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EDWARD MCCORKELL
E.M.: That's right. We don't let that tendency to analyze everything take over where we are thinking: How well am I doing?
L.M.: Or, what am I going to do later on?
E.M.: Something like that. The prayer word is a great help to recenter ourselves, and it also helps us get interiorly cleared out of a lot of distractions and images. Though it is impossible to be totally blank.
L.M.: That doesn't happen.
E.M.: If one is aware that we are in a dynamic movement within the Trinity, that in itself serves to put away other thoughts. Be consciously aware of the fact that we are caught up in this circle of the Trinity. That this dance with God.
you are in
L.M.: We are partners with God.
E.M.: Partners, exactly; so we want to surrender.
L.M.: We don't actually see Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, when we meditate.
E.M.: No, no, you don't try to image them.
L.M.: We are in darkness, this personal darkness.
E.M.: Yes, you are in darkness. Usually, you close That shuts out your eyes. all external images, though the imagination gets into the act. Images will come onto our mental screen and then we just have to deal with them. The way to overcome these things is not to attack them.
L.M.: We build them up even more that way.
E.M.: Contemplative prayer is like the pole on a carousel that is stable, still, and firm. On a merry-go-round, it is the only still point; the rest is going round and round and round. That is the way our life is: going, going, and more going. But now we're coming to the center. Because of our fallen human nature, we drift off, we drift off from the center.
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