The Practice For The Life Of Prayer Essay

When Leech elaborates about the practice for the life of prayer, he stresses that “the most fundamental of these obstacles is, of course, sin.” (p.163) We are human as created whole and not with the capacity for wholeness. By grace we are restored to that wholeness. We do not achieve it or find it. We were created human by grace and therefore, sin, as human self-contradiction presupposes our grace-created humanness. We need the grace so that we can be restored back and continue the practice of the life of prayer.
Leech continues to say that “the best preparation for the life of prayer is to become more intensely human. Sin diminishes and distorts one’s humanity. Lack of self-knowledge and inability to relate to people are both signs that one is far from mature humanity.” (p.167) He shows that sin is bringing contraction in human. In spiritual direction session, there is moment of confession of sins and this helps to pave the way for reconciliation with God so that we can remove the obstacle in our prayer and continue to have a close relationship with God.
Leech says that “The monk is a man who, in one way or another, pushes to the very frontiers of human experience and strives to go beyond, to find out what transcends the ordinary level of existence…In the same way, the spiritual director is a marginal figure, existing on the periphery of human society, in explicably committed to a new order, and pointing onwards beyond the conventional and the accepted values of the…