Saturday, October 10, 2015
There is Mystical Meaning to be Found in a Leaf....
We Must Guard Against Simplistic Reductionism
"All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism.
"This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.
"But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.
"The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps.
"We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.
"That is something which you, as a people, reject.
"Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice."
Americans Must Draw Upon Best of Their Traditions
Here are his main points:
1. Don't engage in ideological reductionism and fundamentalism, reducing our understanding of the world and human beings to stark contrasts of black-and-white. Stop demonizing people; find a way forward instead.
2. Welcome -- don't fear -- the "stranger" within your midst.
3. Matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. Political decisions should be taken at a local level if possible, rather than by a central authority (this is the definition of subsidiarity). The political process must not be ruled by economic financial interests.
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| President Abraham Lincoln |
4. If we want security, let us give security. If we want life, let us give life. If we want opportunities, let us give opportunity. The yardstick that we use for others will be used for us.
5. Human life is sacred, from conception until natural death, and this includes the lives of people convicted of crimes.
6. There must be compassion for those who are trapped within the cycle of poverty. The fight against poverty and hunger must be waged on many fronts and must be constant. The economy must be modern, inclusive and sustainable.
7. We need an inclusive conversation in order to re-direct our steps and to take courageous steps to combat poverty, promote human dignity and protect nature.
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| Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. |
8. A good political leader initiates processes rather than simply occupying space. It takes courage to re-establish dialogue with nations after dialogue has been interrupted (even for good reasons).
9. We must not be silent. We must confront and stop the global arms trade.
10. Three American sons and one American daughter who represent the American People: Lincoln represented liberty. Martin Luther King represented liberty, plurality and non-exclusion. Dorothy Day represented social justice and the rights of persons. Thomas Merton represented the capacity for dialogue and the openness to God.
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| Dorothy Day |
11. The family must be a recurrent theme in our public discourse and it has been essential to the building of this country. It is worthy of support and encouragement, yet it is threatened, as never before, both from within and without. We must be particularly concerned about the most vulnerable family members: the young, many of whom seem disoriented and are often trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.
12. We need to return to dialogue and contemplative peace as inspired by the example of Thomas Merton. America is the land of dreams and it will remain so as long as it follows the example of its own sons and daughter: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
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| Thomas Merton |
Social and Economic Exclusion, Impersonal Decision-Making, Culture of Waste: Inability to See Interconnections
The need for greater equity is especially true in the case of those bodies with effective executive capability, such as the Security Council, the Financial Agencies and the groups or mechanisms specifically created to deal with economic crises. This will help limit every kind of abuse or usury, especially where developing countries are concerned. The International Financial Agencies are should care for the sustainable development of countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.
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...It is helpful to recall that the limitation of power is an idea implicit in the concept of law itself. To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social groupings.
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The effective distribution of power (political, economic, defense-related, technological, etc.) among a plurality of subjects, and the creation of a juridical system for regulating claims and interests, are one concrete way of limiting power. Yet today’s world presents us with many false rights and – at the same time – broad sectors which are vulnerable, victims of power badly exercised: for example, the natural environment and the vast ranks of the excluded. These sectors are closely interconnected and made increasingly fragile by dominant political and economic relationships. That is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed, by working to protect the environment and by putting an end to exclusion.
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Man, for all his remarkable gifts, which “are signs of a uniqueness which transcends the spheres of physics and biology” (Laudato Si’, 81), is at the same time a part of these spheres. He possesses a body shaped by physical, chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and develop if the ecological environment is favorable. Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity.
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...Every creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence with other creatures. We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all religions, the environment is a fundamental good (cf. ibid.).
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Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offense against human rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most from such offenses, for three serious reasons: they are cast off by society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today’s widespread and quietly growing “culture of waste”.
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The classic definition of justice which I mentioned earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant and perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum cuique tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.
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It must never be forgotten that political and economic activity is only effective when it is understood as a prudential activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice and constantly conscious of the fact that, above and beyond our plans and programs, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights.
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To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family, in communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those areas in which human social life develops – friends, communities, towns and cities, schools, businesses and unions, provinces, nations, etc. This presupposes and requires the right to education – also for girls (excluded in certain places) – which is ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of the family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and social groups to support and assist families in the education of their children.
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At the same time, government leaders must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labor, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other civil rights.
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For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the implementation of the new agenda for development will be effective, practical and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and education. These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature itself.
