Renew The Church! – website and Blog

When the lights go out – when an unexpected power failure sends the whole community into darkness – what do you do? You try to remember where you left that flashlight. You hope that the batteries are strong. You try to grope your way in the darkness to find that one source of precious light that can help you, in this darkness.

Do you see how the darkness of unbelief is growing in the world? How callousness grows in hearts toward one another, how compassion cools, and fear increases? How quickly patience evaporates and anger, even rage, flames up? The anchor of Christ in the souls of men and of women is not so easily to be seen or found, these days, as the sun sets. And lacking that anchor, men and women are like feathers in the torrents of a storm, or splinters on the raging sea: men and women without foundation, without direction, without compass or vision, having no rock to stand on – adrift and uncertain as the shifting opinions and judgments of men who cannot see.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith is an assurance; faith is a conviction. Faith is a light of seeing in what, for those having no faith, is black and empty darkness. Faith is light, faith “knows”: God is real. God is love. God is eternal. God is knowable in not only “what” He is, but Who He is. God can be known, and, according to Fr. Lallemant, spiritual director and teacher of Jesuits in the early 1600’s, faith is a personal human sharing in God’s divine wisdom. His holy wisdom is the light of clarity and truth that penetrates any darkness no matter how thick, deep or wide.

In days of profound trial, when all that used to be sure and trusted is taken away or lost – when the darkness has never before been so heavy, quenching every glimmer of human self-sufficiency, then – then the soul cries out – where – where is my faith?

Fr. Lallemant’s teachings in The Spiritual Doctrine, which was quoted also in the last blog entry, includes these comments on the matter of faith. I’ll respond to his teachings after each part, as I did before.

FAITH being, next to the clear vision of God, the most excellent participation of the uncreated wisdom, it must not be based upon natural reasons nor our own human inventions. Nevertheless such reasons may serve to subdue the repugnance and opposition of our mind, to rid us of our dulness, and to dispose us to believe, though they cannot be employed as a support to that which we believe by faith, for faith implies the whole authority of God, and is founded on His sovereign and infinite wisdom, which makes it impossible for Him to be deceived, and on His infinite fidelity, which makes it impossible for Him to deceive us.

The difference between faith, which is a supernatural gift, and human reasonings or wishes, which are natural acts of the mind and heart, is radical. Faith is a human sharing in, a “participation of,” that which is of God – divine – supernatural: uncreated wisdom. There are those who have these two radically different realities confused in their minds! They have what they call “faith”, but what they have is not the gift of the fruit of God Himself, but a conclusion of their own human reasonings and wishes. No, such is not faith. It is through faith – through real, authentic faith, that men are saved from sin and eternal death. We read St. Paul, in Ephesians:

Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—
Eph 2:9  not because of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

And faith is not a human work! “… not because of works, lest any man should boast.” Faith is God’s gift in His grace, in His life, in His light. Fr. Lallemant continues:

Some tremble at the sight of the truths of faith, and are unwilling to reflect upon them; not that they doubt them, but they avoid the thought of them, because they have not used themselves to it. This is a great error, and at death the devil will be able to assault them on their weak side.

As it is faith which makes perfect that knowledge which prompts the will to act, and as, according to St. Thomas, it resides partly in the will, it facilitates the exercise of all virtues. For a knowledge of the faith touching temperance, for example, will make me perform an act of temperance more easily than the simple propriety of this virtue, and at the same time it will render my act supernatural.

Faith “facilitates” – enables, empowers – the acting of supernatural virtues. Mere human reasoning can “facilitate” good actions or even good habits of action – good on a human scale; but faith facilitates good actions on the eternal, supernatural scale. Thus, for example, the virtue or habit of temperance, or moderation could be by decision of human reasoning and will, or by conviction and guidance of faith. One man might develop the habit of temperance and self-restraint in his eating – or his drinking – by his use of reason: it makes sense for his health, and his self-image, perhaps to keep his employment, perhaps for political ambitions, or for any of many reasons. Such temperance would be good, but on the human scale, a natural decision for natural motivations.

But another man might choose temperance because of the conviction and guidance of faith: he ought to eat and drink temperately, moderately, because it is true to do so in God’s sight. Indeed, the abiding presence of God in his life, in his heart and mind, urges him toward moderation and virtue in all things, in all ways. Supernatural faith prompts the man to temperance – as does carnal ambition to a man of this world – but supernatural faith renders the act supernatural, and of eternal value.

Fr. Lallemant concludes the issue in this way:

We must endeavor, therefore, to ground ourselves more and more firmly in faith, walking always in its light, putting it in the place of those reasonings in which the human mind is always prone to indulge upon all kinds of subjects, and making it serve as the guiding torch and principle of all our actions. An act of the will grounded on faith is worth more than ten sentiments that have their source in the spiritual taste.

