MINISTERING IN APOCALYPTIC PRAYER

The question with which I started these straight presentations on desert spirituality and contemporary ministry was ‘how can we minister is an apocalyptic situation’? In a period of history dominated by an all-increasing fear of a war that cannot be won, and an always increasing sense of impotence, the question of ministry is very urgent. 

As a response to this question I have presented you with the words, “flee from the world, be silent, and pray always”, words spoken to the Roman aristocrat Arcinius, who asked God how to be saved. Solitude, silence and unceasing prayer form the core concepts of the spirituality of the desert, which I consider of great value also for us ministers as we approach the end of the second millennium of Christianity. 

Solitude shows us the way to let our behavior be modeled not by the compulsions of the world but by our new mind, the mind of Christ. Silence prevents us from being suffocated by our wordy world and teaches us to speak the word of God. Finally, unceasing prayer is what gives solitude and silence its real meaning. 

Through unceasing prayer we descend with the mind into the heart and thus enter through our heart into the heart of God who embraces all of history with his always-creating and re-creating love.