A woman was the mother of ten children, the wildest bunch of kids you could imagine.The father traveled a lot in his work, so she was for all practical purposes, raising this wild bunch alone. The poor woman’s life was unbearable.
A nun from the local parish heard of her plight and visited her. Seeing their small house and the behavior of the children, the nun’s heart went out to the poor woman. She tried to provide her what little help and support she could. She offered the woman a playpen that someone had donated to the church. The distracted woman, who had never heard of a playpen, nevertheless welcomed the gift.
Sometime later, sister met the woman at church. With tears in her eyes, the mother thanked her for the gift. “That playpen has saved my life!” she said to sister. “It’s marvelous. Every afternoon at three o’clock, I jump into the playpen with a book and the children can’t get to me.”
Like the poor harassed mother, we all need that “out of the way” place to re-focus our lives. Like Jesus’ rising at dawn and going to a deserted place, we must create our own “out of the way” place in our own schedules: an early morning hour before the rest of the household wakes up, a brief visit to a church during lunch break, the last few minutes each evening before retiring. It can be a time for quiet prayer, for reading the Scriptures, for reflecting on the words and insights of some of the great spiritual writers.
Finding that “out of the way” place or creating within our day that “sacred time” to be alone with God can be the source of insight and grace that will illuminate every place and moment of our life.
We see that Jesus himself valued such “sacred time.” Today’s Gospel reading describes a typical day in the ministry of Jesus. He is so busy teaching and healing that at times he does not have time to eat or to sleep. And yet, he rose up early in the morning to be in communion with the Father.
If we come to know Jesus more personally and more closely, we will see that he was a man of prayer. Prayer preceded all the important events of his life. He spent 40 days praying in the desert before starting his public ministry. He spent a whole night in prayer before choosing the twelve apostles. Before every miracle he performed, he prayed to God. When the people wanted to make him king after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, he escaped to the mountain to pray. Before his passion and death, he spent long hours in agonizing prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane.
It is important to remember that when Jesus prayed, it was either praising God for His mercy and goodness, or to find the will of God: “Not my will, but Yours be done.” How differently from most of us, who remember God only when we need something badly.
Some people claim: “My action is my prayer.” I remember during the activism days of the ‘70s, one college girl told me, “I don’t go to Mass. I go to the masses.” That was a popular slogan among the activists. Aside from the play on words, there seems to be a grain of truth in it. If our liturgy does not sharpen our concern for the needy, if this concern does not lead us to action in behalf of the needy, what good are our Masses with thousands of people attending? But maybe the phrase should rather be “the Mass must lead us to the masses.” We must learn how to be with Jesus in his concern for the poor and the downtrodden.
But on the other hand, action without prayer can lead to mere ideological” strategy in a situation, or action according to one’s own idea of justice.
Years ago I was in a town in Zamboanga del Sur. A parish worker there was so angry with the brother of the mayor, who with the help of goons, set himself up as the dispatcher, and collected “tong” from the poor pump-boat operators. The church worker told me of such injustice, and he said, “Someday I’m going to kill that brother of the mayor.”
A true Christian must be a person of action and a person of prayer. St. Ignatius calls it a “contemplative in action.” What we do must be according to God’s will. And we cannot do this without prayer. When I was younger, a priest told me that to live a spiritual life without prayer is like a fish trying to swim without water.
The question is “How do we pray?” The answer is – there are as many ways as there are people. God relates to each one of us as a unique person with our own background and temperament. Just as we relate to our close friends spending time together, sharing fun and tears, we can do the same with Jesus. Not so much with suitcases of novena booklets, but with words and sentiments straight from our heart.
God speaks to us in many ways. The trouble is we don’t always listen or recognize His voice, because of the distractions of this world, like concern for riches, power, popularity, or certain questionable relationships. God’s voice is drowned out amidst all these distractions and attractions.
That is why the “sacred time” with the Lord is so important. It doesn’t have to be a five-to-eight-day retreat (although that would be most helpful), but everyone can spare 10-15 minutes each day to pray over some Gospel passages. This is the best way to get to know Christ personally.
Or, one can do the awareness exam at the end of the day. First, thank God for all the blessings for the day. Then try to look back to see how God has been present to you today, and how you have responded to Him. Next, be sorry for your lack of response, and thank Him for the successes and growth in your spiritual life. Then look forward to the next day to see how He is likely to encounter you. End with a closing prayer in your own words or the “Our Father.”
Fr. Mark Link, S.J. gives us three forms of prayer from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius:
The first form is meditation. A good name for meditation is mind praying. We simply think or reflect on some truths. For example, we think about Jesus and what he must have been like. In other words, meditation is simply taking some truths and exploring them prayerfully with the mind. This is a good starting point for the intellectual person, or “head people.”
The second form is conversation. A good name for conversation is heart praying. We simply converse with Jesus from the heart. We sometimes call it “heart to heart” talk. We converse with Jesus the way we would talk with a close friend. In other words, conversation is simply talking with Jesus prayerfully from the heart.
This brings us to the third form of prayer. It is called contemplation. A good name for contemplation is “soul praying.” In contemplation we don’t think about anything or say anything. We simply rest silently in Jesus’ presence.
Over 20 years ago, I was giving a retreat for the American National CLC Formation Course in Rhode Island, USA. Among my retreatants was an 84 year-old widow, Mrs. Spencer. She was a very holy woman but a bit forgetful. Sometimes I would meet her at the elevator and she would ask me, “Am I going up or down?” After three days of coming to me for guidance, she asked me, “What is your name again?” And since the retreat was an individually guided retreat, I would give her the Scripture passages for her prayer everyday. But every time she came back, she would have trouble looking for the sheet of paper with the passages I gave. But she said that whenever she entered the chapel she would feel so peaceful, so happy, and God was so close to her. I must humbly admit that the Lord Himself was guiding her, not me.
In brief, prayer normally takes one of the three forms: 1. Meditation or mind praying, 2. Conversation or heart praying, and 3. Contemplation or soul praying. Often these three forms are so interwoven in the same prayer that it is hard to say where one begins and the other ends.
Let us close with the words of Fr. Daniel Lord, S.J., when a young person asked him for advice on how to pray:
“Keep it simple
Pray to God as your Father,
To Jesus as your brother,
And to the Holy Spirit as your constant companion.”
And we might add:
“Pray to them the way Jesus invited us to love –
With our whole mind.
With our whole heart,
And with our whole soul.”