Blog by-the-Sea

Thoughts on a More Prayerful Eucharistic Fast

A few days ago, Dr. Ed Peters proposes extending the Eucharistic fast to 3 hours before the beginning of Mass, instead of the present day 1 hour before receiving the Eucharist.  He outlines his proposal and the reasons for it at his canon law blog In the Light of the Law.   You can download his full article on the topic from a link in that post.

Father Z notes, at What Does the Prayer Really Say?, that Dr. Peters has a longer view regarding what the Mass is, what the Church's law is for, and what we receive at Mass.  (There are many comments posted there.)

Of course, anyone can voluntarily fast more than one hour without it being mandatory.  That could be a fast for 3 hours before Mass or a fast from midnight until Mass, done for personal piety.  That could be a good thing for those who do not have difficulties of age or health that would prevent it.  Yet, I think that there is much more that we can do, either with or without lengthening the time of the fast, to deepen our Eucharistic prayer and our awareness of an encounter with Christ who is present in the Eucharist.

Even with the shorter one-hour fast before the Eucharist, I think most of us could make some progress by practicing that fast more consciously in an attitude of prayer and worship.  For those who by age or physical health are not able to follow a longer fast, a greater awareness of giving up things other than food in order to focus the mind on God's presence for an hour might accomplish as much as extending the one-hour fast to three hours before Mass.

Scripture several times describes a combination of prayer and fasting in seeking God's presence and action.  In Daniel 9:3, Daniel says, "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes."  Psalm 51:17-19 says, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. . . .  then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices."  Tobit 12:8 says, "Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold."  The prophetess Anna, in Luke 2:37, is described in this Jewish sense of prayer and fasting in the Temple: "She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day." The Apostles also followed a practice of fasting in combination with prayer.  Acts 14:23 tells us that when they appointed elders for the churches, "with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed."

We could perhaps make much progress by practicing the Eucharistic fast with a consciousness that it is an aspect of prayerful worship with a "broken and contrite heart" in prayer.

There are several articles and posts on the internet, besides the recent ones mentioned above, that highlight the reasons for the Eucharistic fast in a way that would encourage a more prayerful fasting.

Father William Saunders, dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Alexandria, Virginia,  wrote an article in the Arlington Catholic Herald about the reasons for fasting before the Eucharist.  In it, he mentioned that, "St. Paul reminds us, 'Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed' (II Cor 4:10). We, too, are charged to convert our whole lives — body and soul — to the Lord." "Moreover," he wrote, "the fast before receiving holy Communion creates a physical hunger and thirst for the Lord, which in turn augments the spiritual hunger and thirst we ought to have."

From an ecumenical standpoint, a longer, prayer-centered fast might also be undertaken with a desire for Christian unity, as the Orthodox Church still follows a fast from the night before Mass.  An article on the website of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in St. Paul Minnesota describes the fast before the Eucharist as abstaining from "unnecessary foods and entertainments which serve to complicate or control our lives." The orthodox priest who wrote that article, Father John Matusiak, also encouraged fasting from "other activities or things which would distract you from reflecting on the meaning of the Eucharist and the changes you hope to accomplish in your life."

Taylor Marshall had a post a couple of years ago at Canterbury Tales in which he mentioned the three reasons St. Thomas saw for fasting before the Eucharist.  Among these was "to give us to understand that Christ, Who is the reality of this sacrament, and His charity, ought to be first of all established in our hearts."

"Fasting is the soul of prayer," according to Father Jonas Abib, founder of Cancao Nova, in a short article published on Catholic Online a few years ago.

It could make a great difference to simply remember that the fast before the Eucharist should focus our attention on the Eucharist and its meaning.  Fasting from the social conversations that sometimes go on in the pews immediately before Mass, leaving that time for prayer and meditation, could put the fast itself in a proper perspective and remind us of the Mass as a prayer that entails an encounter with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  There is plenty of time for social conversation after Mass.

The music played in our cars on the way to Mass -- or silence, turning off the radio -- might also contribute to our awareness of a prayerful hunger for the Lord.  Conversation in our cars -- or silence -- surely does so to.  It would accomplish much, I think, to simply follow a habitual awareness of the Eucharist each morning before Mass, even if only the one-hour fast is followed in our eating.

Recollection and Prayer: The Will and the Dovecot

I am finally going to undertake the task of writing about St. Teresa of Avila's uses of doves as metaphors in her writing about prayer, as I said last week.  I do so with some fear, because it is not possible to write about her use of metaphors without also writing about her explanations of the experience of prayer.  I hope that this attention to one of her figures of speech may be helpful to a few people.

For anyone who wants to buy a copy of the writings of St. Teresa of Avila in English translation, I will recommend the translations published by ICS Publications.  In this series of posts, I am using a different translation that is in the public domain to avoid having to ask any of the friars to look at it or to figure out how much to charge me for the use of lengthy quotes.  The dovecot picture shows the dovecot from the Lost Gardens of Heligan, from Wikipedia.

St. Teresa's Dovecot Image:

One of St. Teresa's earliest uses of a dove as a metaphor is also one of her most unusual ones.  Here, she uses doves to explain the faculties of will, intellect, and memory and the prayer of quiet. 

Here is the dovecot story, from The Life, Chapter 14, shown in context with the dove reference in boldface:

This is a gathering together of the faculties of the soul within itself, in order that it may have the fruition of that contentment in greater sweetness; but the faculties are not lost, neither are they asleep: the will alone is occupied in such a way that, without knowing how it has become a captive, it gives a simple consent to become the prisoner of God; for it knows well what is to be the captive of Him it loves.   O my Jesus and my Lord, how pressing now is Thy love!  It binds our love in bonds so straitly, that it is not in its power at this moment to love anything else but Thee.

The other two faculties help the will, that it may render itself capable of the fruition of so great a good; nevertheless, it occasionally happens, even when the will is in union, that they hinder it very much: but then it should never heed them at all, simply abiding in its fruition and quiet.  For if it tried to make them recollected, it would miss its way together with them, because they are at this time like doves which are not satisfied with the food the master of the dovecot gives them without any labouring for it on their part, and which go forth in quest of it elsewhere, and so hardly find it that they come back.   And so the memory and the understanding come and go, seeking whether the will is going to give them that into the fruition of which it has entered itself.

If it be our Lord's pleasure to throw them any food, they stop; if not, they go again to seek it.   They must be thinking that they are of some service to the will; and now and then the memory or the imagination, seeking to represent to it that of which it has the fruition, does it harm.   The will, therefore, should be careful to deal with them as I shall explain.

Much of her explanation is in the following chapter, which is Chapter 15.

First of all, it may be useful to say something about what a "dovecot" is, and about what one would have meant when she was writing.  There is a page with some pictures in Wikipedia.  A "dovecot" is a building, or part of a building, or a birdhouse, for pigeons or doves, which historically were kept for food.  In medieval Europe, according to the Wikipedia page, it was a status symbol to have a dovecot.  Medieval manors had them.  Each pigeon hole ("boulin") is built for one pair of birds.  Some dovecots were built with 2000 or more boulins, while others were much smaller, like the one shown here from the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

St. Teresa's description of a dovecot appears in the course of her descriptions of a garden to illustrate different forms of prayer.  The dovecot that she had in mind might have been a small dovecot in a garden or a much larger one on a castle or manor house nearby.

Recollection:

Here, she is writing of the second stage of prayer in The Life, in which the pray-er begins to recollect the faculties, and only the will is active.  However, that is an easier thing to say than to do, as anyone who has tried to avoid distraction in prayer can well attest!  The memory is constantly stirring up thoughts of one thing or another that is going on in our lives, and the intellect is constantly finding something to analyze or an idea to further explore.  In St. Teresa's illustration, the memory and will are like two doves that go off in search of food (for thought), so that if we follow them, we will be constantly distracted in  our efforts at the prayer of quiet. 

