The Prayer Beneath the Prayer

In the practice of centering prayer, there comes a moment Thomas Merton called "the point of nothingness" — when the sacred word dissolves, when thoughts scatter like startled birds, and all that remains is raw, wordless presence before God. It feels like failure. It feels like nothing is happening. But something is always happening in the silence. Romans 8:28 tells us that God works all things together for good — yet Paul does not say we will see this working, or understand it, or feel it.…