Contemplative Haven

Every morning when I turn on my computer, my homepage says:

Sympatico.ca -  Where Canadians start their day

Catchy, I suppose.  Sad, really.

Let’s start our day with prayer, my fellow Canadians.  I promise it will give you a whole different perspective on those headlines you’re confronted with every morning.

Artwork:  “Dawn”, by Tom Thomson (Group of Seven)

Part 6: Exploring Prayer of the Heart (Based on Chapter 31) Way of Perfection

Sister Donna does such a thorough job in Part 6 of explaining Chapter 31 that there is really nothing left of the chapter for me to highlight!  I love her own comparison of this prayer of quiet to a baby totally surrendering to sleep in the arms of a trusted parent.

Perhaps I will just re-emphasize one point in the chapter that Sister Donna has also covered in her video, that of the desire one feels to prolong this state, because I think it is something many of us have experienced, especially early on.  Teresa writes:  “The will is the one that is captive here.  If there is some sorrow that can be experienced while in this state, that sorrow comes from a realization that the will must return to the state of being free.”  A little further in the chapter, where Sister Donna speaks of some peoples’ fear of even taking a breath lest the prayer of quiet disappear, Teresa says, “This is foolish, for just as there’s nothing we can do to make the sun rise, there’s little we can do to keep it from setting.  This prayer is no longer our work, for it’s something very supernatural and something very much beyond our power to acquire by ourselves.  The best way to hold on to this favor is to understand clearly that we can neither bring it about nor remove it; we can only receive it with gratitude, as most unworthy of it…”

I would like to thank Sister Donna once again for her work in putting together this series and sharing both St. Teresa of Avila’s insights with us, as well as her own. God bless and protect you in your continued evangelization and in your life of prayer, Sister Donna, and know that we are inspired and grateful for you living out your vocation in such a way that we all may benefit from it.

Prayer for All the Faithful Departed

Heavenly Father, I believe that in Your wisdom and justice You willed to purify all persons who die without having attained the state that they need for all eternity, all who have still to expiate completely the sins committed on earth. I also believe that You have mercifully arranged that this process of purification can be aided by the prayers of the living, especially the Eucharist.

Help me to pray for my brothers and sisters who have departed from this world. May their time of purification be short and they be quickly guided into that holy light promised by our Lord to Abraham and his descendents. I offer You sacrifices and prayers of praise. Accept them for all the souls of the faithful departed and admit them all to heavenly joy. Amen.

[From: The Catholic Book of Prayers]

Beautiful.

Fun.

Part 5: Exploring Prayer of the Heart (Based on Chapter 30) Way of Perfection

…it may seem to anyone who doesn’t know about the matter that vocal prayer doesn’t go with contemplation; but I know that it does.  Pardon me, but I want to say this:  I know there are many persons who while praying vocally, as has already been mentioned, are raised by God to sublime contemplation [without their striving for anything or understanding how.  It's because of this that I insist so much, daughters, upon your reciting vocal prayer well.] 

…and in her fiesty, no-nonsense way that we’ve come to love:

…those of you who are the enemies of contemplatives should not think that you are free from being a contemplative if you recite your vocal prayers as they should be recited, with a pure conscience. [And so I will speak of this again. Whoever doesn't want to hear it may pass on.]  

Recover for me, my God, the time I have lost by giving me grace in the present and in the future, so that I may appear before You with nuptial garments, for You can do this if You wish.

[Lingering with My Lord. Post-Communion Experiences of St. Teresa of Avila, Introduction and Translation by Michael D. Griffin, O.C.D., pg. 36]

Part 4: Exploring Prayer of the Heart (Based on Chapter 29) Way of Perfection 

Chapter 29 continues with the prayer of recollection, and as Sr. Donna points out and as St. Teresa writes, “…this recollection is not a silence of the faculties; it is an enclosure of the faculties within the soul.”  St. Teresa is teaching us in this chapter “how vocal prayer should be recited well”, and that even if repetition is involved, “we should see and be present to the One with whom we speak without turning our backs on Him, for I don’t think speaking with God while thinking of a thousand other vanities would amount to anything else but turning our backs on Him.”