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The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species. The baneful consequences of an irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by ambition for wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a forthright reflection on man: “man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Bundestag, 22 September 2011, cited in Laudato Si’, 6). Creation is compromised “where we ourselves have the final word… The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves” (ID. Address to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone, 6 August 2008, cited ibid.). Consequently, the defense of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman (cf. Laudato Si’, 155), and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions (cf. ibid., 123, 136).
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Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human development, the ideal of “saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war” (Charter of the United Nations, Preamble), and “promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” (ibid.), risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying out an ideological colonization by the imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to people’s identity and, in the end, irresponsible. War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war between nations and between peoples.
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...There is a need to ensure the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations, which constitutes truly a fundamental juridical norm ... When the Charter of the United Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity, and without ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice and not as a means of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will be obtained. When, on the other hand, the norm is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever it proves favorable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora’s box is opened, releasing uncontrollable forces which gravely harm defenseless populations, the cultural milieu and even the biological environment.
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The Preamble and the first Article of the Charter of the United Nations set forth the foundations of the international juridical framework: peace, the pacific solution of disputes and the development of friendly relations between the nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice denying them, is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations, which would end up as “nations united by fear and distrust”. There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full application of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete prohibition of these weapons.
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In wars and conflicts there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men and women, young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die. Human beings who are easily discarded when our only response is to draw up lists of problems, strategies and disagreements.
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The most basic understanding of human dignity compels the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities and to protect innocent peoples.
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[Their is] another kind of conflict which is not always so open, yet is silently killing millions of people. Another kind of war experienced by many of our societies as a result of the narcotics trade. A war which is taken for granted and poorly fought. Drug trafficking is by its very nature accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption. A corruption which has penetrated to different levels of social, political, military, artistic and religious life, and, in many cases, has given rise to a parallel structure which threatens the credibility of our institutions.
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I would hope that my words will be taken above all as a continuation of the final words of the address of Pope Paul VI; although spoken almost exactly fifty years ago, they remain ever timely. “The hour has come when a pause, a moment of recollection, reflection, even of prayer, is absolutely needed so that we may think back over our common origin, our history, our common destiny. The appeal to the moral conscience of man has never been as necessary as it is today… For the danger comes neither from progress nor from science; if these are used well, they can help to solve a great number of the serious problems besetting mankind (Address to the United Nations Organization, 4 October 1965). Among other things, human genius, well applied, will surely help to meet the grave challenges of ecological deterioration and of exclusion. As Paul VI said: “The real danger comes from man, who has at his disposal ever more powerful instruments that are as well fitted to bring about ruin as they are to achieve lofty conquests” (ibid.).
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The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic. This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature. Such understanding and respect call for a higher degree of wisdom, one which accepts transcendence, rejects the creation of an all-powerful élite, and recognizes that the full meaning of individual and collective life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and respectful use of creation for the common good. To repeat the words of Paul VI, “the edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but of shedding light on it” (ibid.).
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El Gaucho Martín Fierro, a classic of literature in my native land, says: “Brothers should stand by each other, because this is the first law; keep a true bond between you always, at every time – because if you fight among yourselves, you’ll be devoured by those outside”. The contemporary world, so apparently connected, is experiencing a growing and steady social fragmentation, which places at risk “the foundations of social life” and consequently leads to “battles over conflicting interests” (Laudato Si’, 229). The present time invites us to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society, so as to bear fruit in significant and positive historical events (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 223). We cannot permit ourselves to postpone “certain agendas” for the future. The future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of worldwide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and those in need.
Human Beings Discarded in Lists of Problems, Strategies and Disagreements
Pope Francis Speech to the UN September 25, 2015
Beyond Plans and Programs Are Real People Who Live, Struggle and Suffer
Pope Francis in his Speech to the UN on September 25, 2015
Man and His Environment are One
Pope Francis in his Speech to the UN September 25, 2015
Economic and Social Exclusion: By-Product of "Culture of Waste"
Pope Francis in his Speech to the UN on September 25, 2015
Social and Economic Exclusion Has Baneful Consequences
Pope Francis Speech to the UN on September 25, 2015
Rise of Parallel Structures Threaten Credibility of Public Institutions
Pope Francis Speech to the UN September 25, 2015
Society Connected And Fragmented; Battles Over Conflicting Interests
Pope Francis Speech to the UN on September 25, 2015
Universe is Fruit of Loving Creator
Pope Francis in his speech to the UN on September 25, 2015
Limitation of Power Implicit in Concept of Law
Pope Francis in his speech to the UN on September 25, 2015
Danger Arises Neither From Progress Nor Science, But Within Man
Pope Francis in his address to the UN on September 25, 2015
People Considered Disposable Because Treated As Statistic
Pope Francis, Speech to the UN, Sept. 25, 2015
Love Experienced in Families Empowers Us to Love Others
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| Pope Francis speaking to Festival of Families, 2015 Photo Credit: KCRA.com -- Getty Pool Image |
Summary: One encounters God through love. One encounters God through beauty and one encounters God through truth.