Yet, she sees, the will cannot fully control them.  When the memory and intellect do not help the will in recollection, she wrote, "they hinder it very much: but then it should never heed them at all, simply abiding in its fruition and quiet."  But rather than trying to force the intellect and memory to be silent by force of will while we pray, St. Teresa says, "if it [the will] tried to make them [the memory and intellect] recollected, it would miss its way together with them."

Recollection, she explains, is not something the will can readily impose on our minds.  In its complete state, recollection is a gift from God.  However, in these chapters 14 and 15, St. Teresa is writing about a state of prayer that everyone can reach.  The level of recollection that she has in mind here is not an advanced state of prayer, but merely the level of silent prayer that anyone can learn. 

I might do well to provide a more contemporary definition of "recollection."  The Anglican expert in mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, wrote, in Practical Mysticism, "Recollection . . . is in essence no more and no less than the subjection of the attention to the control of the will.  It is not, therefore, a purely mystical activity.  In one form or another it is demanded of all who would get control of their own mental processes; and does or should represent the first great step in the education of the human consciousness." Yet, unless people are moved toward recollection by a passion for something they do, people "seldom learn the secret of a voluntary concentration of the mind."

Two Illustrations of Recollection:

I have thought I might add to what St. Teresa wrote a couple of additional illustrations that I think might help to explain recollection by will and recollection as a gift from God.  The two illustrations that I will offer are about a whitewater rafter and a commercial airline pilot.

When I was younger, I sometimes found whitewater rafting to be one of the most relaxing of week-ends because it took my mind completely off of whatever was occupying my mind at the office.  It did not depend on my will to do so.  Rather, there is nothing like a level IV rapid to completely engross one's attention!  When I returned to work the following Monday morning, I would feel as if I had been gone for a week, because my memory and intellect did not spend the week-end thinking about this or that problem to be solved at work.  No one in whitewater is analyzing the hydrology, except to the extent entailed in actually navigating around a rock or avoiding a hole.  No one's mind is wandering to the quart of milk they need to pick up on the way home.  Everyone's intellect and memory are cooperating with the will to get through the challenge of the rapids without falling out of the raft!

In the case of rafting, it is the river that draws our attention to one point and holds it there.  It comes from outside of ourselves, and not from the pure force of will.  In prayer, it is God Himself whose spark of love draws our attention to Himself and holds it there.  It is then a gift, and not an act of will. 

Yet there is a way of quieting our minds, and a way of at least ignoring the "doves" of intellect and memory when they continue to run here and there, that will allow us to pray better at any time.

We cannot wait for such perfect recollection to happen before we begin to pray.  So I offer, as another illustration, an airline pilot who may be completely engrossed in what he is doing -- recollected -- at times while flying the plane.  He has surely developed skills of concentration over the years that will enable him to pay attention to his instruments while preparing for take-off, despite the noise of the jet engines and whatever sounds from the passenger cabin that reach the flight deck.  However, if the captain did not want to take off until he was fully engrossed in his flying, he would never get the plane off the ground! 

We have to be able to pray despite the distractions posed by intellect and memory.  We cannot choose to do nothing until God draws us into perfect recollection, on the one hand; nor can we let memory and intellect draw us off into one tangential thought after another, on the other hand. 

Using bees as another metaphor for the mind when it is drawn toward one tangential thought after another, St. Teresa says, "if no bees entered the hive, and each of them wandered abroad in search of the rest, the honey would hardly be made." 

The Meaning of the Dovecot Example of Recollection:

We have to be able to pray despite the distractions offered by memory and intellect.  That is the lesson of the will that carries on in prayer while the two doves of intellect and memory fly off in search of food other than that given by the Master.

The "food" that the Master gives in the dovecot is what God may say to us in prayer.  To hear what God has to say, we have to listen, and we have to wait silently.  Eli told Samuel to answer, if he heard God call him, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." (I Samuel 3:9)  "Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." (Ps. 37:7).  We can make use of our will to be silent in prayer and to listen and wait for God.  When God has something to say to us, or some sense of his presence or other grace in prayer, that is the "food" that the Master gives the doves at the dovecot in prayer.

The Master's food is not there on our command; the master feeds the doves in a dovecot on the master's schedule and not on the doves' request.  The memory and the will then, in Teresa's example, will stop flying to and fro if the Master feeds them.  If not, they will go and seek again for some "food" outside of the dovecot.  That "food" is the thoughts that keep popping up in our minds unwanted in prayer.  They may be analytical thoughts, even theological thoughts, but if they are drawing our minds away from the personal encounter with God himself, we need to learn to ignore them and to go on with prayer.

That is where the will comes in.  Although the memory and intellect continue to function, the will brings them back to recollection a little at a time.  Although not totally absorbed in God at this early stage of the prayer of quiet, the will is occupied enough in prayer that it can choose to avoid being drawn off course by the thoughts suggested by the memory and intellect.

Steps toward Recollection by the Will:

Here are some basic concepts based on Chapter 15 of The Life:

1.  Once you go beyond vocal prayer and you want to begin contemplation, stop actively looking for words of confession and thanksgiving.  St. Teresa says, "What the soul has to do at those seasons wherein it is raised to the prayer of quiet is nothing more than to be gentle and without noise.  By noise, I mean going about with the understanding in search of words and reflections whereby to give God thanks for this grace, and heaping up its sins and imperfections together to show that it does not deserve it."  Our efforts to use words involve the memory and intellect, so we need to stop looking for words.

That does not mean that anyone should stop confession and thanksgiving as part of their prayer life.  Silent prayer, including the "prayer of quiet" discussed here, is never meant to become the entirety of anyone's prayer life.  It is always done in addition to the basics, and not instead of them.  There is time for morning and evening prayer, time for Mass, time for meditation on Scripture, time for pouring out my heart to God in petitions, and time for silent prayer.  The advice to stop looking for words of confession and thanksgiving only pertains to the time for silent prayer.  

2.  Don't try to force God's gift of complete recollection by an act of the will.  St. Teresa wrote, "Let the will quietly and wisely understand that it is not by dint of labour on our part that we can converse to any good purpose with God, and that our own efforts are only great logs of wood, laid on without discretion to quench this little spark; and let it confess this, and in humility say, O Lord, what can I do here?" 

In a similar vein, Abbot Joseph Chapman taught people to accept the prayer God gives them, and not to try to force themselves into feelings of any kind (letter XII); stop trying to do the impossible, and take the kind of prayer that is possible for you (letter XXII); "I must wish for exactly the state God wishes me to be in, whether it means distractions, or discouragements, or sleepiness, or merely emptiness" (letter LXXIII).  Abbot John Chapman, Spiritual Letters.

3.  Although the memory and intellect may offer thoughts, don't run after them.  Remember what St. Teresa said about the bees that would never get their honey made if they kept chasing after the other bees.  It is possible to remain quiet on one level while the intellect and memory wander on another.

From my own experience, I would add that we become conscious of a memory only when it is already in progress, and conscious of an idea when it has already begun to form.  The person who is trying to completely control these thoughts is really trying to control the past, retroactively, because the thoughts are already there when we first become conscious enough of them to begin to exercise the will.  But we can stop ourselves from running after them when we do become aware that they have led us off course.

There are no lockable barn doors on dovecots.  The doves will fly in and out, regardless of what is done to keep them there.  And once the dove is soaring over the Grand Canyon, it serves no purpose to wish it had remained in the dovecot.  But you don't have to follow it there.  Instead, go back to the Master and continue to wait in silence for the food He will bring.

