Section 27
97. Does it matter what posture I adopt in prayer?
More than a physical position, St. Augustine insists on an interior disposition when approaching prayer. Bishop Simplitianus asked Augustine what to make of the line in Sacred Scripture, King David entered and sat before the Lord (2 Kings 7:18). In his response, Augustine distinguishes between two "moments" that the life of prayer offers us:
When we seek our Lord in prayer: in this case we should adopt the posture that most helps our interior to seek and find God. Each one of us knows what works best, and we should keep to that.
When our Lord seeks us in prayer: in this case, God will find us regardless of our posture, and it will not matter if we are seated, standing, kneeling, prostrate, or walking. He says that in such cases, we should not wait for a better moment or put off such communion with God for any reason. If God knocks at the door of our heart, we should open immediately."'
In another passage, he says that, "the intention of the spirit generates solitude,"327 which means that the best condition for good prayer, beyond posture, time of day, and place, is our own interior disposition. After God's grace, nothing is more important than our attitude, which is a reflection of our desire. Often we do not control the time and place of our prayer, but our interior posture is something over which we have complete control.
98. What if I feel unworthy of entering into communion with God? Intimacy with the Almighty seems so presumptuous.
If that's how you feel, then you qualify to have a very intimate relationship with God. Proud people can have no communion with him, but God can lead a humble soul who recognizes his own sinfulness to the heights of sanctity. Just read St. Augustine's Confessions to see what God can do with anyone who is willing to admit his own unworthiness. God does not seek our righteousness, but our hearts. Once we have given him our hearts, he can give us a share in his righteousness. "He dwells on high, but has regard for the lowly. The Lord is near. To whom? To the high, perhaps? No, to the contrite of heart ... It is a wonderful thing: he dwells on high, and yet is near to the lowly; `he has regard for lowly things, but lofty things he knows from afar'; he sees the proud from afar, and the higher they appear to be to themselves, the farther he is from them."328
99. We have spoken a lot about asking God for things in prayer. Does he ask us anything in prayer?
In a somewhat roundabout way St. Augustine says that God asks us to imitate his magnanimity.
"We have spoken about who it is from whom we ask things, and who we are that ask, as well as about what we should ask for. But we are called upon, too, for we are God's beggars. So that he may acknowledge us as his mendicants, let us, for our part, acknowledge our own status as beggars. Consider once again the case in which something is asked of us: who they are that ask, from whom do they ask, and what do they ask for? Who, then, are they that ask us? Men. From whom do they ask? From men. Who ask? Mortals. To whom do they beg? Mortals. Aside from the matter of wealth, the beggars are just like those who are asked. With what nerve can you beg the Lord, you who do not acknowledge your equal? `I am not,' he will respond, `like him.' So it is that one who is dressed in silk and filled up with pride speaks about one dressed in rags. But I put it to you, when you are both stripped, are you not as you are now, but as you were when you were born? Both were crying because you were naked, weak, and beginning a life of suffering."329
100. What does Augustine say about the mystical experience?
"Spiritually to touch God a little is a great joy; but to grasp him is entirely impossible.""' Augustine is saying that God can be experienced but is beyond every type of human experience. This prohibits us from reifying God or trying to shoehorn him into our limited thoughts, for he is everywhere and the All; he contains everything and nothing contains him.33' And he goes on to say that "it is better to find God without understanding him, than to understand him without finding him."332
This inability to express his experience of God can be called a "learned ignorance - an ignorance learned from God's Spirit, who assists us in our weakness."333
His experience of God, as is common to the mystical experience, transcended human concepts; thus, he was forced to describe the mystical experience as a "feeling" God brings about in man by divine Love.334 And experiencing God's love brings man to participate in it, which, in turn makes us similar to God.
"Look on all that is created, admire it all, but seek its Maker. If you are dissimilar to him, you will turn away from him. If you are like him, you will rejoice. And if you are like him and begin to approach, you will feel God, and his love will increase in you, since God is love. Then you will perceive, if only partially, what you cannot express. Before you felt God, you thought you could express God. Once you begin to feel him, you feel that what is felt is inexpressible.""'
The closer one comes to God, the more one feels him; the more one feels God, the more one loves him; and this continual growth in love for God is what makes a person similar to God. Nonetheless, the lived experience of God will always escape human words. Far from being a problem, for Augustine, this inexpressibility is a sign of authenticity.
"Let us search for that which should be found, and go into that which has already been discovered. The One we need to find has been hidden so that we seek him. But once found, he is found to be infinite so that he continues to be the object of our search. Therefore, it says elsewhere, Seek his face evermore. He satisfies the seeker completely and makes the discoverer capable of even more, that he be filled anew according to the proportion of his ability to receive. In this sense, seek his face evermore is not said in the sense of those who are always learning and never coming to knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 3:7); but rather as the preacher says, When a man has finished, then he begins (Ecclus. 18:5), until we reach that life where we, too, shall be filled and our natures achieve their utmost capacity, because then we will have arrived at perfection and need not seek more. But so long as we are here, we seek and our rewarded discovery will not bring an end to our search."336