It is in solitude that this compassionate solidarity grows. In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us, that the roots of all conflict, war, injustice, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, and envy are deeply anchored in our own heart. In solitude our heart of stone can be turned into a heart of flesh, a rebellious heart into a contrite heart, and a closed heart into a heart that can open itself to all suffering people in a gesture of solidarity.
· Silence - Silence completes and intensifies solitude
· Practice via Lord’s Prayer
· Practical Solitude and Silence Tips
The very first thing we need to do is set apart a time and a place to be with God and him alone. The concrete shape of this disciple of solitude will be different for each person depending on individual character, ministerial task, and milieu. But a real disciplines never remains vague or general... when I visited Mother Teresa of Calcutta a few years ago and asked her how to live out my vocation as a priest, she simply said: "Spend one hour a day in adoration of your Lord and never do anything you know is wrong, and you will be all right."
o Start short – 10 minutes of solitude and silence a day
o Have realistic expectations – Expect distractions and practice required to listen well. Keep a notepad for distractions and forgotten to-do lists. Sleeping is OK.
o Use a short prayer, or verse, or idea to help focus.
o Aids: Dedicated space, family chair, candle, journal, accountability partner, swirling jar of mud.
o Retreat Centres: Rivendell (Bowen Island), Westminister Abbey (Mission, BC)
· Solitude and Silence – Core prayer discipline that engages temptation through confrontation.
· Further Resources on Solitude and Silence
· The Way of the Heart (Henri Nouwen, 1981)
· Introduction to Solitude and Silence (Ruth Haley Barton, 2004)
· Celebration of Discipline (Richard Foster, 1998)