4.  Occupy your mind with wordless thoughts such as caring for souls in purgatory, and with simple thoughts of love for God, to draw the mind away from analytical thoughts.  St. Teresa wrote, "Let the will stir up some of those reasons, which proceed from reason itself, to quicken its love, such as the fact of its being in a better state, and let it make certain acts of love, as what it will do for Him to whom it owes so much,—and that, as I said just now, without any noise of the understanding, in the search after profound reflections."

5.  Separate times for prayer and times for study.  St. Teresa wrote, "And though learning could not fail to be of great use to them, both before and after prayer, still, in the very time of prayer itself, there is little necessity for it . . . ."  And, "So, then, when the soul is in the prayer of quiet, let it repose in its rest—let learning be put on one side. The time will come when they may make use of it in the service of our Lord—when they that possess it will appreciate it so highly as to be glad that they had not neglected it even for all the treasures of the world, simply because it enables them to serve His Majesty; for it is a great help."

The analytical interest that occurs to us in prayer can be set aside for later analysis.  A contemplative can be an intellectual, as was the case for St. Edith Stein, but it is necessary to try to keep each in its place. That won't work entirely, as a contemplative will sometimes wonder into prayer when she is supposed to be doing her homework, or start thinking about her homework when she is trying to pray.  But when she becomes aware of it, it is the task of the will to set it aside for later and pay attention to the task at hand, keeping each in its own time.   And thoughts of work to be done later can pass without destroying the quiet awareness of God's presence if we don't chase after them.

A practical suggestion I learned long ago was to keep a notepad in the place where I usually pray.  If a thought comes to mind in prayer that really must be dealt with later, it can be quickly written down and set aside for later.  Once written down, the thought may go away.

Conclusion:

St. Teresa concludes her discussion of this level of prayer by saying that this prayer of quiet "is the beginning of all good; the flowers have so thriven, that they are on the point of budding."

This image of the doves and the dovecot is St. Teresa's key metaphoric use of doves in The Life. Elsewhere, she describes seeing doves in visions in The Life and The Relations.  I will probably write about those last, after writing about her other metaphoric uses of the dove image in Interior Castle.  It is Interior Castle's use -- the journey of the dove -- that I think may have been influence by John Cassian, as I mentioned last week.  In writing about that, there will be more  to say about the stages of prayer as seen in the writings of St. Teresa of Avila.

For more on dealing with distractions during silent prayer, see Silent Prayer in a Not-So-Silent Church.

Prayer and the Pope's Journey to the U.S.

Father Stephanos, O.S.B. of the Benedictine Prince of Peace Abbey, has posted part of a letter that the papal nuncio to the U.S. sent, asking contemplative religious communities to pray for the Pope's upcoming visit.  The letter, posted at Me Monk, Me Meander, asks for the following collaboration in prayer:

"Please take one of the activities of the Holy Father and make it the object of your adoration, of your prayers, of your consecration, of your suffering and self-offering. Invoke the wind of a new Pentecost on the Church in the USA; the joy of belonging to Christ and His Church, for individuals, for families, for communities; the pastoral creativity needed to bring Jesus Christ to all those who are thirsting for Him. Pray that the visit of the Successor of Peter may bring certainty also to those who have left the Church and constitute a warm and convincing invitation to come home. The Church of Jesus Christ is the Church built on the Rock of Peter."

Read the rest.  I think the idea of praying for a specific activity during the journey is an excellent idea for all who want to pray for the Pope's journey.

The Holy Father's planned activities can be found on the program on the Vatican website.

Our Sunday Visitor has a page where people can post their prayers for the Pope's visit online.  That page also has a prayer card for download, with a photo of the Holy Father and a short prayer for him.

Meanwhile, the website of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception offers a link for people who would like to submit a prayer request for the Pope to pray for their intentions at the papal vespers service on Wednesday, April 16.

Praise by Being

This post is the third and last in a series, following Art, Detachment and the Beauty of God and Nature, Contemplation and the Beauty of God.  The first spoke of art as leading us to contemplate God's beauty.  The second spoke of nature.  This post continues with the thought of the beauty of nature as directing our thoughts toward God, and speaks specifically of the animal kingdom as providing us an example of silent prayer.

Praise the Lord from the earth,
  You sea monsters and all deeps,
Fire and hail, snow and frost,
  Stormy wind fulfilling his command!

Mountains and all hills,
  fruit trees and all cedars!
Beasts and all cattle,
  Creeping things and flying birds!

-    Ps. 148:7-10

The psalmist does not distinguish between people, animals, the earth.  All things praise the Lord, although not all in the same way.  Some things praise God by simply being.  They are His creation, and in being His creation they reflect His glory as Creator.

There is something that we can learn from those who simply praise God by being what He intended them to be, in that we may praise Him at times in the silence of simply being who He intended us to be in relationship with Him and conscious of His presence within and around us.

The Catechism of the Catholic  Church (“CCC”) addresses the subject of animals at 2416 (emphasis added):

Animals are God's creatures.  He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory.  Thus men owe them kindness.  We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.

In footnote, CCC 2416 cites Matthew 6:26: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”

The King James Version of Psalm 42:1 is recorded in Herbert Howell’s choral composition "Like as the Hart", the way I learned it best, and I think it is beautiful: “Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God.”

In the Revised Standard Version, Psalm 42:1-2 says:

“As a hart longs for flowing streams,
so longs my soul for thee, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?”

The longing of an animal for water is mentioned by the Psalmist in analogy to his own longing and thirst for God.  He would not describe an animal as longing for God, but only for food and water.  Yet the animal’s way of being brought to his mind the presence of God and his own longing for the presence of God within his innermost self as a thirst.   We live and pray that thirst for God's presence with or without words, conscious that our longing draws us to see only "darkly" in this life, waiting to see God face to face in the kingdom of God to come (I Cor. 13:12).

The Curé d'Ars told of a peasant who regularly prayed before the Blessed Sacrament in a church ("Oh! how I loved to see that! I asked him once what he said to Our Lord during the long visits he made Him. Do you know what he told me? 'Eh, Monsieur le Curé, I say nothing to Him, I look at Him and He looks at me!' How beautiful, my children, how beautiful!").  The peasant, in silent Eucharistic adoration, praised God by simply being in the presence of God, aware of God’s presence, looking at God and knowing that he was known by God.

Psalm 104:24, 27-28 speaks of animals looking to God for their food, again remembered from the King James in a composition by Jean Berger (“The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season”) shown here in video:

“O Lord, how manifold are thy works!
  In wisdom hast thou made them all;
  The earth is full of thy creatures. . . .
These all look to thee,
  To give them their food in due season.
When thou givest to them, they gather it up;
  when thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good things.
When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed;
  When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created;
  And thou renewest the face of the ground.”

We too wait upon the Lord.  “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  (Isaiah 40:31).

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about the animals looking to God for their food in the Summa Theologica and in his Commentary on the Sentences.  In the Commentary on the Sentences, Book IV, dist. 15, Q 4, ad 4, he asks to whom praying is properly attributed.  “It appears that even brute animals pray” he says at first.  Psalm 146:9, he said, says that God gives them their food and the young crows call upon Him.  Calling upon God, he says, is praying.  “Prayer is an appetite declaring itself,” and the animals desire the good that God is.

Yet, he answers, God is known only through the intellect, and animals cannot know God.  St. Thomas calls to mind St. Augustine, who wrote that animals are said to obey the commands of God, not as if they understood them, but rather because they are moved by God through their instincts (Super Gen. ad Litt. IX 14.24-5).  In the same way, Aquinas mentioned, the animals are said to “call upon God” in the sense that “they have a natural desire for something which they obtain from God.”  They have appetites for such things, but they do not pray in the sense of planning, reasoning, and asking God for things.

