The Catechism of the Catholic Church dedicates almost a hundred pages to the topic of prayer. It offers several definitions of prayer. It delineates the many kinds of prayer such as prayer of petition, liturgical prayer, meditation, prayer of praise, charismatic prayer and contemplation.
In my treatment of prayer, I am going to use the definition of Thomas Merton and the added insights of Teresa of Avila. When talking about committed personal prayer, Merton states:
“Prayer then means yearning for the simple presence of God, for a personal understanding of God’s Word, for knowledge of God’s will, and for the capacity to hear and obey God.”
Teresa says prayer “is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him we know loves us.” All prayer must raise our awareness of God’s loving presence. Humility is the foundation of prayer. It moves us to realize our total dependence on God.
We need to engage God’s Word. The most privileged way of this encounter is in the Bible but also in the experiences of our life. Spiritual reading primarily enriches our context for prayer. However, it too, can be a fertile source to facilitate contact with God.
The encounter with God’s Word leads us to God’s will, a call out of our selfishness to generosity toward God and others. In this prayer, listening is the key. New insight into the reality of God’s will guides our way of living with a fresh openness to humility, service and love. This dialogue involves one we know loves us.
When I use the description of committed personal prayer it can include several types of prayer: vocal, mental, meditation, Lectio Divina, and contemplative prayer. The commitment to prayer requires a discipline to pray on a regular basis. This distinguishes this prayer from spontaneous prayer which can happen any time such as walking the dog, reading, or watching a movie. Committed personal prayer is an effort to bring prayer into life habitually no matter how we feel. It might start out as only fifteen minutes a day but with commitment, discipline and generosity it will grow. It will gradually transform our lives. It leads us in a journey of love whose final goal is to be totally in love with God.
Five Points of Prayer
There are five important points in Merton’s definition of prayer. The first is that we focus on the presence of God. This demands a conscious effort to direct our attention to an experience of the sacred. Secondly, we bring God’s Word into our mind seeking understanding. Thirdly, this reflection should lead us to sense of what God wants of us. Fourthly we bring this insight to our life so the Word speaks to us and leads us in the fifth step, living in obedience to God’s call. Prayer is all about life and the way we live.
I have chosen to use the structure of Lectio Divina as a model in talking about deep personal prayer. Lectio Divina is a prayerful reading of the Bible or at times reflection on a profound personal experience. It involves four steps: reading, reflecting, responding and resting. There are many other methods of mental prayer or meditation. If you are familiar and more comfortable using other approaches, this is no problem. We should always pray as we can, not as we ought. We need to use what works for us.
As we begin committed personal prayer, the first item is to gather ourselves so we can pay attention to the fact that we are in the loving presence of God. This centering of our focus, helps us realize that God is always intimately present to us.
The heart is the deepest truth about us. The Bible speaks of the heart almost a thousand times. It is the heart that is the source of prayer. The heart is where we encounter our most real self. It is our center even beyond our power of reason. In prayer, we want to bring the heart into our encounter with God. It is about a sense of presence seeking deeper communion with God.
In sum, prayer is gathering all our faculties to pay attention to the intimate presence of God to seek communion. We have a sense of a sacred presence calling us to life in love. “Listen, I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Rv 3:20)
The first steps of Lectio Divina, the reading and the reflection, may take the majority of the time as we begin the quest for a committed personal prayer. However, their job is to bring us to a deeper sense of presence so we can seek communion. These are the last two steps of responding in prayer with an open heart and resting in silence in the loving presence of the one we know loves us.
The single greatest obstacle to prayer is not to begin. The second is the relentless attack of distractions. The resolution of distractions is an on-going problem that needs much attention but ultimately it is a return to our focal point.
This experience of committed personal prayer seeks to clarify the will of God in the concrete reality of our daily experience. True prayer empowers us to bring God’s love to our life in service of the Kingdom.
The Hidden Treasure
A good place to delve more deeply into the gift of prayer is the parable of the lost treasure. There are three steps in this parable: finding the treasure, selling all we have, and buying the field.
The “finding” comes from a sense of hunger in the depths of the heart, a sense of incompleteness. There is a perception that life holds more than what we have. Carmelite spirituality builds on the central Gospel truth that God loves us first and loves us as we are. The “finding” we experience is rooted in our encounter with God’s love for us in our brokenness. We believe that God is at the deepest and most real part of our being. God is the center. However, we seldom pay much attention to this reality. True prayer will draw us into an encounter with God at the center.
The “selling” involves making a commitment to pray. This costs us our time and comfort. Creating a schedule, building an atmosphere, and discovering and practicing a method of prayer all come at a cost: self-sacrifice.
What we are doing is making space for God in a crescendoing surrender to God’s terms. In the process, we gradually learn God always wants more from us.
The “buying” brings us to the practice of prayer in a regular and disciplined part of our lifestyle.
The initial atmosphere for prayer is important. We need to minimize the distractions by seeking the most silence and solitude that is a practical reality for us. It is our responsibility to create this supportive environment. We need to be aware of who it is we are encountering. We need a sense of the sacred in our effort. Secondly, prayer always has to be rooted in love responding to love. Thirdly, prayer needs to come from a heart yearning for faithfulness to love, not just a mind having the right ideas. In prayer, insight is important, but it is always trumped by love.
All prayer must begin with a sense of the loving presence of God. The material we read, the thoughts that lead to reflection almost always have a spark of light. At times, it is more like a lightning storm. This touches our spirit. The discernments call us to change. We accept the challenge. This is the bridge between our heart and our life. It is always rooted in a connection of God’s loving call, our acceptance in our poverty and our determination to make it happen.
Prayer relates to how we live not how we feel. Most often, God gives beginners at prayer a sense of peace and progress. Gradually God weans us from the beautiful feelings to sharpen our focus away from ourselves and towards God. We need to hunger for the God of consolations and not the consolations of God. This will be an ongoing battle for all who are serious about prayer.
Self-Knowledge
Self-knowledge that is genuine always helps our prayer. In turn, self-knowledge grows when our prayer is authentic. A major purpose of prayer is to draw us out of a world of self-deception, illusions, and a sense of self-grandiosity that places us at the center of our consciousness. The slow process of growing in self-knowledge leads to that gradual development of personal transformation called conversion which is repeated at several levels. The journey to refocus and recognize God at the center is only possible when we acknowledge our sinfulness and pettiness. Once again, humility surfaces as essential to our prayer journey. To encounter ourselves with honesty is a challenging task. It is not a joyful part of our passage. Another name for it is getting real.
Teresa of Avila says the path of self-knowledge and its sister, humility, must never be abandoned. This includes the highest forms of prayer as well as the beginner’s prayer.
With faithfulness to prayer we slowly grow in patience. The possibilities of reconciliation come out of nowhere. Situations where it was difficult to see the other side of a story now often open up to four or five different valid points of view. The prejudices of a lifetime get exposed for exactly what they are, a lie.
These are just some of the benefits of self-knowledge and humility flowing out of a life of faithfulness to prayer. This is the expansion of the purification and transformation of the Carmelite Way. It is the dynamic beginning of the Pilgrimage to God.