Even before creation, God loved because God IS love. God loved and could not contain himself within himself; He overflowed with love. God loved so greatly that all of creation flowed out of this love. This is why it is so important not to misuse or abuse the environment: it is a gift of God's love.
But all was not perfect; through turning away from God Man learned how to divide himself and fratricide began. Mankind is pulled in two directions: Man is pulled in the direction of love, beauty and truth, on the one hand, and hatred, war and destruction on the other. We are pulled in two directions and we must choose. We cannot escape this choice; at every moment of our lives we must choose.
So great is God's love that when men and women turned away from Him, God did not abandon them. So great was God's love that He began to walk with humanity through His people. He walked with them through history, gradually revealing Himself -- revealing his nature. He did this until the moment came when He made the highest expression of His love and his highest self-revelation: He gave humanity His own son.
Where did God send His son? He sent him amid a family. He sent him to a family that had a truly open heart. The family had to be open and receptive to God, even when they did not understand what was happening.
Even now God knocks on the door of families to be open to love, beauty and truth. If the family opens itself then love, beauty and truth will grow within it.
None of this is to dismiss some of the tensions, frustrations and problems that come with being a family. Relationships are hard. Being a family is often difficult. But there is also the hope of "resurrection" from these difficulties. The difficulties of families are overcome by Love.
Hatred cannot overcome difficulties. Divided hearts cannot overcome difficulties. Only Love has the power to do this. Love is about celebration; Love is joy -- Love is moving forward.
I leave you with two points about the family: We have to take care of children; they are young, and are the future and strength that moves us forward. We place our hope in them.
We also have to take care of grandparents; they are the living memory of the family. They transmit the faith to us.
To look after the children and the grandparents is the expression of love. A people who do not take care of children or look after grandparents is a people who have no future because they lack the strength for it and they lack the memory and the faith to move forward.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Laudato Si: Society Treats Environment As It Treats Human Beings
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| Image credit: Interestingimages.com |
Dr. David Cloutier, a Knott Professor in Catholic Theology at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, gave an insightful summary of Pope Francis' Encyclical, Laudato Si, on over-consumption, the environment and social justice. His talk was part of a panel discussion on the encyclical at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, on Wednesday evening, October 7th.
Clouteir, echoing the Pope's message, discussed human subordination to technology when technology becomes an end in itself, rather than a means to other ends. He also discussed how technology sets patterns for our lives and begins to take on a logic of its own.
One of the themes Cloutier focused on, from a theological perspective, was the interconnectedness of all things and the idea that human beings require harmonious systems for physical and spiritual survival.
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| Dr. Cloutier Photo credit: Mount Saint Mary's |
From and economic perspective Cloutier pointed out that we live in a culture where self-centeredness has become a virtue and our penchant for inexpensive things (clothing, electronic devices, and cheap food) as well as luxuries (fresh cut flowers out-of-season) and over-consumption creates economies that destroy the lives of the world's poorest populations.
Cloutier said, "A culture that throws away things will also throw away people." He argued that there is a relationship between the way a society treats people and how it treats the environment. "If we put profits above people then we end up putting profits above creation," he said.
He was joined by Carolyn Woo, President of Catholic Relief Services who discussed the need to address the three obstacles that prevent people from actively promoting social justice:
1. Denial: "There is no problem"
2. The Illusion of Separation: "Maybe there is a problem, but it's not MY problem."
3. The Illusion of Helplessness: "Maybe there is a problem, and maybe it is also MY problem, but there is nothing I can do about it."
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| Carolyn Woo Catholic Relief Services |
The speakers called on those in attendance to become involved in efforts for social responsibility. Websites that they mentioned, where people can find ways to become involved in efforts to promote social justice, included the Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Climate Covenant and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Lonnie Ellis, OFS, of Catholic Climate Covenant was the third speaker on the panel. The discussion was moderated by Mark Rohlena, Director, USCCB Committee for Domestic Social Development. The Most Reverend William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore, introduced and participated in the event. Rev. Thomas Hurst, P.S.S., President-Rector at St. Mary's Seminary and University gave the welcome and opening prayer.