In the Summa Theologica II.II, Q. 83, ad 10, he writes that prayer is not peculiar to rational creatures, and he mentions again that “animals can be said to call upon God”, mentioning again Psalm 146:9.  Again, he answers the point, arguing that prayer requires reason, and concluding:

“Young crows are said to call upon God because of the natural desire which makes all things in their own way desire the goodness of God.  It is similar to the way in which even brute animals are said to obey God because of their natural instinct by which they are moved by God.”

We can learn from the animals to praise God in who we are, and praising God in simply being in His presence, waiting upon God to meet our needs, and obedient to God’s moving through the Holy Spirit.  “Be still and know that I am God,” God said in Psalm 46:10.  In being still and silent in the presence of God, listening to God and seeking His presence within, we praise Him by our being.

Nature, Contemplation and the Beauty of God

This post will consider the contemplation of the God’s presence in creation, as viewed in Scripture, the writings of St. John of the Cross, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It follows both an earlier post titled Art, Detachment and the Beauty of God and my reflections over the past week during a retreat.  During that reatreat, Fr. Datius Kanjiramukil, O.C.D., spoke about contemplation and the presence of God, prompting part of this reflection.

Creation and Redemption

Nature, viewed as God’s creation, naturally draws the attention of anyone who contemplates the divine.  Metaphors drawn from nature appear throughout the Psalms and elsewhere in Scripture.   

The Apostle’s Creed affirms the role of God the Father almighty as “Creator of heaven and earth,” a role that can be seen in the first verse of Genesis, and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (“CCC”) 279.  God the Son and the Holy Spirit were also active in creation, so that the mystery of the Trinity is found in it (CCC 290 to 292).

Jesus, the Word of God, was the mediator of creation, as John 1:3 says, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”  Colossians 1:15 call him “the first-born of all creation,” and Colossians 1:16-17 says of Him:

“For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.  He is before all thing, and in him all things hold together.”

The latter phrase, that in Christ all things hold together, suggests a universal presence of Christ as creator in creation in the present. A distinction has to be drawn in that it is only of human beings that Galatians 4:6 says that “because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”  However, the omnipresent and omnipotent God is present in creation in a way that differs from His presence in the hearts of believers – a distinction developed in the writings of St. John of the Cross.

Moreover, Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 1:8, 17, 21:6), is also called the “first-born of the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent” (Col. 1:18).  In one of the passages in Revelation in which Jesus is called the Alpha and the Omega, we are told, “The one who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.”  (Rev. 21:5-6).  There will be a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem.  (Rev. 21:1-2).

Creation “Groans” Awaiting the Redemption

God’s role in creation is such that St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans 8:18-23 envisions all of creation groaning for the glory to be revealed in the redemption when all things will be made new:

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

The CCC explains this in sections 1046-1047:

“For the cosmos, Revelation affirms the profound common destiny of the material world and man:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God . . . in hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay. . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

“The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, 'so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just,' sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.”

Three related Greek words are translated as “groan,” “groans” and “the groaning” in Romans 8:22, 23 and 26.  The first two are in the verses that say that the whole creation has been “groaning in travail” (8:22, sustenazo, a verb meaning to groan together) and that we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit “groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons” (8:23, stenazo, meaning to sigh or groan).  The third follows at Romans 8:26-27 (stenagmos, a noun meaning a groaning or a sigh), saying that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” 

Although the word in Romans 8:26 is translated by the word “sigh” in the RSV translation used here, it is translated by a word closer to the other two elsewhere.  The New American Bible thus translates the three words as “creation is groaning,” “we also groan,” and “the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.”

A footnote in the French TOB translation, édition intégrale (1998), mentions the similarity of these three groanings of creation (8:22), the Christian (8:23), and the Spirit (8:26).

A footnote in the New American Bible mentions this groaning for the "full harvest of the Spirit's presence":

“Paul considers the destiny of the created world to be linked with the future that belongs to the believers.  As it shares in the penalty of corruption brought about by sin, so also will it share in the benefits of redemption and future glory that comprise the ultimate liberation of God's people (Romans 8:19-22).  After patient endurance in steadfast expectation, the full harvest of the Spirit's presence will be realized.  On earth believers enjoy the firstfruits, i.e., the Spirit, as a guarantee of the total liberation of their bodies from the influence of the rebellious old self (Romans 8:23).”

In the groaning of creation, I have wondered whether it is the presence of God in creation – the Holy Spirit – that “groans” in awaiting the new heaven and new earth, just as Colossians 1:17 says that in Christ “all things hold together.”  It allows for a less metaphoric understanding without attributing thought or voice to inanimate objects.  However, the text of Romans 8:22-26 does not draw so clear a meaning, and I did not find an exegetical source to either affirm or reject that interpretation.  St. John of the Cross does not suggest it.  Rather, I raise it as a possibility and invite comment if anyone cares to respond.

St. John of the Cross and the Presence of God in Creation

In The Spiritual Canticle, 11:3, St. John of the Cross described three forms of God’s presence:

(1)    Presence by essence is God’s presence in all creatures.  “With this presence he gives them life and being.  Should this essential presence be lacking to them, they would all be annihilated.”

(2)    Presence by grace is God’s presence indwelling the faithful who do not fall into mortal sin.

(3)    Presence by spiritual affection is God’s presence to devout souls in ways that refresh, delight and gladden them.

God’s “presence by essence” is like that described in Col. 1:17.  In Christ, St. Paul wrote, “all things hold together.” St. John of the Cross wrote, if God’s essential presence were lacking to anything or anyone, “they would all be annihilated.”

In The Spiritual Canticle, 5:4, he mentions another portion of Scripture from which he drew, which is John 12:32: “And when I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself.”  St. John of the Cross translated it “I will elevate all things to myself.”

He also drew that view in part from Pseudo-Augustine, Soliloquiorum animae ad Deum.  In The Spiritual Canticle 5:1, he mentions St. Augustine and adds: “God created all things with remarkable ease and brevity, and in them he left some trace of who he is, not only in giving all things being from nothing, but even by endowing them with innumerable graces and qualities, making them beautiful in a wonderful order and unfailing dependence on one another.”  All of this, he says, God did through the Word of God who created them.  In 5:2, he adds that “creatures are like a trace of God’s passing.  Through them one can track down his grandeur, might, wisdom, and other divine attributes.”

The view of God’s presence by grace and by spiritual affection in The Spiritual Canticle likewise has Scriptural sources.  Among those that support those concepts are John 14:17 (the Holy Spirit shall be with you and in you); John 15:5 (abide in me); Acts 2:4 (they were filled with the Holy Spirit); Gal. 2:20 (Christ lives in me); Eph. 2:22 (built together for a dwelling place of God); Eph. 4:6 (One God and Father who is above all, through all, and in you all); Phil. 2:13 (God works in you to will and do of his good pleasure); Col. 2:6 (walk in Christ).

Nature Draws Our Eyes to the Beauty of the Creator

Despite his view of God's presence by essence in all created things -- and somewhat because of it -- the use of nature in spiritual devotion was, for St. John of the Cross, always a means to an end, and never the end itself.  Its purpose is always to draw people into a deepening relationship with God who is both omnipresent and present in the hearts of believers.  The contemplation of nature is meant to draw people toward contemplation of God and His presence by grace in the heart of the contemplative.

He wrote that those places by which God moves the will include sites with “pleasant variations in the arrangement of the land and trees and provide solitary quietude, all of which naturally awakens devotion.”  (The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book III, 42:1).  He encouraged prayer either in the quietness of one’s own room or “in the solitary wilderness, and at the best and most quiet time of night” as Jesus prayed in Luke 6:12 (The Ascent, Book III, 44:4).  However, he advised people praying in such places to immediately direct their will to God “in forgetfulness of the place itself” (42:1).  They should try to be “interiorly with God and forget the place” (42:2).

