Prayer is God's work: Ruth Burrows, Carmelite sister
Every year, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams commissions a book for the Anglican Communion to read during Lent. This year he asked Ruth Burrows—known as Sister Rachel in her Carmelite community—to write a book on how to know God. Williams noted that Burrows's book Guidelines for Mystical Prayer changed his own life more than 40 years ago. Her Lenten book for 2012, Love Unknown, is about prayer and the Christian life. Her other books include To Believe in Jesus and Essence of Prayer.
What has been the greatest challenge for you in living the contemplative life and living in community?
Coping with myself, both in community and in the "desert atmosphere" of Carmel. I am, by nature, extremely egocentric. I had to face myself head on. In my early years I felt repugnance for and anger at some practices brought in from Spain and France, alien to English culture and to what was then modern times. There was real physical hardship. I suffered a lot from the cold, not least because it "got me down."