Here is the conclusion for us, here and now, in the today of this world: we need to grow in faith. We need to “develop” and “grow” the faith that we have – that we have been given by grace. We need to consciously exercise and use faith as light to walk by, to make choices and decisions by, so that we can become more and more persons of faith. As the darkness grows, and threatens faith more and more, so must we become more and more prepared with stronger faith, with faith we are “used to” using as the light to guide our paths, and choices.

We can begin to question ourselves, with the “why” question. “Why” do I want to buy this or that thing? “Why” do I want to go to this or that event? “Why” do I want to watch this or that movie, or TV show? “Why” do I want to spend time doing this, or that? Is God, the object of my faith, my light and my guide in this decision? Does faith lead me to this choice? Or is it merely self-satisfaction that I seek, merely natural and temporary pleasures that I want because I want them?

In the last days, the currency of the world will become worthless, of no value. On our deathbed, what will be of value? Faith, and hope, and divine charity, love. Let us practice, in our daily lives, those precious gifts – let us walk by them! On our deathbed, we will thank the saints for their faithfulness to truth – and for passing on to us, the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Spiritual Doctrine – a book – is a beautiful record of the wisdom of the teachings of Fr. Louis Lallemant, S.J., (1588-1633). He was born six years after the death of St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila), and three years before the death of St. John of the Cross. He lived, in other words, in a time of profound spiritual blessings and grace in the Catholic Church. He is much quoted, and clearly he is respected greatly, by (among others) Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, who himself is notable for his outstanding writings on Catholic spirituality, in particular The Three Ages of the Interior Life.

I’d like to pass on just a few paragraphs of Fr. Lallemant’s wisdom on the matter of the cross. Jesus taught that all who follow Him will carry a cross, as He Himself would carry and die on the Cross for our sakes – for our salvation. And He wanted to emphasize that He did not come to save us from suffering for love and for truth, but rather to gather us, with Him and in Him, into His holy Self-giving on the Cross for love and for truth, each in our own personal way. Jesus taught:

Mt 16:24  Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Mt 16:25  For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

The paragraphs quoted below, on which I will comment briefly, are from The Spiritual Doctrine; 2nd Principle, Ch. 3, art. IV: “Of the love of crosses.”

2. As our Lord wrought the redemption of the world only by His cross, by His death, and the shedding of His blood, not by His miracles or preachings, so likewise the evangelical laborers apply the grace of redemption only by their crosses, and by the persecutions they suffer. So much so, that no great fruits can be expected from their ministry, if it be not accompanied by contradictions, calumnies, injuries, and sufferings.

How many men and women labor, in the Church, to spread His Gospel, but not in the way of the cross? Certainly it is “reasonable” – in the reasonings of the world, with natural prudence and human understandings – to gravitate to ways of working for Christ that also advance our own personal reputation and comforts, career plans and goals, with vacations and retirements, and the praise and respect of men? How much work, in the Church, is devoted to being “inclusive” to the world and its values, seeking acceptance by the world, hoping – or assuming – that God will not be offended? We run to the world in darkness, our backs to the Cross and His pain; we embrace their values, we laugh at their jokes, we assure them that our ways are like their ways, that God’s love and mercy are free for all. Come! As you are! God requires nothing of you – He loves you! It’s free! Eternal life! Free for all!

3.Some think they do wonders because they preach powerful discourses, well-composed, well prepared, and delivered with grace; because they are the fashion, and are welcomed everywhere. They deceive themselves; the means on which they rely are not those which God makes use of to do great things. Crosses are needed to effect the salvation of the world. It is by the way of the cross that God leads those whom He employs to save souls, apostles and apostolic men, a St. Francis Xavier, a St. Ignatius, a St. Vincent Ferrer, a St. Dominic.

Yes, crosses are needed. The way of Jesus is the way of the Cross. Salvation is won by crosses, by suffering. In the mysterious, supernatural wisdom of God, freedom is not free but rather it costs: it costs everything. Eternal, divine and holy love – in which is our life, our peace, our happiness – is a free and eternal and personal out-pouring for the good of another. This was His Cross, and this is our cross: Give, for the good of others. Give not counting the cost, but only counting the good, for the other. Give out of an eternal and never-extinguished font of love, and every ounce out-poured is immediately replenished, to overflowing.

Crosses are to be embraced: “Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters!”

4. We must not look upon our crosses and afflictions in the light of evils which are the cause to us of suffering, or as mortifications which lower us in the eyes of the world; but we must look at them, after the example of our Lord, in the eternal counsels of God, in the decrees of His providence, and in the designs of His love towards us, in the Heart of Jesus Christ, who has chosen them for us, and presents them to us as the material of those crowns which He is preparing for us, and as a trial of our courage and fidelity in His service.

He has chosen them for us, very particularly, personally, especially. He has created, designed and built us to a purpose, and the crosses He presents to us are doorways into His perfect and glorious will. “Come, Peter, walk on the water” – walk in peace, in the midst of this storm! Look not at the wind and waves, look through them, they are transparent, they are translucent, hidden in their darkness is the eternal light of God.