As in the case of religious art discussed in a previous post, his interest in nature was in its ability to draw our attention to God’s magnificence, and not to the grandeur of nature itself.  “Fasten your eyes on Him alone,” he wrote in The Ascent, Book II, 22:5.  The beauty of the place served a purpose only if it leads the viewer to contemplate the beauty of the invisible God.

That view is still valid today.  In the Concluding Document of its 2006 Plenary Assembly, the Pontifical Council for Culture devoted part of its attention to nature.

Drawing from Wisdom 13:1-5, the Assembly wrote:

"There is an abyss between the ineffable beauty of God and its vestiges in creation, and the sacred author defines the aim of this ascendant dialogue: ‘through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author.’ (v.5) It is a matter of passing through the visible forms of natural things to climb up to their invisible author, the 'Completely Other', who we profess in the Creed: 'I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.'"

Among their Pastoral Proposals was that "particular attention to nature helps discover in it the mirror of the beauty of God" by "listening to creation that tells the glory of God" and by listening "to God who speaks to us through his creation and makes himself accessible to reason, according to the teaching of the First Vatican Council (Dei Filius, Ch. 2, can.1)."

I lift up my eyes to the hills,
  From whence does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
  who made heaven and earth.

- Psalm 121:1-2

Prayer Retreats in Silence

I just returned from one of Father Datius Kanjirmukil's Prayer Retreats in Silence.  I will not try to summarize anything he covered during the retreat, which needs to be learned in the retreat context.  However, I may later post something based on some of my own reflections from during the week, which may be indirectly related to what he presented.

The February retreat was full and 11 people were turned away, so they will repeat this retreat in June.  It is step 3 in a series, titled "Seeking God in Interiority", and it includes the transition from meditation to initial contemplation.  It is not necessary to attend the earlier retreats in the series before attending this one.

Some of those attending the retreat traveled from another state.  The retreats are well worth the trip to California to attend.  If you are interested in the June retreat, see the website, which has an online registration form and has an e-mail address for more information.

Benedict XVI on Lenten Prayer and Silence

At yesterday afternoon's Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of prayer.  I have not yet found a full translation of the homily.  There are articles about it online at Catholic News Service, Asia News, and Catholic News Agency.  Vatican Information Service offered a description of the homily from the Vatican.

Here is a portion of the description from Vatican Information Service:

"In his homily, the Pope reflected on the themes of prayer and suffering. "Lent", he said, "precisely because it invites people to prayer, penance and fasting, represents a providential moment to revive and strengthen our hope".

"Prayer "is the primary and foremost 'weapon' with which to 'face the struggle against the spirit of evil'", said the Holy Father, indicating that "without the element of prayer, the human 'I' ends up by closing in on itself and conscience, which should be the echo of the voice of God, risks being reduced to a mirror of the self. In the same way, interior dialogue becomes a monologue that gives rise to many forms of self-justification.

"Thus prayer is a guarantee of openness to others", he added. "Those who free themselves for God and His needs, open themselves to others, to the brothers and sisters who knock at the door of their hearts and ask to be heard, who ask for attention, for forgiveness, and sometimes for correction, but always in fraternal charity."

Today, he spoke of the importance of silence during a meeting with the clergy of Rome at the Hall of Benedictions at the Vatican.  Ten priests questioned the Pope on various issues.  One of his answers spoke of fasting from words and images during Lent in order to open our heart for the living Word.

[Updated 2/12/08, Zenit is posting English translations of the questions and answers.  Question 1 was posted 2/11/08, and Question 2 was posted today.  Sandro Magister also has a post on two questions and answers on his website.]

Papa Ratzinger Forum has an English translation of an article about it from L'Osservatore Romano, including this reference to his encouragement to greater silence and less of the media during Lent:

"The Holy Father also spoke of the usefulness of returning to the essentialness of word and image to rediscover the beauty of the faith. But Lent, he said, was a time to 'fast' from images in order to leave the heart open for the living Word against the constant sensory bombardment from the media."

Zenit also mentioned that aspect of the Holy Father's meeting with the clergy of Rome, saying that when the Pope was asked how to live Lent, he said, "It seems to me that the time of Lent should be a time of fasting from words and images, because we need a little silence, a little space, without being constantly bombarded with images."

Proposed Eucharistic Adoration for Reparation for Clergy Sex Abuse

In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano published January 4, Claudio Cardinal Hummes, O.F.M., Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, announced an initiative for prayer for priests, including worldwide Eucharistic adoration for reparation for the damage caused by clergy sex abuse.  Rorate Caeli has an English translation of two excerpts from the interview, and the full text in Italian. 

Catholic News Service has an article about it today.  According to that article, Cardinal Hummes said that while fewer than 1% of all priests are involved in problems with moral or sexual conduct, all priests need spiritual assistance to help them carry out their ministries.  The purpose of the initiative is to provide that spiritual assistance to clergy.  In addition, he said, the Church has always prayed for the reparation for the sins of all people.

The Cardinal sent a letter to bishops in December concerning the initiative.  That letter reportedly requests two things.  First, it seeks to have everyone participate in Eucharistic adoration in reparation for the damage that was done, upholding the integrity of the victims.  Secondly, the initiative seeks "spiritual mothers" to pray for priests and for vocations to the priesthood.

In the L'Osservatore Romano interview, the Cardinal said that this initiative for a worldwide movement of perpetual Eucharistic adoration is intended to foster prayer for priests 24 hours per day, "so that from every corner of the earth, prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, praise, intercession and reparation is always rising to God: a 'prayer without ceasing' to bring about a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priesthood and, in addition, to  spiritually support, with a sort of spiritual motherhood, the many already called to the priesthood." (my translation) 

The initiative specifically mentions Eucharistic adoration because the Eucharist is the center of the life of the Church.  In parishes throughout the world, people recognize that Jesus is present and can meet us in a direct way.   Moreover, the Eucharist has a special connection with the clergy, who are ordained first and foremost for the purpose of celebrating the Eucharist.

10 Points on Prayer and Contemplation in Spe Salvi

This post will be the first in a planned series of posts related to Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical, Spe Salvi.  This first post outlines the encyclical's statements as they relate to prayer and contemplation.  It is not a full summary of the encyclical.  Future posts will consider the encyclical's statements on some other issues.

For simplicity and clarification, quotations from Spe Salvi are in a different color from quotations from other documents quoted in this post.

1.   We seek the Blessed Life, but we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.

Mentioning St. Augustine's letter to Proba on prayer, Pope Benedict mentioned that St. Augustine wrote that ultimately, we only want one thing: the blessed life, and yet St. Augustine also wrote that we do not know what this is.  In this, Benedict said, Augustine is describing man's essential situation.  Discussing this, the Holy Father wrote (Section 11):

"But then Augustine also says: looking more closely, we have no idea what we ultimately desire, what we would really like.  We do not know this reality at all; even in those moments when we think we can reach out and touch it, it eludes us. 'We do not know what we should pray for as we ought,' he says, quoting Saint Paul (Rom 8:26)."

Also, in Section 12, the Holy Father wrote that this unknown thing we yearn for "is the true 'hope' which drives us," the "known unknown" called "eternal life."

Here is a portion of that letter from St. Augustine to Proba:

"For in the house of the Lord “all the days of life” are not days distinguished by their successively coming and passing away: the beginning of one day is not the end of another; but they are all alike unending in that place where the life which is made up of them has itself no end. In order to our obtaining this true blessed life, He who is Himself the True Blessed Life has taught us to pray, not with much speaking, as if our being heard depended upon the fluency with which we express ourselves, seeing that we are praying to One who, as the Lord tells us, “knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him. . . .