Lonnie Ellis, OFS, of Catholic Climate Covenant was the third speaker on the panel. The discussion was moderated by Mark Rohlena, Director, USCCB Committee for Domestic Social Development. The Most Reverend William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore, introduced and participated in the event. Rev. Thomas Hurst, P.S.S., President-Rector at St. Mary's Seminary and University gave the welcome and opening prayer.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
The Grand Lady of Roland Avenue
The major seminary that the Bishop assigned me to was St. Mary's Seminary and University in the Roland Park section of Baltimore, Maryland.
Toward the end of July I drove down to St. Mary's for an interview. I drove a vehicle that was owned by the seminary and had GPS installed inside of it. I was also using the Google GPS on my cell phone. The two systems did not agree with each other about which route I should take to reach St. Mary's.
On the way down I relished the "debate" between the virtues of taking the toll road for most of the way down as opposed to the virtues of the non-toll interstate, but I began to get frustrated once I arrived in the Baltimore metropolitan area and the two systems were still debating with each other, each telling me to go in the exact opposite direction from the other. Since I followed the directions that Google gave me to get down to Baltimore I decided to follow the directions from the car's GPS now that I was in the city.
I was already late for the interview so I wasn't very pleased when the car's GPS took me to a fancy gated community and insisted that it had done its job and that I had arrived at my destination. I shut the car's system off and vowed never to doubt the wisdom of Google again.
Google brought me promptly to my destination.
Now, let me tell you something about St. Mary's; before seminarians are given their assignment they are required to do their own research on the prospective schools and write a summary of the merits of the top three schools they would like to attend, ranking them from most desirable to least desirable. I had done my homework on the three schools that I was considering. I talked to people who were attending each of the three schools and gathered as much information as I could from the internet. During this process I am sure that I saw every picture that was ever posted about St. Mary's. I knew the building was impressive, in fact that's what everyone said about it in their comments, but nothing could have prepared me for the sense of awe I felt as I drove down the narrow, tree-lined lane that Google was guiding me through, to the sudden opening that made all of those internet images come to life. There she was. There was no mistaking the building from all of the pictures I had seen, yet somehow she seemed much larger, much grander, than anything in my imagination.
There she stood, the grand Lady of Roland Avenue.
Since it was after hours when I arrived I knew I would have to find some way to catch the attention of the Vice Rector, Fr. Griswold, who was scheduled to meet me. As soon as I stood up to get out of the car I realized I had a problem -- I had to go to the bathroom. I had to go badly and my body was not going to give me much time to resolve the situation. I ran up the steps, banged on the door and rang the doorbell, with visions of making a first impression by wetting my pants.
There was no sign of life coming from inside the building and I could feel my body telling me that it couldn't keep the floodgates closed much longer.
I fumbled with my cell phone to call the vice rector, but my body was letting me know that my time was up. I looked over at some bushes that were off to the side of the building -- if I could just make a dash for them before the vice rector, or anybody else, answered the door ---
I ran for the bushes. Then I heard the front door of the building opening and the vice rector called my name.
(more, later...)
Monday, July 20, 2015
How Lectio Divina Might Very Well Be Thought of As Being the "School of Prayer"
The Liturgy of the Hours was a bit more difficult, and required greater maturity. The hardest part was becoming accustomed to the mechanics of this prayer, knowing how to flip back and forth between the pages and find the appropriate text for each section of the prayer. Once I got the hang of the mechanics of the thing the prayer itself was rather straight-forward; all I really had to do was read and listen for the voice of God. Of course, even this was more difficult that it might seem at first. Frequently the Psalms for a particular hour of liturgy did not fit my immediate mood or state-of-mind; the challenge was to subordinate my thoughts to those of the Church and of Christ speaking to me through the ages. Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is an act of shifting one's attention from oneself to the Mind of the Church.
Contemplative prayer and Eucharistic Adoration took yet another level of maturity. These were more easily done with the assistance of a spiritual text, to pull my focus back to Christ when my mind started to wander, but to simply dwell in the presence of Christ required a solid background in contemplating and becoming familiar with the voice of Christ that comes through frequently reading sacred scripture. In fact, I found that praying the Holy Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours helped prepare me for more fruitful contemplative prayer.
In all honesty, the prayer that came to me most grudgingly was Lectio Divina. I understood the Lectio as being a slow and contemplative reading of a small section of scripture, followed by silence and focusing on a passage, image or word that resonated with me. The technical aspect of the prayer was to become accustomed to the rhythm and pacing of reading and silence, reading and silence -- but unlike the Liturgy of the Hours, I was never really sure which part of scripture I should read at any given time and there was always the temptation to turn contemplation of sacred scripture into a Bible study characterized by analytical reading.