Our holy desires and our wills are very active and important in this prayer of recollection, for it is not infused prayer.  St. Teresa is teaching us here of how to “disengage ourselves from everything so as to approach God interiorly and even in the midst of occupations withdraw within ourselves.”  This is something we can “desire and achieve ourselves with the help of God”, and she writes words of encouragement, knowing that in the midst of our busy days and exterior distractions there may be times when we have to “force ourselves to be close to this Lord”, but that He will “understand us as if through sign language” and that “He is very fond of taking away our difficulty.”

For those who have difficulty recollecting themselves, St. Teresa recommends saying the Our Father even if “no more than once in an hour”, telling us that this is a manner of praying that the soul gets used to quickly, that “everything involves struggle before the habit is acquired” and that it involves “a gradual increase of self-control.”

…few are the times when I manage to contemplate with my intellect.

Very often, what happens to me then is that when the continuous thought of God, of whom I am always aware, distances itself a bit from my mind, I suddenly feel myself touched by our Lord right at the center of my soul in such a soothing and penetrating way that, more often than not, I am forced to shed tears of sorrow for my infidelity and for the tender mercy of having a Father who is so good to call me back to His presence….

It seems to me that time flies by rapidly and I never have enough for prayer. I am very fond of good literature, but I read very little both because I am hindered by my infirmities and because, after opening a book and reading briefly, I find myself so profoundly absorbed my reading becomes prayer.

[From: Secrets of a Soul. Padre Pio's Letters to His Spiritual Directors, pgs. 55-57]

Part 3: Exploring Prayer of the Heart (Based on Chapter 28) The Prayer of Recollection

“…wherever God is, there is heaven.”

“Do you think it matters little for a soul with a wandering mind to understand this truth and see that there is no need to go to heaven in order to speak with one’s Eternal Father or find delight in Him?  Nor is there any need to shout.  However softly we speak, He is near enough to hear us.”

“All one need do is go into solitude and look at Him within oneself, and not turn away from so good a Guest but with great humility speak to Him as to a father.”

“This prayer is called “recollection,” because the soul collects its faculties together and enters within itself to be with its God.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sister Donna makes another great connection between prayer of the heart and Mass in this segment.  When she is describing how St. Teresa of Avila says that God does not come alone into our hearts when we pray, but with all of His courtiers (the angels, the saints and those who have gone before us), she connects this to the Introductory Dialogue (just after the Prayer Over the Gifts): ”Lift up your hearts.  We lift them up to the Lord”.  We then proceed to the Eucharistic Prayer, where we pray in union with the whole Church and in communion with the saints.  

Part 2: What is Prayer of the Heart?

I like very much Sister Donna’s insight that Lectio Divina and prayer of the heart go hand-in-hand; that we immerse ourselves in sacred reading and then offer ourselves to God and He to us, exactly in the same way as when we participate in the two parts of the Mass, first through the Liturgy of the Word and then through the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I have never heard anyone make this particular comparison before.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

There are some souls and minds so scattered they are like wild horses no one can stop. Now they’re running here, now there, always restless…. This restlessness is either caused by the soul’s nature or permitted by God. I pity these souls greatly, for they seem to be like very thirsty persons who see water in the distance, but when they want to go there, they meet someone who prevents their passing from the beginning through the middle to the end.

[The Way of Perfection, Chapter 19, Paragraph 2]

O Sisters, those of you who cannot engage in much discursive reflection with the intellect or keep your mind from distraction, get used to this practice! Get used to it! See, I know that you can do this; for I suffered many years from the trial – and it is a very great one – of not being able to quiet the mind in anything. But I know that the Lord does not leave us so abandoned; for if we humbly ask Him for this friendship, He will not deny it to us. And if we cannot succeed in one year, we will succeed later. Let’s not regret the time that is so well spent. Who’s making us hurry? I am speaking of acquiring this habit and of striving to walk alongside this true Master.

[The Way of Perfection, Chapter 26, Paragraph 2]