"But whoever desires from the Lord that “one thing,” and seeks after it, asks in certainty and in confidence, and has no fear lest when obtained it be injurious to him, seeing that, without it, anything else which he may have obtained by asking in a right way is of no advantage to him. The thing referred to is the one true and only happy life, in which, immortal and incorruptible in body and spirit, we may contemplate the joy of the Lord for ever. . . . At the same time, because this blessing is nothing else than the “peace which passeth all understanding,” even when we are asking it in our prayers, we know not what to pray for as we ought. For inasmuch as we cannot present it to our minds as it really is, we do not know it, but whatever image of it may be presented to our minds we reject, disown, and condemn; we know it is not what we are seeking, although we do not yet know enough to be able to define what we seek."

2.   The "Blessed Life" is community-oriented, and contemplatives perform a task for the whole Church and for the world.

Mentioning the same letter from St. Augustine to Proba, and also mentioning St. Bernard of Clairvaux's perspective on monasticism as including contemplation and agricultural work, Benedict wrote (Sections 14, 15):

"The real life, towards which we try to reach out again and again, is linked to a lived union with a 'people', and for each individual it can only be attained within this 'we.'  It presupposes that we escape from the prison of our 'I', because only in the openness of this universal subject does our gaze open out to the source of joy, to love itself -- to God.

While this community-oriented vision of the 'blessed life' is certainly directed beyond the present world, as such it also has to do with the building up of this world . . . In his [Bernard of Clairvaux's] view, monks perform a task for the whole Church and hence also for the world.  He uses many images to illustrate the responsibility that monks have towards the entire body of the Church, and indeed towards humanity; he applies to them the words of pseudo-Rufinus: 'The human race lives thanks to a few; were it not for them, the world would perish. . .'."

3.  Reason and faith need each other.

Discussing two great themes of "reason" and "freedom" in secular thought, Pope Benedict stated, in section 23, that "reason is God's great gift to man, and the victory of reason over unreason is also a goal of the Christian life."  Moreover, he says, reason is "urgently in need of integration through reason's openness to the saving forces of faith."  This applies to prayer in that he adds that there is no doubt that "God truly enters into human affairs only when, rather than being present merely in our thinking, he himself comes towards us and speaks to us.  Reason therefore needs faith if it is to be completely itself: reason and faith need one another in order to fulfil their true nature and their mission."

This point is not extensively applied to prayer in the encyclical.  That application is made more clear through considering this aspect of the encyclical in the light of other writings.  The need for faith and reason together is a common topic in Pope Benedict XVI's writings, which can also be found in other Church documents.  Among these, Pope John Paul II spoke of the integration of faith and reason in his apostolic letter "Master in the Faith" about St. John of the Cross.  There, among the sources cited were two documents from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith ("CDF") which were, in turn, issued by then-Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI).  In Master of the Faith, Pope John Paul II wrote:

"Rational man's superiority to the rest of mundane reality should not lead to pretensions of earthly dominion. Instead it ought to guide him toward his most proper end, union with God, to whom he is similar in dignity. For that reason, faith does not justify scorning human reason. Nor is human rationality to be regarded as opposed to the divine message. On the contrary, they work together in intimate collaboration: "A person can get sufficient guidance from natural reason, and the law and doctrine of the Gospel". Faith is not a disincarnate reality. Its proper subject is man a rational being, with his lights and limits. The theologian and the believer cannot renounce their rationality; instead, they must open it to the horizons of mystery."

Cited there by John Paul II is the CDF's document  "Instructions on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian," section 6,  which states:

"By its nature, faith appeals to reason because it reveals to man the truth of his destiny and the way to attain it. Revealed truth, to be sure, surpasses our telling. All our concepts fall short of its ultimately unfathomable grandeur (cf. Eph 3:19). Nonetheless, revealed truth beckons reason - God's gift fashioned for the assimilation of truth - to enter into its light and thereby come to  understand in a certain measure what it has believed. Theological science  responds to the invitation of truth as it seeks to understand the faith. It thereby aids the People of God in fulfilling the Apostle's command (cf. 1 Pet   3:15 ) to give an accounting for their hope to those who ask it."
 

4.   Prayer is essential to Christian hope.

In the subsection "Prayer as a school of hope," the Holy Father stated, in section 32, "A first essential setting for learning hope is prayer.  When no one listens to me any more, God still listens to me."  He used the example of the late Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, a prisoner in solitary confinement for 13 years, who found an "increasing power of hope" in the fact that he could listen and speak to God during his confinement.  Later, he became a witness for people throughout the world "to that great hope which does not wane even in the nights of solitude."

5.  Our hearts must be enlarged and cleansed.

Here, the Holy Father, in section 33, uses an image from St. Augustine's Homilies on the First Epistle of St. John (Homily IV), in which St. Augustine defined prayer as an exercise of desire.  Man was created to be filled by God, but his heart is too small and must be stretched by delaying this gift.  In St. Augustine's image, if God wants to fill us with honey (His goodness) but we are full of vinegar, our hearts must first be enlarged and cleansed.  The Pope wrote, "This requires hard work and is painful, but in this way alone do we become suited to that for which we are destined." 

6.  Proper prayer purifies us, opening us up to God and to others.

Also in section 33, the Holy Father continued:

"Even if Augustine speaks directly only of our capacity for God, it is nevertheless clear that through this effort by which we are freed from vinegar and the taste of vinegar, not only are we made free for God, but we also become open to others."

Thus, he said:

"To pray is not to step outside history and withdraw to our own private corner of happiness.  When we pray properly we undergo a process of inner purification which opens us up to God and thus to our fellow human beings as well."

7.   We must learn what is worthy of God.

Also in Section 33, the Holy Father said that we must "learn what we can truly ask of God -- what is worthy of God.  We must learn that we cannot pray against others."  Instead, he said, when we come before God, we are forced to recognize the "hidden lies with which we deceive ourselves" and recognize our own guilt, the "illusion of our innocence."  Our encounter with God awakens our conscience, he said, so that it "no longer aims at self-justification" and is no longer a reflection of self and of our contemporaries, but rather "becomes a capacity for listening to the Good itself."

8.   Praying must involve an intermingling of public and personal prayer.

In section 34, Pope Benedict wrote that, for prayer to develop such purification, it must be very personal and, at the same time, it must be "guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and again how to pray properly. . . . Praying must always involve this intermingling of public and personal prayer."  Christian hope, he said, is always hope for others and not merely for ourselves.

9.  Our prayer for others can play a small part in their purification.

In section 48, after a discussion of the transforming fire of purgatory in previous sections, Pope Benedict wrote of how our lives are involved with each other, and how that affects our prayer for other people:

"No one sins alone.  No one is saved alone.  The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve.  And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse.  So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death.  In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other -- my prayer for him -- can play a small part in his purification."

10.  It is never too late to hope.

Continuing in section 48, the Holy Father wrote that there is no need to convert earthly time into God's time in our prayer for the purification of others, in our hope for them:

"It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain.  In this way we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of hope.  Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it hope for me too.  As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself?  We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise?  Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well."

Simply gaze at him.

"Press on then with speed, I pray you.  Look ahead now and never mind what is behind; see what you still need, and not what you have; for this is how meekness is most quickly won and defended.  Now you have to stand in desire, all your lifelong, if you are to make progress in the way of perfection.  This desire must always be at work in your will, by the power of almighty God and by your own consent.  One point I must emphasize: He is a jealous lover and allows no other partnership, and he has no wish to work in your will unless he is there alone with you, by himself.  He asks no help but only you yourself.  His will is that you should simply gaze at him, and leave him to act alone."

- The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous, 14th century), Chapter 2.

Graphic from Gospel Clipart.

