Turning inward is an essential process on the path of prayer. It is difficult to clearly grasp and describe this step. I would at least like to offer a few pointers here.
Focusing on the heart
One aspect of the practice that leads us from outward mindfulness to the inner world is directing our attention to the perception of the heart area. I have already written about this topic.
However, it only becomes truly inward when we can sense the energetic perception of our heart. The inner reality of the heart is the direction in which we are moving. Yet even the perception of this energy still belongs to the outer aspect of the heart.
How do we enter the inner heart?
Spiritual sensitivity opens the Interior
A significant step for me was to stop seeking God in perceptions.
In the "dark night of the soul" that I described in Part 2, I was still expecting a tangible sign from God. Even though I was in meditation, I continued looking for God in some outer perception or feeling.
But since God is pure spirit, He lies beyond the perceptible realm of our five senses. It was here that God opened the access to the spiritual realm through spiritual sensitivity.
Rediscovering the love for God within us
Perhaps the most essential step inward is to seek the love for God that lives within us.
Time and again, I experience phases where I am not emotionally moved. In good phases, hardly a day passes without me being moved to tears - either by something I read in the scriptures or by an intuition I receive.
When this does not happen, it helps me to engage with love. I search for my longing and love for God within me. As soon as I rediscover this, I am open again, and touches of the heart begin to happen again.
Prayer is the essential element that is supposed to lead us inward.
In silent prayer, the heart is touched from within - not by themes, content, or images.
It comes from the heavenly spiritual world - or, in Christian terms, from the Holy Spirit.
This is a grace we should deeply long for. That’s why some Christian mystics recommend praying for our hearts to be moved.
Everything begins with a question, a request, a longing.
If we don’t consider this important - how can God then grant us this grace?
Do not accept the dryness of the heart as a normal state
We often accept the dryness of the heart as the norm, without realizing that something essential is missing.
Life and even the life of faith occupy us with many things and topics. Most things can also be managed quite well with a dry heart.
But can we truly lead others to God if we do not feel God deeply within?
When we are inwardly alive, we can touch others much more easily than when we are in a dry state - even if we are able to explain things with great wisdom. The extent to which we feel love for God within us has a major impact on the quality of our religious work.
Love is light, illuminating those who give and receive it. Love is gravity, drawing certain people toward one another. Love is power, because it enhances the best we have and allows humankind, despite its blind selfishness, not to be extinguished.
Love unfolds and reveals itself. For love we live and die. Love is God and God is love.