I begin with these words of Thomas Merton: “Prayer itself is obedience. Our deepest obedience takes place when we pray. Prayer is an act of surrender; it is essentially an act of surrender to God’s love” (quoted in: Shaped By the End You Live For, Bonnie Thurston, p.73). These words of Merton were written at the end of his life and should give us great pause for reflection. What does it mean that ‘our deepest obedience’ happens when we pray’?

As I was pondering what to focus this morning’s chapter talk on, I turned to the third conference we had from Fr. Michael Dodds for our retreat.  In staying with his theme for our retreat ‘The Hiddenness of God’, he begins this third conference with a reference to the ‘sin’ of Adam and Eve who now because of their ‘sin’ are hiding from God!  Fr. Dodds writes: “The point of the story is that sin, or acting against God’s will, was not part of God’s original plan.  It arises from a free, human decision.  But that decision initiates a new dynamic between God and human beings, who now try and hide from God”.  This new dynamic between the human person and God is a dynamic of ‘wills’, that of God’s will and that of the free will given by God to human beings.