St. Paul of the Cross on Retiring from the Active Life for Good

Today is the feast day of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists.  Here is a portion of a letter he wrote to a nun who had retired from the superiorship to devote the rest of her life to prayer.   Mother Maria Cherubina Bresciani was the recipient of a number of his letters over the years.  St Paul of the Cross was about 67 years old when he wrote this letter from San Angelo, June 16, 1761, from Volume III of the Letters of St. Paul of the Cross.  I was reminded of it earlier this week when someone mentioned her aging mother whose apostolate now is in saying the rosary many times a day, a lesson both in how God can use people greatly at any stage in life and at how each of us has a usefulness to God appropriate to our own state in life:

Most Reverend Mother:

. . . I bless and magnify the mercies that blessed God continues toward your soul.  I rejoice that His Divine Majesty has taken away the burden of superiorship so that you will be better able to give yourself to the holy leisure of contemplation.  A very clear sign of what I am saying is that strong interior touch of holy love and contrition that you mention to me.  That is truly a great grace which purifies your soul and leaves it disposed for the holy union of love with our good God.  You need to be very grateful to the Lord, humble yourself always more, and consider yourself as unworthy.  Meanwhile, do not lose time, and see that your places of delight are only three, that is, first, the choir; second, your cell; and third and most important, the interior temple of your soul.  Never leave this interior temple, but there in pure and naked faith adore the Most High in spirit and in truth; there, take your repose on the loving bosom of God in a sacred silence of faith and holy love; there, take your repose in peace; and, if your soul, all absorbed in God, wishes to rest with a gentle sleep of love, which God grants to his beloved, take that sleep, for in the holy sleep the wisdom of the saints is acquired.  Do not arouse yourself without the permission of your Divine Spouse.

. . . Let your one thought be to please God, to do all for his glory, to remain in the interior solitude of your soul, and I assure you that your renunciation of the parlors will benefit you much."

Silent Prayer in a Not-So-Silent Church

Praying silently in a quiet church can be a deeply rewarding experience of prayer.  However, it is not always possible to find silence in a church.  Depending on the plans and needs of others, there may be people walking in and out, sight-seeing, having conversations right outside the door, preparing for a wedding or baptism they are planning for later in the day, or just unfamiliar with the silence expected by others in a church when Mass is not in progress.

This post is a collection of thoughts on how to pray silently in a noisy church:

1.  Accept distracted prayer as God's will for the present moment.  Keep in mind the words of Abbot John Chapman, that we should "wish for exactly the state God wishes me to be in, whether it means distractions, or discouragements, or sleepiness, or merely emptiness.  Nothing matters but God's Will; and we do not want simply God's Will, if we are really dissatisfied with what we get from Him." (Abbot John Chapman, Spiritual Letters).  When God gives us distracted prayer, it is best to pray the prayer that God has given rather than be further distracted by wishing the distractions would stop or wondering whether to complain.

2.  Be careful about posture in order to avoid the additional distractions that poor posture can create.  A good prayer posture is one that takes one's attention off of the body to make it easier to concentrate on prayer.  A straight back, hands in your lap palms up or palms down, both feet on the floor, can all reduce the distractions that we impose on ourselves.

3.  Relaxation exercises for a few moments can also calm our bodies amid distractions and prepare us to relax.  See the exercises for preparing to pray from pray-as-you-go.org for some suggestions.

4.  Recognize that if you can bond with a friend and listen to a friend in a noisy place, then you can bond with God and listen to God despite noise.  You may not find the same depth in prayer as you had hoped for, but that does not mean the time is wasted.  It may become a time to imagine Christ as present beside you and to speak to Him as to a friend.

5.  Plan for other unexpected distractions that may come to mind, especially when there is difficulty concentrating.  Keep a pen and paper near at hand.  If thoughts come to mind of things you need to do at home, write them down quickly, and set the paper aside.  That may keep the same thought from returning again.

6.  Plan for those disruptions that you know will happen so that they will be no more disruptive than necessary.  For example, if you know that you have to leave to go do something else at a specific time, check your mobile phone settings to see whether it is possible to set a minimally distracting alert (such as one short beep at a very low volume level or a flashing light without sound)  at a specific time, while still silencing any telephone calls.  If so, you can plan ahead for the reminder for when it is time to end your prayer instead of looking at your watch.

7.  Recognize that others may benefit from watching you pray.  Think of times in your past when you have noticed someone by simply the way they knelt in a pew or the way they held a rosary, and realize that such small things may be a consolation to others as well.  Remember the story told by the Curé d'Ars about the impression made by the sight of a peasant who regularly prayed before the Blessed Sacrament in a church ("Oh! how I loved to see that! I asked him once what he said to Our Lord during the long visits he made Him. Do you know what he told me? 'Eh, Monsieur le Curé, I say nothing to Him, I look at Him and He looks at me!' How beautiful, my children, how beautiful!").

8.  Pray for those who attract your attention during that time.  There is no need to look up.  The sound of another person's feet or voice may tell you they are in a hurry, stressed, depressed, elderly, or sick.  Even if you do not know their needs, God does.  Let them become a part of your prayer instead of a distraction from it.

9.  Be prepared with a thought or Scripture for meditation.  If the church becomes noisy, you can go to that meditation, thinking about the day's Gospel reading for Mass or a specific work of art in the church, and then when the church grows silent again, return to a less cerebral form of being in the presence of God, listening.  If the church grows noisy again, go back to your meditation.  If you have planned for it in advance, it will seem less disruptive.

10.  Remember that the distraction is only for now.  There will be silence later.

Abbot Joseph on Silence

Quiet, Please (from the blog Word Incarnate, by Abbot Joseph of the Mt. Tabor Monastery):

"When people visit our monastery from a busy city, they are sometimes perplexed and are not sure why. Something’s 'wrong,' radically different, but initially they don’t know what it is. Then it hits them: there’s no noise, but rather a deep and almost startling silence."

Read all.

A Prayer to St. Michael

September 29 is the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel.  Here is a prayer to St. Michael for help against spiritual enemies from Catholic Forum's Patron Saints Index:

Glorious Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly hosts, who stands always ready to give assistance to the people of God; who fought with the dragon, the old serpent, and cast him out of heaven, and now valiantly defends the Church of God that the gates of hell may never prevail against her, I earnestly entreat you to assist me also, in the painful and dangerous conflict which I sustain against the same formidible foe. Be with me, O mighty Prince! that I may courageously fight and vanquish that proud spirit, whom you, by the Divine Power, gloriously overthrew, and whom our powerful King, Jesus Christ, has, in our nature, completely overcome; so having triumphed over the enemy of my salvation, I may with you and the holy angels, praise the clemency of God who, having refused mercy to the rebellious angels after their fall, has granted repentance and forgiveness to fallen man. Amen.

Updated September29:

Canterbury Tales has the "long" St. Michael's Prayer from the raccolta.  The Patron Saints Index page on St. Michael also links to several other prayers, including the best known "Saint Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle."

Asia News has an article on the Holy Father's homily for the ordination of new bishops today, in which he spoke of the feast day and compared the role of bishops to that of "angels," as bishops were sometimes called "angels" in the Early Church and in Revelations.

Abbot Joseph on the Mystical Life

Abbot Joseph, at Word Incarnate, has a post today titled "On the Mystical Life."  He writes:

"We must give much “quality time” to the exploration of the world of prayer and meditation, to the search for “Him whom our hearts love.” Each of us has a unique contribution to make to the renewal of the Church and the transformation of the world. We can think that we make no difference in this grandiose endeavor only if we do not believe that we are united to Christ, the Wisdom and Power of God."

Read all.

Our Lady of Sorrows: The Flight into Egypt

September 15 is the  Feast Day of Our Lady of Sorrows.