For these reasons, I thought of Lectio Divina as being the prayer that one should try to become proficient at last, after establishing reasonable proficiency in the other forms of prayer, but I think a reasonable case can be made for seeing the Lectio as the school of prayer, that helps to deepen the other forms of prayer in one's spiritual formation.
The point at which I became more comfortable with the lectio was when I moved away from an analytical "Bible study" approach to reading scripture during the prayer to listening for that single word, phrase, thought, emotion or image that I mentioned above, and turning it over and over in my mind until I heard what God was telling me.
It seems to me that the lectio might be thought of as being the school for other prayers because this skill of extracting a detail and turning it over and over in one's mind is also a fruitful practice when praying memorized prayers, the Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours. Frequently one is tempted to treat all four of these forms of prayer as something that requires a hard focus -- identifying each segment of the text and placing it, cognitively, in relation to the whole. The method of the lectio, however, suggests another approach. All that is required of one is to grasp the strongest impression or detail and to explore it deeply. This, again, is transferable to contemplative prayer because it provides the person in prayer with something to focus on and to open paths to contemplation.
In this sense, Lectio Divina helps us to slow down and savor sacred scripture. It is the difference between our attempt to have mastery over the text as opposed to allow the text to reveal to us what is in our soul and to speak to us of what God wants us to hear.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
How Do Catholics Pray?
Prayer has been a topic that has always had deep meaning for me. In explaining Catholicism to non-Catholics and to non-Christians I don't find it as helpful to get bogged down in questions of religious doctrine or apologetic -- that can come with time -- I think it is generally more fruitful to focus on the Catholic prayer experience. I believe that focusing on prayer life is a way to have constructive interactions across denominations and communions within Christianity, as well as inter and extra-faith dialogue.
Brother James Watson, OFM Cap., conducted the session and led the group in the practice of contemplative prayer. He also provided the group with an introductory course in Lectio Divina. My notes for this blog post focus on a quiz he gave the group about Catholic prayer. These notes provide a general outline of things one should know about Catholic prayer life:
What is a Catholic understanding of what prayer is? Prayer is a response in faith to the promises of God, it is raising one's heart to God, allowing God to know the depths of our hearts, and it is a covenant relationship between a person and God.
The virtue that is the foundation of prayer is not faith, hope or love, although each of those virtues is important; the virtue that is the foundation of prayer is humility -- it is submission to the will of God and the realization that nothing that we do of our own power will endure.
Is there an official prayer of the Catholic Church? Yes; the official prayer of the Church is the Liturgy of the Hours, which contains nine prayer sessions for different hours of the day, each day of the year. This is a way of liturgically experiencing the different phases of each day. The Liturgy of the Hours consists mostly of Psalms, but also readings from the Old and New Testament and passages from writing from Christian tradition.
Is there a prayer that is the source and summit of the Faith? Yes; the Mass is the prayer that is the source and summit of the Faith.
What book of the Old Testament is the "masterwork of prayer"? The book of Psalms is the masterwork of prayer, which is why we pray it during the Liturgy of the Hours. The early church prayed the Psalms, as did Jesus and his disciples and observant Jews 2,000 years ago.
What, for Christians, is the perfect model of prayer? There are a lot of impressive models of prayer for Christians, including Mary's Magnificant at the Annunciation and the Gloria in Excelsis Deo by the angels at the birth of Jesus, but the perfect model of prayer is the Our Father, which Jesus taught the disciples.
What is the right method for personal prayer, is it spontaneous prayer, formulaic prayer, or a combination of the two? Actually, the right method of personal prayer for Catholics is to pray as your heart dictates, in whatever form it takes.
How can we make sure God hears our prayers? Catholics believe that we can be sure that God hears our prayers by praying in the name of Jesus. We believe in the power of the Name.
Why do Catholics pray to Mary and the saints? Catholics pray to Mary and the saints because we want them to pray with us and for us. We do not pray to them in conjunction with God, nor do we pray to them because we believe they can answer our prayers.
When do Catholics believe it is appropriate to offer a prayer of thanksgiving? Catholics do not believe that the only time to offer a prayer of thanksgiving is when we receive something we want, or something that was unexpected, from God. We believe we should offer prayers of thanksgiving under all circumstances and that we should live in a state of thankfulness and praising God -- again, this is something that the Liturgy of the Hours helps us with.
Prayers of praise most immediately recognize that God is God.
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