So we need this ascesis, this exercise of contemplative or pure prayer in order to keep our minds fresh, and healthy. And I am sure many or all of you, I hope, have experienced on some occasion that you sit down to meditate because it is your time to meditate. But you don’t feel like meditating because your minds are very agitated about some issue or problem, or you feel very sad or very angry or very churned up about something. And you sit down to meditate, and you think to yourself, ‘This is going to be tough; maybe it is not worth doing it today.’ But you do. And if you can do it without trying too hard or without expecting too much, then when you get up from the meditation, which may have been very distracted, you get up knowing that you are clearer, fresher, more peaceful. The problems that you were facing are still they are something that you can handle. You have the right kind of detachment from them.
( Attention and Love 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