5. In the beginning of the spiritual life, we must not ask sufferings of God; we must think rather of purging our conscience, devoting ourselves to acquire purity of heart, the knowledge of our own interior, and recollection. From thence we rise to peace of soul, thence to communion with God, next to infused virtues, and finally to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then it is that God inspires us according to His designs and will; leading some by labors, as St. Francis Xavier; others by sufferings, as St. Ludwine; others by contradictions and persecutions, as St. Ignatius: but of our selves we must not make any particular choice, otherwise we shall always be in trouble; not possessing as yet sufficient virtue to endure crosses, it would be to undertake to carry a giant’s load without the strength to do it. When, however, at the call of God, we enter into states of toil, suffering, and humiliation, then neither will labors overwhelm us, nor persecutions disturb us, and often even great austerities will not destroy our health.

God does not ask of us anything that He does not enable in us. In the beginning, we were just beginning! He knew we were just beginners. But He calls us to grow:

Eph 4:11  And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
Eph 4:12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Eph 4:13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;
Eph 4:14  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.
Eph 4:15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Eph 4:16  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.

Introduction

To describe the simple guidelines for vocal prayer, in a few words, is easy:
— Slow down.
— Pray attentively.
— Pray with fervent devotion.

I’ll expand on the few words a bit later; first let’s consider what prayer is, and why we ought to pray. Then, the question of how to pray becomes seen in the light it deserves. It is fundamentally, crucially, even urgently important to pray well.

What is Prayer?

What is prayer? There are several ways to describe what prayer is; each of the descriptions below are worth some time to listen and to consider. They all come from men and women of prayer – men and women who have experienced what they describe. They are not academics; they are not (merely) theologians; they are witnesses. They have lived lives of prayer; they have experienced, and they know of what they speak.

The briefest definition of prayer I have heard is from St. John Vianney: “Prayer is nothing other than union with God.” (“Catechetical Instructions” – Catechism on Prayer, Ch. 8.)

Another saint of the Church, Therese of Lisieux, wrote: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”  (Catechism # 2558)

And more from the Catechism: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” [St. John Damascene] But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart? [see Ps 130:1] He who humbles himself will be exalted; [Cf. Lk 18:9-14] humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” [Rom 8:26] are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. St. Augustine wrote, “Man is a beggar before God.” (Catechism # 2559)

The Catechism also includes this: “Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ.” (Catechism # 2564) “In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.” (Catechism # 2565)

If prayer is truly prayer – if God is truly present with the one praying – if prayer is not merely talking to oneself, but in truth “union with God” – then prayer has a supernatural and divine dimension, pervading the natural and human dimension of the person in prayer. When we pray, we are not alone! Prayer is a union, a communion, a living relationship with God, an embrace of love.

If prayer is truly prayer, it is lived and experienced in a process – a growing, advancing process – a journey – a “living relationship of the children of God” with God Himself, the Holy Trinity. If we have a life of prayer, it is growing – and we are growing, in the life of prayer. If we have a life of prayer, we are on a journey of prayer in Him, to Him, with Him and with all who are in Him with us. To have a life of prayer, we must have times of silence and solitude with God alone. And with God alone, we are never alone.

How then are we to pray?

— Slow down.
— Pray attentively.
— Pray with fervent devotion.

These three requirements for praying especially vocal prayer well, are mutually linked. If we don’t slow down, it is very easy to pray unconsciously, merely reciting words out of memory, possibly day-dreaming and mentally a million miles distant from where our bodies are. Such is not praying! St. Teresa of Avila, writing to help her sisters in the Carmelites to grow in prayer, wrote of the very first steps:

… if it is prayer at all, the mind must take part in it. If a person neither considers to Whom he is addressing himself, what he asks, nor what he is who ventures to speak to God, although his lips may utter many words, I do not call it prayer. Sometimes, indeed, one may pray devoutly without making all these considerations through having practiced them at other times. The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave–caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition–cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner. I trust His Majesty will prevent any of you, sisters, from doing so.
( Interior Castle, 1st Mansions, Ch. 1, #9)

We must pray attentively! We must be attentive to who is praying, and to whom I am praying, and what it is that I am praying. When I am in prayer, I must be conscious of reality: without pretense or role-playing, without affectation, posturing or posing but in simplicity and sincerity. God knows me inside and out! He is not impressed with artificial flowers or theatrical oratory:

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. (Isa 66:1-2)

I am praying; it is to almighty God that I am praying; and this is what I am saying in prayer to Him. Let us pray slowly enough that we can be confident that we are praying attentively, and devoutly.

Yes, let us pray with devotion – honest, sincere, full-hearted devotion. Devotion is consecration – commitment – self-offering, self-gift, self-donation according to these words, the words of my prayer, binding me to God and with Him in our covenant in Christ. As cited above from the Catechism, prayer is a “covenant relationship between God and man in Christ.” Christ has died to open the way for our union – to seal our union by a covenant in His sacred blood.

