A seminar on prayer?

by Fr Ian

I've still got two final posts on prayer to add to the eight sections already available.

In the first two posts, I tried to give a broad definition of Christian prayer, and Roland responded with some observations and criticisms in a post of his own. There was a good discussion in the comments below the posts.

Since then I've quickly added a further six posts, focusing on different aspects of prayer.

It occurred to me that we might be able to look at these six posts as a whole (because they're really just separate sections of a single essay) and have a kind of seminar using the comments box below this post.

So to make it easy to read them in order (by clicking on them, of course) here are the other posts so far:

Post 3: the necessity of prayer

Post 4: the primacy of prayer

Post 5: vocal prayer and mental prayer, or meditation

Post 6: affective prayer and contemplative prayer

Post 7: Christian meditation

Post 8: A method of contemplative prayer

I hope that at least some readers of these posts will find them interesting and even helpful. And I hope we might have an interesting and productive discussion below.

Here are all the posts, in the form of two PDF documents. Part 2 includes a section on the drift towards prayerlessness in the modern Church and another section containing some reassuring facts about prayer.

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (8)

by Fr Ian

A method of contemplative prayer

Father James Borst, a Mill Hill Missionary priest who worked in India for many years, formulated a basic method of contemplative prayer for use by all Christians.

Jim Borst, 1932-2018

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (7)

By Fr Ian

Keeping in mind everything that we’ve covered so far, in this post and the next I’d like to advocate two simple and practical ways of praying. These are two concrete practices that can help us move beyond a superficial level of prayer towards a more contemplative experience, strengthening the bond of communion between ourselves and God in the process.

'But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and you our Father who sees in secret will reward you' (Matthew 6:6) Photo: a room in a Capuchin Franciscan retreat centre.

Preparation for prayer: recollection

First let's recognise that if we want to pray well we can’t just turn rapidly from our ordinary daily activities and glide easily into profound conversation with God. We have to prepare ourselves beforehand. The Catholic spiritual tradition envisages three stages of preparation for prayer: immediate, proximate and remote.

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (6)

by Fr Ian

Different types and different stages of prayer, cont.

Alonso Cano, The Apparition of Christ Crucified to Saint Teresa de Jesus

Spanish, 1629, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

C. Affective prayer

A well-known saying of Saint Teresa of Avila is that in our relationship with God the important thing is not to think a great deal but to love a great deal.[16] The goal of prayer isn’t to entertain profound ideas and thoughts about God, even less to construct original theories about God, but to strengthen the bonds of a real, personal communion with God.

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (5)

by Fr Ian

Different types and different stages of prayer

We can divide prayer into two broad categories, which also describe the two main stages of progress in prayer: active and passive.

The early stages of Christian faith, the period of initial conversion, ascetic discipline and the development of basic Christian attitudes, tend to entail a lot of activity and effort on our part. As we progress spiritually we learn to rely far less on our own natural abilities and we surrender increasingly to God’s influence and direction.

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic Perspective (4)

by Fr Ian

The primacy of prayer

Prayer has primacy in the life of Christian discipleship first of all in the sense of priority: it comes first and constitutes the foundation on which all other elements of Christian life are built. 

It has primacy also in the sense of being, ultimately, the most important activity in Christian life. Of course Christians must give concrete expression to their love of neighbour and their commitment to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. But we also have to take to heart Jesus’ important teaching during his visit to his friends Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38-42).

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary by Johannes Vermeer

While Martha made agitated efforts to serve Jesus, Mary sat quietly and conversed with him and listened to him.

Christian tradition has always interpreted Jesus’ remarks on this occasion as affirming the greater necessity of contemplation over activity. Attentiveness to God, adoration of God and listening to God have to come first, before acts of practical love and service of God and neighbour. Jesus taught Martha this lesson by reprimanding her gently, suggesting that in her state of fuss and distraction she was neglecting ‘the one needful thing’. Mary, by contrast, had chosen ‘the good portion’.

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (3)

by Fr Ian

In Parts 1 and 2 I tried to give a basic definition of Christian prayer and I claimed that prayer is a necessary activity, and the primary activity, for Christian believers. In the next two posts I'll say more about these two aspects of prayer. 

'Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, 

left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed' (Mark 1:35).

The necessity of prayer

As human beings we need prayer because we need God.

We don’t have to be religious-minded to conclude that human beings are driven by a kind of ‘hunger of the heart’, made up of various needs or longings that overlap and connect with each other. We have a longing for happiness and fulfilment in our lives. We seek purpose and meaning in our activities and our relationships, and we have a need for love - a need to give love to others and to receive love from them.

Is it time to re-think what we mean by prayer?

By Revd Roland

Before Fr Ian continues his series on prayer Revd Roland questions the relevance of such a traditional understanding.

Does the conventional view of God treat us all like children?

Ian's articles on prayer are interesting, profound and very conventional, but I think it is Ray's simple comment that really challenges our understanding of prayer. I too would challenge those who speak in the language of :

"Oh, when I have a problem, a question to solve in my life, I ask God and he answers me" (and presumably always gives the right answer).

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (2)

by Fr Ian

(Part 1 of this reflection is here)

Our essential poverty

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)

I ended the first part of this reflection on Christian prayer with Saint Augustine’s remark that before God we are all beggars. And certainly for many of us it’s some experience of overwhelming need or suffering, beyond our control, that first drives home to us the essential poverty of our human condition (Mt 5:3; Lk 6:20) and provides the impetus that moves us to prayer.

According to the moral theologian Fritz Tillman, if an individual doesn’t pray when in need, whether it be either spiritual or material, ‘he is without the most efficacious source of interior strength, and it is thus his own fault if he cannot muster the energy to overcome the trial’ [2]

Turning to God and asking him for help, with trust in his goodness and power, honours God and brings us closer to him precisely in the Father-child relationship that he invites us into.

Christian Prayer: reflections from a Catholic perspective (1)

by Fr Ian  

Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7.)

A Carthusian monk praying in his cell

In a series of six or so posts I’d like to try to broadly define the nature of Christian prayer, to spell out some of the different types and grades of prayer, and to explain some of the attitudes we need to cultivate in order to pray, and to pray well. 

In addition to that, I’ll try to present some reassuring facts about prayer, to help counter the discouragement we can easily feel towards an activity that most Christians have always found difficult - difficult to grasp and difficult to practise. 

Then, to end with, I’ll outline two specific ways of prayer: meditation using Scripture, or perhaps some other appropriate spiritual writing, and a simple form of contemplative prayer advocated by the Mill Hill Missionary Father James Borst.

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