"This faith in the presence of God within our hearts must lead us to enter within ourselves, collecting our thoughts, and preventing their wandering; this is an effective way of getting rid of distracting thoughts, and of losing sight of outward things, in order to draw near to God, who can only be found in the secret place of our hearts, which is the holy of holies in which He dwells.
He has promised that if anyone loves Him, he will keep His word, and the Father will come to him and make His home with him (John 14:23). Saint Augustine reproaches himself for the time he lost through not having sought God at first in this way."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)✦ The Temple Relocated
Guyon takes the Temple language — the holy of holies, the innermost room where God's presence dwelt — and places it inside the human heart. The Temple was not destroyed. It was relocated. The holy of holies is now the secret place within, and entering prayer is entering that room.
Even Augustine reproached himself for the years lost not seeking God this way. The man who wrote "our heart is restless until it rests in Thee" — who said firmai nele e estareis firme — even he lost time before he learned to look within. The restlessness was not because God was far. It was because Augustine was looking outside for what was already inside.
"A call to discipline. I must seek after the Lord to find Him."
"The love is reciprocal and deep — it's as natural as breathing."
"When the soul is thus gathered up within itself, and is sweetly occupied with the truth read, not in reasoning upon it, but in feeding upon it, and exciting the will by the affection rather than the understanding by consideration: the affection being thus touched, must be allowed to rest sweetly and at peace, swallowing what it has tasted.
As a person who only chewed an excellent food would not be nourished by it, although he would be sensible of its taste, unless he ceased this movement in order to swallow it; so when the affection is stirred, if we seek continually to stir it, we extinguish its fire, and thus deprive the soul of its nourishment.
We must swallow by a loving rest — full of respect and confidence — what we have chewed and tasted. This method is very necessary, and would advance the soul in a short time more than any other would do in several years."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)"We must swallow by a loving rest — full of respect and confidence — what we have chewed and tasted."
— Madame Guyon · Chewing is the reading. Swallowing is the rest. The nourishment comes in the stillness.✦ The Nourishment Comes in the Swallowing
Chewing is the meditative reading — turning the truth over, tasting its flavors, working it with the mind. Good and necessary. But chewing is not nourishment. The nourishment comes in the swallowing — the moment the soul stops working on the truth and lets the truth work on the soul.
And the swallowing is not effort. It is a loving rest — full of respect and confidence. The bee rests on the flower. The soul swallows by resting. The active phase — reading, discussing, meditating — must give way to the passive phase: resting, receiving, being nourished. If we keep chewing forever — keep analyzing, keep reasoning — we taste the food but never absorb it.
"The direct and principal exercise should be the sense of the presence of God; we must most faithfully recall the senses when they wander.
Those who endeavor directly to oppose distractions irritate and increase them; but by losing ourselves in the thought of a present God, and allowing our thoughts to be drawn to Him, we combat them indirectly, and without thinking of them, but in an effective manner.
And here let me warn beginners not to run from one truth to another, from one subject to another; but to keep themselves to one so long as they feel a taste for it: this is the way to enter deeply into truths, to taste them, and to have them impressed upon us."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)✦ Displaced, Not Defeated
Fighting distractions head-on makes them stronger. Guyon says stop fighting them and turn toward God instead. The distraction loses its power not because it was defeated but because it was displaced — the same way Bowen's sun displaces darkness not by attacking it but by shining. The same way unruly affections lose their grip once the heart has tasted the love of God.
"We have the Holy Spirit as our helper, to guide us out of wrong thinking."
"I say it is difficult at first thus to retire within ourselves, because of the habits, which are natural to us, of being taken up with the outside; but when we are a little accustomed to it, it becomes exceedingly easy; both because we have formed the habit of it, and because God, who only desires to communicate Himself to us, sends us abundant grace, and an experiential sense of His presence, which renders it easy."
— Madame Guyon (1648–1717)✦ Difficult at First, Exceedingly Easy After
Guyon is honest about the difficulty and honest about its end. The habits of the outward life are strong. The mind wants to stay outside, occupied with exterior things. Retiring within feels unnatural — at first. But the ease that comes is not mastery of a technique. It is grace. God desires to communicate Himself and sends abundant grace to the soul that turns inward. The difficulty is ours. The ease is His gift.
"Madame Guyon is honest in exposing our weaknesses, our habits, all that is natural to us and how difficult it is to retire them within ourselves — and then, how easy it becomes."
The Holy of Holies
God dwells in the secret place of the heart. The Temple relocated — from Jerusalem to the interior. Prayer is entering that room. Augustine lost years before learning to look within.
Swallow by a Loving Rest
Chewing is the reading. Swallowing is the rest. The nourishment comes when the soul stops working on the truth and lets the truth work on the soul — full of respect and confidence.
Displaced, Not Defeated
Distractions fought directly grow stronger. Turn toward the present God and they are displaced — not by attack but by the shining of something greater. The sun does not fight darkness. It simply shines.