The Passionist priest at Laus Crucis has posted a Novena for Our Lady of Sorrows.  He is also blogging with links to homilies and meditations on each of the sorrows of Our Lady.  There are daily podcasts.

Different versions of the sorrows may be found, but here are 7 traditional sorrows of Our Lady:

1. The Prophecy of Simeon.
2. The Flight into Egypt.
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days.
4. Meeting Jesus on the Way to Calvary.
5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus.
6. Jesus Taken Down from the Cross.
7. Jesus Laid in the Tomb.

Picture: Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Fra Bartolommeo, 1509, photo by me.  Museum information.

It is enough for us to have brought his power here

This is a travel video of l'Abbaye de Fontenay, a beautiful abbey founded by St. Bernard in 1118.  Today is the memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the twelfth century Mellifluous Doctor of the Church known as the last of the Church Fathers.

"He to whom there is no need to say anything knows what we desire (Wis. 7:27, Mt. 6:8).  We know that he can do everything. . . . It is enough for us to have brought his power here, to have given his holiness a reason, and we prefer to wait patiently upon his will rather than impudently to ask what he will not perhaps wish to do.  Perhaps what our deserving lacks our modesty will supply?"

- St. Bernard of Clairvaux, an excerpt from On Humility and Pride, as translated by G.R. Evans in Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works, Classics of Western Spirituality series.

We pray not for one, but for the whole people, because the whole people are one.

"Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not 'My Father, which art in heaven,' nor 'Give me this day my daily bread;' nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one. The God of peace and the Teacher of concord, who taught unity, willed that one should thus pray for all, even as He Himself bore us all in one. This law of prayer the three children observed when they were shut up in the fiery furnace, speaking together in prayer, and being of one heart in the agreement of the spirit; and this the faith of the sacred Scripture assures us, and in telling us how such as these prayed, gives an example which we ought to follow in our prayers, in order that we may be such as they were:  'Then these three,' it says, 'as if from one mouth sang an hymn, and blessed the Lord.' [Song of the Three Children 28] This law of prayer the three children observed when they were shut up in the fiery furnace, speaking together in prayer, and being of one heart in the agreement of the spirit; and this the faith of the sacred Scripture assures us, and in telling us how such as these prayed, gives an example which we ought to follow in our prayers, in order that we may be such as they were:  'Then these three,' it says, 'as if from one mouth sang an hymn, and blessed the Lord.' [Acts 1:14] They continued with one accord in prayer, declaring both by the urgency and by the agreement of their praying, that God, 'who maketh men to dwell of one mind in a house,' [Psalm 68:6] only admits into the divine and eternal home those among whom prayer is unanimous."

- St. Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise on the Lord's Prayer, Section 8.

"We have spoken of his thought on the Church but, lastly, let us not forget Cyprian's teaching on prayer. I am particularly fond of his treatise on the 'Our Father', which has been a great help to me in understanding and reciting the Lord's Prayer better.

"Cyprian teaches that it is precisely in the Lord's Prayer that the proper way to pray is presented to Christians. And he stresses that this prayer is in the plural in order that "the person who prays it might not pray for himself alone. 'Our prayer', he wrote, 'is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people, are one' (De Dom. orat. [Treatise on the Lord's Prayer], 8).

"Thus, personal and liturgical prayer seem to be strongly bound. Their unity stems from the fact that they respond to the same Word of God. The Christian does not say 'my Father"' but 'our Father', even in the secrecy of a closed room, because he knows that in every place, on every occasion, he is a member of one and the same Body."

- Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on St. Cyprian, June 6, 2007

The Prayer Requests of a Great Missionary: St. Boniface

May 5 is the memorial of St. Boniface of Mainz, also called St. Boniface of Devon.  Once called "the greatest Englishman," he was an eighth century missionary who is credited with converting much of Germany to the Church, and with bringing Christians who had fallen away from the Church back into communion with Rome.

Previous posts on this blog about St. Boniface include a biographical post about St. Boniface, a discussion of the importance of his work to western Europe's emergence from the Dark Ages in a post about 410 to 741, a quote from one of his letters ("The Ship of Christ, His Dearest Spouse"), and a post titled Reflections on St. Boniface, Blindness and Our Lenten Fast.

To honor his feast day, here are excerpts from 3 letters in which he asked others to pray for him.  There is similarity with what St. Teresa of Avila asked Carmelites to pray for priests in The Way of Perfection (discussed here: Prayer in a Time of Heresy).  These are the things one of Church history's most honored missionaries asked others to pray for him about, which could be taken as examples of what we might ask for the priests and missionaries of our own time (from Ephraim Emerton's translation of the Letters of St. Boniface):

Letter XXIII:
(A letter to Bishop Pehthelm of Shithorn in Scotland, written in 735)

"This German ocean is dangerous for sailors and we pray that we may reach the haven of eternal peace without stain or injury to our soul, and that while we are striving to offer the light of Gospel truth to the blind and ignorant who are unwilling to gaze upon it, we may not be wrapped in the darkness of our own sins, neither 'run or have run in vain,' but, upheld by your intercessions, may we go forward unspotted and enlightened into the splendor of eternity."

Letter LI:
(A letter to Bishop Daniel of Winchester, written ca. 742-746)

"In all these matters we seek first your intercession with God that we may finish the course of our ministry without injury to our soul.  We pray you from the depths of our heart to intercede for us, that God, the gracious comforter of his laborers, may keep our souls safe and free from sin in the midst of such tempestuous times."

Letter LIII:
(A letter to Abbess Eadburga of Thanet, written ca. 742-746)

"Pray, therefore, the merciful defender of our lives, the only refuge of the afflicted, the Lamb of God, who has taken away the sins of the world, to keep us safe from harm with his sheltering right hand, as we go among the dens of such wolves; that where there should be the lovely feet of those who bear the torch of Gospel peace, there may not be the dark and wandering footsteps of apostates, but that when our loins are girded the Father all-merciful may put blazing torches in our hands to enlighten the hearts of the Gentiles to the vision of the Gospel of the glory of Christ."

10 Tips on Praying Written Prayers

I spent Saturday and Sunday listening to Father Datius Kanjiramukil, O.C.D. talk about techniques for personal prayer.  This post, with quotes from some of my own reading, was inspired in part by some of the things he said.  However, it is not a summary of his instruction and does not necessarily reflect his thinking.  It contains my own thoughts influenced, in part, by his talks.  For each point, I found something from one of the great classic writers, and something related to it from the Scripture.  I added my own explanation afterward from what I had in mind. 

The written prayers included here range from prayers in Scripture to the prayers of the saints that we may incorporate into our own prayer, liturgical prayer including morning and evening prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, and simpler things like prayers on holy cards and prayers in simple books and even those found on various websites.  What they have in common is that they all differ from the form of personal prayer in which we speak to God from our own hearts in our own words, and they all differ from that contemplative prayer in which we listen quietly to God, in His presence.

Here are those tips:

1.  Written prayers can inspire personal meditation and prayer.

"If books, the lives of the saints, spiritual intercourse, bring us no peace it means that we are not surrendering ourselves to the duty of the present moment, and that we are stuffing our minds out of mere greed. . . .

"Divine action often brings to mystical books a meaning their authors never had.  For God uses the words and actions of others to reveal truths which they never intended.  This is the way God tells us his truths, and souls committed to him must take advantage of it.  Every means of divine action is always more effective and surpasses human virtue in excellence."

- Jean-Pierre DeCaussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God." [Col. 3:15-16 RSV]

Scripture should inspire and guide our prayers.  Beyond that, the words, songs and prayers of the saints and other Christians can teach and admonish us and encourage us in our worship and thankfulness.  At times, God uses other people's words, as well as the Word of G