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Contemplative Prayer
L.M.: There are other great traditions of saints and gurus, such as the Sikh religion and the bhakti saints of India. And for instance the bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism.
E.M.: Exactly, there is a kind of communion of saints in their tradition as well.
L.M.: Not that the Holy Spirit plans for them all to become Catholic or Christian at some future time.
E.M.: No, not at all, that's the whole thing we have to get away from—the idea that we've got to convert everybody to Christianity. That is not the direction to go. And personally, I don't think that Jesus expects that.
L.M.: Right, I don't think that is what Jesus' ministry is all about.
E.M.: He wants us to make him known to those who want to know more about Christ, and to share the New Testament teaching of Jesus with them. The most powerful means of evangelization is example; it's not preaching. There is a famous Latin text that says: “Verba sonat, exempla tonat.” Words sound, but example thunders. People will remark after the Mass, "beautiful sermon, they preached lovely.” But then if you ask them what did the priest say, they can't even remember.
L.M.: That is funny.
E.M.: One of the persons who had the greatest impact upon me was when I was a young boy of seven and first started serving Mass.
L.M.: Back in your native South Africa.
E.M.: This woman was there every morning at Mass, Miss Newman was her name, a fairly old lady. She was always there, and she was praying all the time. When everybody was coming in for Mass, she was in her prayer; and when Mass was over, she was still in prayer. She was a contemplative. And she was probably one of the sources of my vocation. When I think about it and talk about it now, I can see that maybe those were the first seeds of my
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