AS WE GROW IN THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

..... As we grow in friendship with God, we begin to have second-person awareness of God in our ordinary lives. The experience of prayer is an example. John Vianney, who served as the curé or parish priest of Ars, France in the early nineteenth century, tells a story about a local peasant who often spent long hours sitting in prayer. Curious about this, Vianney one day asked the man what was going on in his mind. “Going on in my mind, M’sieur Curé?” The old man smiled. “Nothing. I am not much good at thinking, nor do I know many prayers. So I just sit here, as you see, looking at God. I look at Him and He looks at me. That is all.” As two lovers might look into each other’s eyes, the peasant, aware that God was looking at him, simply looked at God. The man’s prayer was clearly a second- person experience of God. ‘Friendship with the Holy Spirit’ - Brian Dahm