So, for example, if I pray, “Our Father…,” do I commit myself and consecrate myself to be brother or sister to all who are of “our Father”? Do I see us all as called into Him with one another? Is my heart big enough, and wide enough, to hold all who are of “our Father”? And is He held in faith as my Father? Am I living a life worthy of His Name, which I claim to possess in Him by faith? Do I mean it, in other words, when I say, “our Father”? If I do not mean the words, as I say and remember this holy prayer, then my prayer ought to be for the grace and mercy of God to help me grow into meaning them, in sincerity and truth.

The life of prayer is a process, a life of growing and maturing in Him. He calls us all to holiness and to the perfection of charity. (CCC # 2013) The journey to holiness is the journey of prayer, a life of prayer and the living of the fruit of prayer: works of holy charity. Let us slow down enough to listen and to learn the truth of ourselves, and the truth of God. He calls us to a real, authentic union with Him. He created us for this union! And our hearts will be restless, until they find their rest in Him. (St. Augustine)

Let us resolve to make our prayer – even our most familiar vocal prayers of the Church – the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be – let us make our prayers true: truly from the heart, true in conscience. Let them be meant, and believed, every word. As St. Francis of Assisi said, very near the end of his life, “Brothers, finally, let us at last, begin.”

Thomas Richard

Mother Teresa troubled the West when she noted that for all the wealth of our materialism, we are victims and perpetrators of a deeper poverty than the material poverty she knew back in her beloved India.  She saw among us – citizens of a developed nation, a modern and advanced society – persons rejected, abandoned, alone.  She spoke of babies rejected and aborted because they would require care, and love, and sacrifice.  She spoke of the “disease” among the living of persons uncared for, unloved – a cultural poverty of love:

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.

― Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa

There can be a kind of love without God – but it is thin, shallow, transient.  Such love is never enough; it is barren, untrustworthy, unfaithful. The true hunger of persons for love is the deep longing for home, for our Origen, for our Destiny, for the meaning and reason for our very being.  We cannot know such love apart from sacrifice, from self-gift, and from the receiving of the gift of another. Love completes us, and the only love that can still the deepest longing of our hearts, is the love that completes us to finality, to perfection, into timeless peace.  “There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”

Christians have the greatest promise ever dreamed of in the history of all creation, and it is no dream: it is real, a real promise, an assurance, a treasure waiting to be received and gathered into each precious self, each person, each soul.  God is seeking to be sought.  God is seeking to be found.  God is waiting to be asked; He is the flame of divine and eternal love, waiting to set ablaze human hearts grown cold in guarded and lonely chambers of isolation.  God waits to pour life into souls lingering or wandering in the shadow of death, if we will but seek Him!

Prayer is our call to God, the ever-near God who waits.  Prayer is the journey to life, the journey to Him.  It is the journey to Him, all the while always with Him.  We cannot take a step to Him, except with Him – indeed, except in Him, and He in us, an ever-present Companion.  He reveals Himself only when it is time, and only enough to enable our strength for the day.  He is calling us to holiness!  He is calling us to life, to love, to communion – and because He calls us to Himself, the hunger in our hearts is deep, and strong: we must respond.

The Journey of Prayer

The journey of prayer then is a journey of response to this place in our hearts made for God, made by God, satisfied by no other love but holy love, of and for the one true God.  The journey of prayer is a journey of meeting with God, of communion with Him, progressively deeper and higher in communion with Him.  Therefore the path both descends, deeper and deeper into our own souls, and ascends, higher and higher to Him.  The journey of prayer proceeds with greater and greater engagement with God, if and as we continue to grow in the interior life of prayer.  In the very depths of the soul is I myself – who I am – my own unique name as God knows me and has created me.  If then, in my ascent to Him in prayer, I come finally to meet Him there, in the depths and center of my soul, then my prayer has reached its rightful end, even here on this earth and in this body.

Stages, or Grades, of Prayer

•  Vocal Prayer

The journey of prayer proceeds in stages: Vocal Prayer, Meditation, Contemplation.  We begin with vocal prayer – either “formula” vocal prayers such as the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the common prayer of blessing before meals, the Glory Be, and so on, or “spontaneous” vocal prayers that are prayers simply prayed in our own words.  This is the way we typically begin to pray – words spoken, directed to God either directly or through the intercession of some saint.  For many people, this is also the only way that praying is understood!  But prayer includes more, much more, than “words spoken, directed to God” directly or indirectly.

The essential requirements to pray vocal prayer well, and fruitfully, are to pray slowly, carefully, attentively, with devotion:

1. pray with careful attentiveness, slowly, giving careful attention to what is being prayed: to every word offered in the prayer,
2. pray with reverent devotion and commitment to the words prayed; with a faithful sincere heart, with careful intent to be obedient to the meaning, the words, the intention of the prayer.

• Meditation

If we advance in prayer, we advance to include meditation, or mental prayer, as a way of praying along with our vocal prayers.  We never “outgrow” the beautiful written vocal prayers of the Church – indeed the Our Father is our model for prayer, the perfect prayer.  But vocal prayer, prayed well, invites us to pray better – more deeply – more completely – with our whole mind and heart.  Vocal prayer prayed well invites us into meditation.

