Savio Rodrigues SJ

Teresa of Avila recommends for beginners a form of prayer called prayer of recollection.

Begin your prayer with the presumption that the Spirit dwells within your heart.

Do not use any mantra or short aspiration or any vocal prayer. Focus on the God who dwells within you and try and cut yourself from the external world and from any external imagery that may suggest itself.

Pray to the God present in his temple, that is yourself. Love and adore Him. Seek a union with Him. Feeling this intimate union of the presence of God within oneself is a great gift.

This is a prayer that is simple but profound in it’s affective union. Seek God within yourself and not elsewhere.

The story of the musk deer explains this form of prayer best. The musk deer always sniffed the scent of musk perfume and went in search of it all over the forest. One day the deer had a fall and it’s musk pouch tore, as the deer turned around to lick his wounds he realised where the scent came from, himself!

In this form of prayer too, we must seek the God within each one of us. Search your soul and look within.

He is there.

The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