Praying with your whole being: Evelyn Underhill

After reading excerpts from Evelyn Underhill's "Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness," I found myself more aware of limited prayer experiences. In this reading, I felt challenged to incorporate more of myself, "intellect, emotion, and will" in the spiritual process known as
prayer. Underhill reminds us of the need to give our whole "Self" to God. I also admit that I needed to read it two times before some of her thoughts  connected with me.

Some statements that made me think:
1. "Prayer is nothing else but an ascending . . . of the desire of the heart  into God by withdrawing from earthly thoughts." (And I wonder to myself, "Is it  possible to remove oneself from all earthly thought--since I am but human?"  Does she mean, "earthly" as "worldly and sinful," or "earthly" as "human and  finite"?)

2. The wholeness, sanity, and balance of our existence depend entirely upon the perfection of our adjustment to . . . the steady alternating beat of our outward adoration and our homeward-turning swing of charity. (In this statement, we see a call for balance in our heavenly focus on God and our earthly commitment to
love our neighbor.)

3. Meditation is simply the art of thinking steadily and methodically about spiritual things. (This defines meditation as an intellectual discipline.)

4. Prayer begins as an intellectual adjustment by thinking of God earnestly and humbly to the exclusion of other objects of thought, by deliberately surrendering the mind to spiritual things, by preparing . . . for the infow of new life. (How do we normally prepare and begin our prayer times?)

5. Reason (intellect) comes to the foot of the mountain (where God dwells); will and passion (emotion) climb the slope.

6. The intellect and feeling are not wholly in our control. They fluctuate from day to day. . . . If the worth of our prayer life depended upon the maintenance of a constant high level of feeling or understanding, we would be in a dangerous place.

7. The determined fixing of our will upon God, and pressing him steadily and without deflection; this is the very center and the art of prayer. (Does this place to much emphasis on our own abilities? Where is the discussion on the role of the Holy Spirit on our will and discipline?)

Thus, we use our whole person to pray, but will/choice/commitment/discipline are the heart and soul of a consistent prayer life.

Some things I would add to E. Underhill's thoughts.

1. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in focusing our emotion,intellect, and spirit in prayer? The Spirit guides us when, how, and what to pray. The human will is weak without the under-girding of the Spirit. How can we choose anything and hope to remain faithful if the Spirit of God does not empower our discipline to do so. Yes, we must choose to pray, commit to pray. But our will needs to be transformed. We did not choose God, he chose us. Also, 2 Peter 1:21 reminds us that God does not prophecy through the will or humanity, but through his own will. Yet, we can rejoice that all it takes is faith to call to God, regardless of our mind, emotions, or will--and he will hear and respond to our prayer.

2. I think there a fourth aspect that comes with the intellectual and emotional. It is the physical. The material body in motion before God: standing, kneeling, hands folded, arms raised, face up or down, lying on the
ground. There is a physical nature to the body that would demand its inclusion if the "whole being" of the human is to be addressed in prayer.