← [[session-07-f1a|Prayer of Recollection]] | [[formation-I-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-09-f1a|Unitive Life — Contemplation]] → # The Prayer of Quiet “One way to call your mind easily back to God during your fixed prayer times and to hold it steadier is to not let it take much flight during the rest of the day.” — Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection Required Reading: The Way of Perfection chapters 30 and 31 (These are especially important chapters) Additional Reading: WP Study Edition Glossary: Quiet (Prayer of), pg. 512 Explanatory note: St Teresa dedicated the next two chapters (30 and 31) to the prayer of quiet, a supernatural prayer, which one cannot acquire for oneself (see 31:2). “This is the only chapter (31) in the Way that deals with contemplation expressly and integrally. It plays an essential role in the entire thrust of the book” (Interpretive notes pg. 352 of the study edition). Essential Points to Discuss: “Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.” • “…in the kingdom of heaven, among many other blessings, is that one will no longer take any account of earthly things, but have a calmness and glory within…” (30:5). • “In this prayer it seems the Lord begins to show that He hears our petition. He begins now to give us His kingdom here below so that we may truly praise and hallow His name...” “This prayer is something supernatural.” What did St Teresa mean by “supernatural”? In her thought, it means the initiative comes from God, not from us (31:1, 2, 6). • The Prayer of Quiet is the first contemplative prayer in which the person perceives that it is not he/she alone who is working. In this prayer, one foretastes something of what one shall have in Paradise (see 31:2-3). • The more deeply one knows God with some experiential knowledge, the more one will be drawn to praise and love Him perfectly, for contemplative knowledge has a certain affinity to the knowledge of the Blessed. • God wills that souls spend their whole life in praise, sustained best by some experiential knowledge of God. One does not employ images and ideas, but proceeds by means of love with a taste of God. • The intellect receives knowledge from love, just as God revealed Christ to Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) (31:2). • In this prayer, the will is the powerful ruling faculty. It will draw the intellect after itself without disturbance (31:10). • This prayer continues amid daily occupations. While one attends to the external service of God in discharging customary business, one’s will can remain united to Him. “This is a great favor for those to whom the Lord grants it; the active and the contemplative lives 19 are joined. The faculties all serve the Lord together: the will is occupied in its work and contemplation without knowing how; the other two faculties serve in the work of Martha. Thus Martha and Mary walk together” (31:5). This should serve as a great encouragement to Carmelite Seculars. Assigned Meditative Reading: • Luke 2:25-35 – Simeon – the intellect receives knowledge from love • Luke 10:38-42 – Martha and Mary – contemplative prayer and active apostolate • Mt 17:1-8 – Peter on Tabor – joy and awe in God’s presence • Luke 19:19:2-9 – the publican – humility and self-knowledge --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation I Year A: The Way of Perfection* (US National Formation Program, 2024).