i am slipping through: lord, beer me self-control.

"...[the book] starts out with this peasant - the pilgrim - wanting to find out what it means in the bible when it says you should pray incessantly. you know. without stopping... and he meets this starets - this very advanced religious person... well, the starets tells him about the Jesus prayer first of all. 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.' i mean that's what it is. and he explains to him that those are the best words to use when you pray. especially the word 'mercy,' because it's such a really enormous word and can mean so many things. i mean it doesn't just have to mean mercy... the starets tells the pilgrim that if you keep saying that prayer over and over again - you only have to just do it with your lips at first - then eventually what happens, the prayer becomes self-active. something happens for a while. i don't know what, but something happens, and the words get synchronized with the person's heartbeats, and you're actually praying without ceasing." -j.d. salinger, franny and zooey

Sunday, October 05, 2008

lord, beer me self-control.

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