“Down through the centuries and generations it has been seen that in suffering
there is concealed a particular power that draws a person interiorly close to
Christ, a special grace. To this grace many saints ... owe their profound
conversion. A result of such a conversion is not only that the individual
discovers the salvific meaning of suffering but above all that he becomes a
completely new person. He discovers a new dimension, as it were, of his entire
life and vocation ...”- John Paul II
"The Jesus Prayer is
understood best, when it is considered in connection with the Eucharist, where
we are permitted to join our self-surrender to Christ's perfect act of Love:
Bringing before Thee Thine of Thine own,
From all and for all (Liturgy of St.John Chrysostom)
In this self-offering within the consecration, we are part of
Christ, even before we receive Him in communion. Both self-oblation and
communion are things which happen in eternity as well as in time. In the
Eucharist, it is self-evident that Christ is all that we have and and all that
we are. He is, one might say, the most perfect expression of the whole of our
being as we desire it to be. Our thoughts, our will, all the words we could ever
find to express ourselves are Himself. Thus, in the Eucharist, as far as we
offer ourselves, we are wholly simple, there we attain oneness. The practice of
the Jesus Prayer, in which we allow Christ Himself to be our prayer, is the
abiding in this simplicity and oneness." - Mother Maria