Meditation in the Christian sense is the intentional engagement of the mind – thus “mental prayer” – with the works and words of God.  Fitting for meditation would be portions of Holy Scripture, for example: devoting time to carefully listening to a portion of Scripture, seeking to hear and understand it as fully and deeply as possible, seeking to fully open one’s own mind and heart to this passage which is “of God”.  In this way we seek to know Him more and more, in truth, and to understand His will and His ways, so as to love Him with our whole mind, and heart, and soul – by seeking to live in obedience to His will and His ways.

As vocal prayer has two “kinds” – formula and spontaneous – so mediation has three “kinds”.  The three kinds of meditation are usually experienced in a sequence, each progressive kind being “deeper” and more “simple” than the preceding one: first discursive meditation, or effort to understand or grasp with the mind, using reasoning; then affective meditation, with more intense affect of the heart; and finally the prayer of simplicity, deep and intense engagement with great focus on matters of simplicity, purity, and mystical profundity.

• Contemplation

The last-listed “kind” of meditation, the prayer of simplicity, might be called (and has been called) “acquired contemplation,” but it is not yet true contemplation – it is still meditation.  All of the grades or stages of prayer listed so far belong in the category of ascetical prayer; the kinds of prayers of contemplation, rightly understood, belong in the category of mystical prayer.

Ascetical and mystical prayer are radically, importantly and significantly different.  Ascetical prayer can be prayed with ordinary habitual grace – the grace common to all in “the state of grace” and fellowship with Christ.  All Christians in the state of grace given in Baptism can pray in the mode of ascetical prayer – all kinds of vocal prayer and all kinds of Christian meditation.  Mystical prayer is different; contemplation, rightly understood, is different.  Contemplation is a work of God the Holy Spirit not a work of man; it is initiated and caused by actual grace (not caused by, but still requiring the presence of ordinary habitual grace) infused into – given to – the soul by God’s initiative.  Man cannot “do” contemplation; it is given to him.

There are five “kinds” of the mystical prayer, contemplation, all connoting stages of deepening, increasing spiritual union with God: contemplation as first experienced is called simply “infused contemplation.”  The next grade of contemplation is called “the prayer of quiet,” after that, “the prayer of union,” and then, “the prayer of conforming union,” and finally, “the prayer of transforming union.”  This last grade or stage of contemplation, the transforming union, is also called the spiritual marriage of the soul with God. It is identified with the seventh mansions of St. Teresa’s Interior Castle; it is the highest level of union with God possible in this life.

Concluding Thoughts

In the beginnings of prayer – vocal prayer, using prayers such as the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the whole Rosary – we are beginning a conversation with God.  In this beginning, it may be that we do all the talking, and possibly not even wait for God to respond!  But this beginning of a conversation is intended by God to grow, to develop, to mature.  The fullness of development, of maturity, of conversation with God is in the higher levels of contemplation, especially the last kind of prayer listed here, the prayer of transforming union.  I hope that this brief post on the journey of prayer can encourage you to pray more, to pray with greater attention and devotion, to expand your praying into the prayers of meditation upon Holy Scripture, and on to the threshold of holy contemplation, and beyond.

“Assignment for the Learner”

The Our Father is an excellent prayer (it is the perfect prayer!) to pray, and to meditate upon in prayer.  I have a guided meditation on this prayer on my website, linked here:

An Interior Pilgrimage for the Soul

The first page (the link above) is an introduction, ending with a link to a page beginning the meditation/pilgrimage.  Try a plan of one page of the pilgrimage per day, until you complete the whole Our Father – and for the rest of each day, focus on the whole prayer the Our Father, especially the verse/petition especially highlighted for that day.

There is a space for comments/responses at the bottom of each web page – I’d appreciate hearing from you any questions or comments, especially about any way or ways this guided meditation has been helpful to you.

Learn more about the art and the science of prayer!  I list some resources below:

Resources:

1. Spiritual Theology, by Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P.  Pages (on Prayer): 221-248.  This book can be read on-line, for free.  Fr. Aumann discusses all of these grades of prayer.  An on-line copy is HERE
2. The Ordinary Path to Holiness, by R. Thomas Richard, Chapter 4: Growing in Holiness: Prayer.  Sorry, no copies available free on-line, only for purchase, paperback or Kindle reader.  (See Amazon: LINK )
3. Encountering Christ in Holy Scripture with Lectio Divina, by R. Thomas Richard.  Sorry, no copies available free on-line, only for purchase for the Kindle reader.  (See Amazon: LINK )

Here’s a good, solid, professional assessment on one of the more recent examples of the insanity sweeping the nation.  First they rejected God.  This allowed them to reinvent truth, moral truth in particular, and moral truth concerning sexual activity especially.  This not being enough, they decided to reinvent marriage.  But wait!  Why not “gender identity” too?  And how about the children…. why not start them young…. very young….

