In the eleventh century Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote this prayer. It is a beautiful call to prayer which you can use in your own time of quiet meditation.
After reading the prayer, I suggest that you take the last two lines (or part of them) and use those words reflectively. Perhaps repeating them in time with your breathing - to allow yourself to move into a closer awareness of God - the God who surrounds and sustains you even when you are not conscious of the divine presence.
Come now, little one,
turn aside for a while
from your daily employment,
escape for a moment
from the tumult of your thoughts.
Put aside your weighty cares,
let your burdensome distractions wait,
free yourself awhile for God
and rest awhile in him.
Enter the inner chamber of your soul,
shut out everything except God
and that which can help you in seeking him.
And when you have shut the door, seek God.
Now, my whole heart, say to God,
'I seek your face, Lord,
it is your face I seek.'
Sometimes I imagine my inner life as a house - a house in which I dwell and in which God enters and lives alongside me. The doors, the windows, the view, are all significant to me. Anselm's words 'enter the inner chamber of your soul', put me in mind of this prayer picture I sometimes use. Perhaps some of you also pray like this occasionally?
If you are interested, I have written more about Anselm here.
The words are modified from the prayer in the Lion book, A Prayer Treasury.
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