Meditation is the pure work of attention. It involves and requires commitment. Contemplative practice clarifies prayer. What we do mindfully, attentively, is prayer. Our concept of the sacred and the secular becomes transformed, as we become aware of the presence of God in all things, at all times.
Every major tradition agrees human beings are animals of desire.
Laurence Freeman uses the characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to explore the intricacies of desire, the importance of educating desire and the need for good teachers. The Desert Fathers recognize that the denial of desire leads to distorted desire and sin. When' drawn into desire by God's power, goodness and beauty meet - Eros and Agape become the same. The way is not the repression of desire but the process by which mind is trained and stabilized, and the heart is purified. Simone Weil looks at the role of the teacher and education in a short essay entitled Reflections on the right use of school studies with a view to the love of God.