This article sheds some light, and some refreshing “normal sanity” on the subject.  Please read it:

Gender Ideology Harms Children

The opening paragraph, on the Homiletic & Pastoral Review website:

The American College of Pediatricians urges healthcare professionals, educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts—not ideology—determine reality. The following 8 points and clarifications are herewith provided in order to help priests and curators of souls some guidelines with which to counsel people properly. An earlier version of this statement was published by the American College of Pediatricians (the College) on its website in August, 2016. The College is a national organization of child health professionals that is rooted in science and natural law. Fr. David Meconi, S.J., received permission from the College to reissue it in HPR. Please keep the American College of Pediatricians and its good work in your prayers.

It is a title – do a Search for the term on computer! – a title of a book, a plan for evangelization, a parish goal, parish and diocesan project titles, conference speaker’s presentations, focus groups…. The best part of any plan, project or book using this term that I have seen remains, the title itself. I don’t know if any use of the title has ever met the potential power of the term itself! The term itself is overflowing with sorrowful importance because it convicts us of a far-too-usual grave fall – parishes and dioceses fallen into self-focused “maintenance mode.” And it is brimming over with hopeful significance because it points parishes and dioceses so simply to what ought to be driving us all: Christian mission!

The Archdiocese of Boston has on their website a one-page diagnostic instrument for parishes and dioceses, which helps to answer the question: Are we maintenance-driven, or mission-driven? ( LINK )  The diagnostic is simply these Maintenance or Mission indicators:

1. Involvement:
– Maintenance-driven: Activity! getting people involved in events, activities in parish.
– Mission-driven: Helping all people encounter Jesus and experience conversion through their involvement at the parish and outside.
2. Roles:
– Maintenance-driven: Forming individuals to take on parish leadership roles.
– Mission-driven: Forming individuals to discern their charisms and God-given vocations.
3. Commitment:
– Maintenance-driven: Getting parishioners to give more time, talent, and treasure to the parish.
– Mission-driven: Helping individuals commit their entire life to Jesus and live out that commitment daily.
4. Sustaining:
– Maintenance-driven: Sustaining the current parish structures & number of people.
– Mission-driven: Sustaining a culture of discipleship, nurturing and sustaining the work of conversion in individuals.
5. Catechesis:
– Maintenance-driven: Relying solely on catechesis as the means of transmitting the faith.
– Mission-driven: Transmitting the faith through pre-evangelization, initial proclamation and then catechesis in a systematic way.
6. Formation:
– Maintenance-driven: Providing formation for ministries exercised only for the parish.
– Mission-driven: Answering the outward call of the parish by providing formation for individuals to both take part in parish ministries and transform the secular world.
7. Communication:
– Maintenance-driven: Communicating in “insider” language.
– Mission-driven: Communicating in language both “insiders and outsiders” can understand.

Taken seriously, applied honestly, these indicators can begin a real, authentic renewal in a parish – a transformation toward a truly life-giving embrace of our Baptismal vows, our Confirmation empowerment, our Eucharistic communion, and the rightful living out of whatever life Christ has entrusted to each of us, in Him.

The mission-driven parish addresses what is essential, foundational. The maintenance-driven parish is preoccupied with what is on the surface, immediate. The squeaky wheels need grease. The Mass lasts too long. The parking is inadequate. The electric bills are too high. Contributions are not meeting expenses. Too few members show up for anything except food: “feed them and they will come.” The music is too loud, too protestant, too unknown, too Latin, too many stanzas, too fast, too slow, too much, too little. We need to be youth-friendly. We need to be family-friendly. We need to be senior-friendly. We need to be Hispanic-friendly. We need to be friendly. We need this; we need that; we need to be more Catholic; we need to update; we need… What do we need?

We need Christ! We need the life of Christ! We need Faith! We need to know, to love, to live the Catholic Faith! We need a life of prayer! We need the living, abiding, teaching and leading Holy Spirit. Go back to those Mission indicators, one at a time, and listen to what every parish and diocese needs! At the center, the heart of a parish must be Christ and His mission, His life. Or else, what are we? Why are we, if not because of Him? If not because of Him, and in Him, and toward Him, we are …. what? A private club with “members”? A business with “customers”? A habit? A hobby? A Judgment Day insurance policy? A drug for tranquilizing personal guilt? No, He went to the Cross for much more: to give life, and life abundantly. In Him we find life.

The Catechism teaches much about prayer that can help us to grow in prayer. It can help us know why we should grow in prayer – why we should want to grow in prayer. To begin this post, let us observe one truth about prayer that we need to know from the beginning: prayer takes effort, it can cost us to pray, it is beautiful and necessary that we pray – but know this, prayer is a battle.

Prayer is a battle.
CCC 2725 Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in His name. The “spiritual battle” of the Christian’s new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.

