The path I follow in contemplation, the prayer of the heart, is not mere quietism. It is not transcendental meditation or emptying or relaxation. It certainly transcends. It does empty. And it may relax.

But it is active, in fact, it is warfare. It aims at the deepest from of asceticism---an interior renunciation. It aims to watch rising thoughts like a fly-fisherman watches fish. I take hold of thoughts before they lure me away and pull them down instead, toward Christ in my heart. I draw them in and down, following the breath.

In the presence of Christ, they give up their pretensions; they're made nothing in comparison to the Almighty.