20 A BRIEF PRIMER ON PRAYER For the penance is meant to be not only a punishment but also a cure. “Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health” (CCC 1459). By performing our penance, we repair the harm caused by sin, but we also “re-establish habits befitting a disciple of Christ” (CCC 1494). “Doing penance is directed towards a continuous striving for what is better” (RP 4). And God is eager to accept our completed penance as a fitting means of regaining intimate friendship with him. 21 Prayer: An enchanted space where I can hear myself NOT think Such a place is something to work for.... Without the practice of silence in daily prayer, we impede our own access to God’s Presence. Essayist Pico Iyer speaks about “working for silence” so as “to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think, and so sink below ourselves into a place far deeper than mere thought allows. In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.” Quiet and disquiet We need quality quiet in order to deal effectively with our own disquiet. Saint John of the Cross († 1591) wisely instructs us: “The spiritual person should learn to remain in God’s presence with a loving attention and a tranquil in-
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