Prayer is a battle first against ourselves: we can resist prayer, consciously and subconsciously. And prayer is a battle against the enemy of all souls, including yours and mine, the evil one the devil. To defeat the enemy, within and without, it helps to have a plan. A ancient plan for prayer, that reaches back at least to the early centuries of the Christian Church, is “Lectio Divina”, “Sacred Reading” of Holy Scripture.

Lectio Divina is a method, a system, an attitude, a plan with which we can listen more carefully to matters and truths of God, Sacred Scripture especially, so as to receive – or grow in – holy faith. It is a process of four steps:

• lectio – listening to a passage of Scripture,
• meditatio – meditating upon that passage,
• oratio – praying in accord with the truths of that passage,
• contemplatio – resting in the contemplation of those truths.

In each of these four steps, the battle awaits! In each of the four, who will be the subject of attention: myself and my thoughts and opinions, or God and His divine Truth? Indeed, will I even wage the battle to be attentive to anything? Maybe I will let my mind wander like a butterfly from flower to interesting flower, with no commitment to any of them. Maybe I will day-dream, randomly, forgetting the flowers altogether. But if I am cooperative with this ancient practice of Lectio Divina, and if I am attentive to Him and His Truth, wonderful things can happen, in my praying Holy Scripture.

Lectio Divina, in the form we are discussing, dates to the 12th century and a Carthusian Abbot Guido II. In about AD 1150, he wrote to a fellow monk of “A Ladder of Four Rungs by which we may well climb to heaven.” Here he described a method of 4 steps by which one could practice Lectio Divina – literally “sacred reading” – in a disciplined way. Dom Guido wrote:

“This is the ladder Jacob saw, in Genesis [“Jacob’s Ladder”], that stood on the earth and reached into heaven, on which he saw heavenly angels ascending and descending, with God leaning upon the ladder. ……
Understand now what the four staves of this ladder are, each in turn.

• Lectio – Reading, is busily looking on Holy Scripture with all one’s will and wit.
• Meditatio – Meditation, is a studious insearching with the mind to know what was before concealed through desiring proper skill.
• Oratio – Prayer, is a devout desiring of the heart to get what is good and avoid what is evil.
• Contemplatio – Contemplation, is the lifting up of the heart to God tasting somewhat of the heavenly sweetness and savour.”

Essentials Needed in Praying Scripture
To point out the obvious – no plan, method or process of praying Holy Scripture can insure spiritual success without supernatural intervention. That is, we need grace – the grace, the presence, the active assistance of the Holy Spirit whose “assigned ministry” (so to speak) by God the Holy Trinity is to lead, to guide the members of His Church “into all the truth.” We need to listen “in the Spirit” to hear the words written “in the Spirit” concerning the Word, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A second obvious factor that must be present is the human person listening. He must not be merely “present” physically – more than “body-presence” is needed. He must be there, as St. Teresa of Avila said, with both attention and devotion. He must be there not in the audience, sitting in the dark in the last row of the auditorium, so to speak: he needs to be close to the words written and resting on his table or in his lap. He must be close, his life on the line; his mind alert and attentive to come to know ever more of God and His Truth – his will, his heart quick with assent to do all that he hears God’s will that he do. Attention and devotion are the offerings required at this altar, indeed the self-offering – the return of one’s self to God our Creator and Father – pleases God, as He wrote:

Is 66:1  Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?
Is 66:2  All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

“Trembles” at His word? Yes. Such describes well the profound reverence – awe – fear before the All-Holy God, with which a humble, contrite soul would rightly approach Him in His word. His words are the words of life. When Jesus asked Peter if he and the others would leave Him, watching many who did leave after hearing the hard sayings of His teachings. But Peter responded,

Jn 6:68 …. ”Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life;
Jn 6:69  and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

You then who will stay with Him, who want to hear His words of eternal life – this “method”, Lectio Divina, can be a help. An earlier post will continue this discussion. Maybe after a short break, please follow this link to “part II”, for more on the subject:

Lectio Divina – and Praying Scripture (part II)

I consider it divine intervention that Donald Trump, and not Hillary Clinton, was elected President last November. I prayed, like never before, for His intervention in that election, and against all “odds” (if you believe in “odds” in human affairs – which I do not), he won. Without the majority of voters voting for him, against opposition within his own party, and in spite of predictions by all the pundits, experts and many TV talking heads, Trump won. I can only believe God could do this.

And I think – believe – that God did this for a reason: to give the Church one more chance, one more opportunity to wake up and be Church! The forces of darkness in America were doing very well with either party in power! The evil one had been bending the culture of America toward the dark side for sometime now, and “successfully.” But God intervened. God held back the slide toward Sodom and Gomorrah, the drunken abandonment in America of reason and human dignity in preference for drugs, lust and lives of fantasy. Although His Church continued to busy herself with lesser things, God stepped in and intervened where she, by neglect, was not standing strong.

My question is, will the Church awaken even now? Though the bullet has been dodged and the train brought to stop inches before the cliff, I do not see her stirring even yet. The cancer has been held in remission, the execution was stayed, the evil plot foiled at the last minute – but I do not see the Church arising yet. Yes we can take a big deep breath that America is not yet irrevocably transformed into the child of the Culture of Death, but the danger is not eliminated. It is one battle surprisingly won, in a long war that is not over. And the evil one by no means is going to surrender!

