To be near unto God - pagina 428

disposition of heart shows itself, it is about at this age that God himself takes mother's task in hand, and allures the lad or the young girl into a first personal prayer, which is born from an own

impulse.

But from this on to the moment in which the soul cries out: "O God, my God," the way is long. Generally the kindly, tender brightness of childhood prayer is not a little darkened when the years of maturity are reached. From all sorts of books and conversations an entirely different world of thoughts has entered into the consciousness, which, compared with the poetry of the life of prayer, either appears bitterly prosaic, or if it glistens in a choice collection of ideals, which may encourage the cultivation of plans and intentions and expectations, it does not focus them in the worship of an Eternal, glorious Being.

These two currents, the current of the practical and ideal life in its multiplicity, and the unity it is focussed in prayer, antagonize one another, and in this antagonism sometimes prayer is forever lost. There are those, alas, who were spiritual in childhood, and who in adult years have entirely unlearned the art of prayer. It also happens that prayer continues to be made and increases in seriousness and depth, but that the world is not brought into allignment with it, and the life of the world remains unreconciled

of our life as

by the side of it, until the soul is more and more overcome by an oftentimes sickly mysticism or by an overexcited spiritualism. But in the ordinary way of piety this period of struggle is lowed by a period of spiritual fixedness. 424

fol-

The

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen