I would love to make you love Scripture, and go there for yourself, to find both your own inner experience named, and some outer validation of the same.
Only when the two come together, inner and outer authority, do we have true spiritual wisdom. We have for too long insisted on outer authority alone, without any teaching of prayer, inner journey and maturing consciousness. The results for the world and for religion have been disastrous.
I am increasingly convinced that the word prayer, which has become a functional and pious thing for believers to do, is, in fact a descriptor for inner experience. That is why all spiritual teachers mandate prayer so much. They are saying, "Go inside and know for yourself!"
I offer these reflections to again unite what should never have been separated: Sacred Scripture and Christian spirituality.
Richard Rohr, from Things Hidden
We need to keep these words in mind, I think, when challenges arise from either side of this wonderful unity - both from those who from the evangelical side fear the contemplative way, and from those who from the other seem to say that there is no practical difference between one religion and another when it comes to the interior way. Contemplative prayer is Christian prayer, and it can only be so if it is deeply rooted both in Scripture and in community.
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