As this long war has continued to rage, darkness has been advancing in our homes and schools, colleges and businesses, government offices and courthouses.  In the streets and cities and towns across America moral darkness has been unashamedly advancing. And through all this the Church mostly has been quiet, content with compromise, passive to the point of complicity. She has not taught her own, her little ones, the holy truth of real, eternal, victorious life. She has not led them to see and to know the life – here and now – of Christ the Lord. Entrusted with the Bread of Heaven, the Blessed Sacrament, she has not taught her own how to receive such a holy Gift, that they might be made strong, maturing in the power of the Sacrament. She has not led them to the personal encounter with Christ the Lord!  Entrusted with the riches and knowledge of the Kingdom, she has let her children feed themselves junk food, fast and easy food, food of this passing and confused world.

Church, when will you awaken? When will you recognize the enemy attacking your people at every turn, in their homes, in their schools, in their hearts and minds? They need the solid food of Truth! They need the potent power of Grace! They need communion with our Lord in Prayer! They need to hear evil called evil, and sin called sin, and lies called lies, and deceivers exposed as the mortal threats that they are! Enough, please, of frills and lace, of pomp and platitudes, of sweet lullabies while the enemy is gathering at the gates! They are dead-serious, and we are dozing in complacency.

Those who call themselves moral liberals or progressives, promoting their “new way,” are seething with rage in their unexpected defeat in the elections. They have money, they have many supporters, they have the long view. They are sincere, and committed! They lack something essential, something that the Church has, if she will awaken to it, and summon the courage to proclaim it and to live it. But if she will not awaken, here in America they will win.

The Catholic Church has been entrusted with the fullness of divine revelation, revealed perfectly in the divine Person of the Word become man, Jesus Christ. As the apostle John wrote:

1Jn 1:1  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
1Jn 1:2  the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
1Jn 1:3  that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Who is this “we” who were there with Him, to see and hear and touch Him? Those who were called into supernatural fellowship (Greek κοινωνία – koinōnia) with Him and with one another. This supernatural fellowship is made possible because of the Gift who is God Himself, given “within” human persons, the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. This divine fellowship was the beginnings of His one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church (ἐκκλησία – ekklēsia, the “out-called”) – the men and women called out of the world and into Christ to share in His holy and eternal life! This sharing is possible only in, and by virtue of, the divine Holy Spirit, sent and given by the Father and the Son.

This same Holy Catholic Church today calls all men and women, in the name of Christ, out of the futility of this world and into the life of the Son, Jesus the Lord. This Church, His Church, can enable human persons to find, to receive, to embrace and to hold fast to their divine vocation to return to God, to live in Him in the fullness of life forever. This embrace of Christ is found and experienced in His way, a way of four facets, or dimensions:

1) The Truth. Jesus the Word of God is Truth. He entrusted to His Church of Apostles the fullness of revealed Truth, insured in them by the abiding Holy Spirit sent to be with them (and their successors) until the end of time. Because of this certainty, they and their successors could do what He sent them to do, with doctrinal certainty. His Church was entrusted with His Truth, thus they could teach, thus they could make disciples:
“make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Mt 28:19-20)

2) The means of divine grace: the Sacraments. Knowing the Truth is not enough to live in the Truth! Men and women need the power of God in them, to live His truth and thus to be His faithful witnesses for others in the world. Thus God empowered His Church with the seven-fold storehouse of His sacraments each with its particular sacramental graces: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Confession, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony and Holy Orders.

3) The true path of living His life: Christian Moral Truth. Knowing the Truth of God, and receiving the empowering grace to live His will, is still not enough to enlighten the actual path that human persons walk “in real life,” to know and to choose the way of righteousness in real-life situations today. Catholic moral principles give this light to men and women of today, married and single, living in a world far different from that in the days of Jesus, but guided by His Spirit, as He promised, light for “things that are to come”:

Jn 16:13  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

4) Finally, there is that “dimension” or ”facet” of life in Christ that must be included and considered: it is Prayer. We are called into the life of prayer, to grow in prayer, to grow in communion with Him, in His life. Every Christian has, by virtue of the abiding Holy Spirit, an “interior life” that is begotten by the Spirit, vivified by the Spirit, nurtured by the Spirit, and is satisfied and fulfilled only in intimate personal communion with God in the Spirit, and with brothers and sisters in that same Spirit. This “interior life” is the life of communio – of fellowship – of koinonia enjoyed by the Apostle John in the early Church:

1Jn 1:3  that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

This treasure – in its four-fold completeness – the Church was given, and her charge is to preserve and protect it in its fullness, and to offer it to all men in darkness that they may become free, finally, in Him.

These four aspects of Catholic Faith are much more fully developed in our current Catechism of the Catholic Church, available for exploration on-line. As Jesus said, “Come and see.”