I offer these thoughts.

Many branches of the Church have "lost" their contemplative wing.........

Thus prayer is seen as physically functional. And there has arisen what some priests call the "activist heresy", that only missions and ministries which are visibly and practically "effective" have any place in the life of the Church. Many say that this is why the ministry of the Church is so barren spiritually.. These attitudes go very deep. A common attitude to someone who feels led to spend a life in prayer is that they must be mentally ill. Especially since that almost inevitably means drawing apart from "the world" into solitude. There is deep suspicion and mistrust. One hermit-publication ran a survey. One question asked what was the reaction of Churches/Orders etc to those who felt called to become hermits. One nun was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital by her Order - accused of wanting to run off with a priest! She said that her six weeks assessment there was the most peaceful and blessed time....

In truth, solitaries, hermits, anchoresses work and live at the very heart of the Church, for dedicated contemplative prayer is the vital food of any Chruch. Without it, they slowly starve of their life-blood... The effect of seeing PURE PRAYER as a waste of time and energy is to enter into seeking "new" ways to preach; great "outreach" programmes, frenetic activity. Which of course leads to overload.... So contemplatives leave the Church and the loss escalates

Because when a Church loses deep individual prayer, and does not support or respect those who pray contemplatively, it loses touch with base and becomes a social group with all the dangers therein . All these activities and organisations are reliant not on God, but on our human skills.. So they diminish the spiritual. Accessing the soul via the body?

I see it this way.

We have a dual nationality. We are citizens of earth - but of heaven. Our faith is incarnational. In Christ. That is how God made us. And, as the psalmist says, we are exiles, sojourners here, with all the longing and "dissatisfaction" that that entails. And unless we satisfy that spirituality, we tend to addictions; consumerism etc. We are seeking fulfilment in the wrong places.

To me, there is nothing mystical or mysterious about contemplative prayer. It is natural; it is inherent in our nature. I think that children who are pulled up for daydreaming may well be in a deep state of prayer. And some think also that those in PVS ( comas etc) are also in a state of deep prayer.

Essentially, contemplative prayer is that that has no FUNCTIONAL USE in our limited, visible, human terms. It is not asking, not intercessory prayer. And it is not to soothe US, to empty our minds etc. IT IS SIMPLY BEING IN GOD, FOR GOD, OF GOD.

When Julian speaks of "oneing"; that is what she means. A state of prayer, of being, that is simply and purely IN GOD. With no requests, no agenda, no "purpose" other than to be with Him.

A sweet intimacy.

Being with God simply because we love Him.

We are thus alone with God. This is not public, social prayer. A joining of our souls with Him. And essentially thus in silence and solitude, apart , holy. The psalms and Jesus......

At the end of the set-aside time..the dishes haven't been washed..the letters are unwritten. In the world's eyes, it has no use. No-one has been prayed for.... But here the paradox and the mystery.. Because God is pure love and His will for us as Julian elegises so often and so deeply is love.......

We have sought no rest - but we are rested. We have asked no healing, no favours - but from this time and this deep prayer there flows through and from us the most overwhelming compassion so much love for others.

Because we have been IN GOD. And we thus have drunk deeply of those streams of living waters We have given - and thus we are given of His abundance. We have asked nothing - and He has given all

What we call "contemplative prayer" is not of our making. it is of Him - above and beyond us. And in that and in that alone there is peace and rest. And that awes and humbles.

Folk ask HOW.

And it is hard at first. Like all things, it takes time and practice. When I began, I set aside a half hour; a few minutes intercessory prayer, a few minutes silent prayer.. As I grew stronger, the silent prayer widened until I moved the intercessory prayer to a different time. And I think that a half hour a day is a " reasonable" idea for "active" folk. He will lead you once you give Him that space. When friends tell me they have lost touch with "formal prayer" in hectic lives, I say " Humour me! This evening, go into your room, light a candle, and simply sit with God for fifteen minutes" The results are immediate and enthralling..

Now, I find that what is called contemplative prayer takes over. It becomes second nature. I feel my breathing change pace. And intercession flows naturally out of it. Any simple action, knitting, preparing food becomes deeply contemplative.

I can never see Julian as a kind of penitential restless prisoner. Or overwhelmed by the grief she sees around her. I see in her what I glimpse when those days happen when He is as close and as tangible as the air I breathe; that "oneing" that is our sole purpose and goal.

And the days thus when her curtain is closed are like the days no-one gets replies to emails. Not because of pain etc, but simply because that Other Voice enthralls and engrosses to the point where nothing else matters. I believe the technical word is "recollection".

And my strong awareness also is that contemplative prayer and its fruit( which we do not ask for or aim for) alter the spiritual balance not just in the church but in the whole world. Certainly I have noted that prayer uttered after these times is answered in ways that could never be dreamed of.

It is as if those God calls to a life dedicated to contemplative prayer are as lightning conductors , channels of grace, of God's love and His power.

It is a joy-filled and utterly fulfilling prayer;

And it goes hand in hand with a deep simplicity; values change. "Things" matter little because true values return.

Deep silent prayer is a belonging with God asking nothing of Him but to sit with Him, kneel at His feet, bask in His radiance .And it is what this world and each of us need. It is our home simply.

And I have a deep instinct that if each member of a Church was grounded and founded in contemplative prayer, open to God at this depth, the Church triumphant would reach out and up as He intends it to, instead of being too often a kind of "holy club" or a social group.

To restore dedicated, contemplative prayer to the heart of the church where it belongs is to open the doors wide to God's Holy Spirit. And to Christ's world reign..........

And this begins in each heart, in each life.......Yours and mine. For deep prayer is not a specialist province for monks and nuns, but for each and very soul who is in Christ.