Prayer is not selfish! Whenever I stop and try to pray, I enter into my own heart. But also in some mysterious way I touch the lives of all who yearn for goodness and truth, and who lift up their hearts in prayer as I do. Through my prayer and theirs, the wide expanse of the world is lifted up before God. Some people’s whole lives are spent in this way – for instance, the Carthusian contemplatives portrayed in the 2005 film, Into Great Silence. These ordinary people who have been called to silence and prayer are devoted day and night to the mystery of the living God, and continually raise up the world and its needs before Him.
We each have our part in that great panorama of prayer - for when we stop to pray in the midst of our practical concerns, we enter the Sacred Space domain and are joined to a multitude of praying hearts across the world. In the film the text from Jeremiah 20:7 appears from time to time: ‘You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced’.Such strong language has a particular meaning when applied to the extraordinary location of a Carthusian monk.  But the words can also be applied to myself. When I feel drawn into quiet and prayer, I am being ‘seduced’ by God! Coming before Him, as best I can, with all my poor heart, the whole world and its needs are present as well.