Dominica XX post Pentecosten - Spiritual Life (Prayer)

PRESENTATION: What is Prayer?

Today we come to the end of our series on the Principal Interior Means of Perfection and consider our last topic, prayer. Prayer embodies and completes all the preceding acts. It is itself a desire for perfection since no one would sincerely pray who did not wish to become better. It presupposes some knowledge of God and of self since it establishes relations between the two. It conforms our will to that of God since any good prayer contains, explicitly or implicitly, an act of submission to Our Sovereign Master.

Prayer, moreover, perfects all these acts by bringing us in all humility before the Majesty of God in order to adore Him and to implore new graces that will enable us to grow in perfection.

Before we consider the efficacy of prayer as a means of perfection and the way in which our lives are transformed by habitual prayer, we first need to define what prayer is.

St. John Damascene defines prayer as “an elevation of the soul to God.” St. Augustine called prayer “the soul’s affectionate quest of God.” In a narrower sense, St. John Damascene also described prayer as “the asking of seemly things from God.” Finally, St. Gregory of Nyssa calls prayer “a familiar conversation with God.” Taken together, we may define prayer as an elevation of our soul to God to offer Him our homage and ask His favours in order to grow in holiness for His glory.

With this definition in mind, we can distinguish two ends of prayer, prayer of worship and prayer of petition.

Prayer of Worship includes adoration of God as our Sovereign Master. We acknowledge God’s supreme dominion and our absolute dependence. This is followed by thanksgiving because God is also our Benefactor, to Whom we owe all that we are and all that we have. Third, it includes reparation. We have too often offended God’s infinite majesty, using His gifts to offend Him. This constitutes an injustice requiring as full a reparation as we are able to offer.

Prayer of Petition, asking of God what we need, is an act of homage rendered to Him, to His power and His goodness. God longs to communicate goodness to souls, and we stand in sore need of God’s help. We might occasionally hear the objection that God’s omniscience is already aware of our needs. St. Thomas responds that God does not bestow upon us innumerable benefits unasked and unsought. Some He will only grant at our request for our own good, in order that we should place our confidence in Him and acknowledge Him as the source and origin of all good.

EXPLANATION: The Efficacy of Prayer for Sanctification

The Saints never tired of saying that ‘he lives well who prays well.’ When we pray, it produces three marvellous effects in us; we will look at these in turn.

First, it detaches us from creatures, at least in so far as they are an obstacle to our union with God. This effect of prayer follows from its very nature as an elevation of the heart to God. In order to be raised up to God, we must first loosen the bonds that fasten us to creatures. Drawn by these and the alluring pleasures they hold out to us, we cannot free ourselves except by breaking the shackles that fetter us to earth. Nothing does this more effectively than the elevation of the soul through prayer.

In order to think of God and His glory, in order to love Him, we must forget self and creatures with their deceitful allurements. Once we draw close to Him, then His infinite perfections, His loving kindness, and the sight of His Heavenly riches complete the liberation of the soul. We hate mortal sin more and more because it would turn us away from God altogether. We detest venial sin because it would impede our ascent towards Him, and we even deplore imperfections since they would cool our intimacy with Him.

Second, prayer makes our union with God more complete and perfect day by day. Prayer lays hold of all our faculties in order to unite them to God. It seizes the mind by absorbing it in the thought of divine things, the will by directing it toward the Glory of God and the welfare of souls, and the heart by permitting it to pour out its love into a Heart ever open, loving, and merciful. Prayer seizes the lower faculties by helping them to fasten upon God; our imagination, our memory, our emotions, and even our passions. It even takes possession of our body, helping us to mortify our outward senses, which so often lead us astray.

Third, prayer gradually transforms us into God. Prayer causes, so to speak, a mutual exchange between us and God. The consideration of His divine perfections, the mere fact of admiring them and delighting in them, draws them into us through our desire to share them. Then God stoops down to hearken to our prayers and to bestow upon us His graces in abundance. He gives light to show the emptiness of human things; He draws the soul to Himself by revealing Himself as the Supreme Good; He strengthens and steadies the will so that it may will nothing and love nothing that is unworthy.

IMPLICATION: Transforming our Actions into Prayers

Since prayer is such an effective means of sanctification, we should frequently and perseveringly make use of it. St. Paul exhorts us to “Pray without ceasing”, but how do we go about that? Is it not impossible? Not at all! If our life is well regulated, it only requires two things, that we perform a certain number of spiritual exercises in harmony with our state in life and that we turn our ordinary actions into prayer.

In order to foster a life of prayer, first of all, a certain number of spiritual exercises are necessary. First, meditation or mental prayer recalls to mind the ideal we must ever keep before our eyes and pursue with all our strength.

The spiritual writer known as Pseudo-Bonaventure reminds us that “Mental prayer is a torch which on this earth of darkness shows us the road on which we should walk.” St. Teresa says that ‘he who neglects mental prayer has no need of being taken to hell by demons: he will cast himself into it.’ St. Augustine says that “meditation is the beginning and ground of all good.” St. John Baptist de Rossi says, “He who does not meditate will fall into temptation. The day wherein we have not meditated, let us beware of sin.”

If we are able, attending Holy Mass daily confirms us in our prayerful dispositions by placing before our eyes the Sacred Victim we are to imitate. Holy Communion causes His thoughts, His sentiments, His interior dispositions, His graces, and His Divine Spirit to penetrate our own souls and abide there all day long.

At night, making our examination turns a humble and sincere confession to the Great High Priest, and it gives us a means of seeing to what extent we have realized, over the course of the day, the prayerful ideal we conceived in the morning. Weekly or at least twice-monthly Confession completes the work of our daily examination.

Between all of these spiritual exercises, we must transform our various other exercises into prayer. Again, as St. Paul reminds us, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” St. Augustine and St. Thomas tell us how to accomplish this. It is love that directs our whole life to God. The practical means of giving all our actions this direction is to offer each of them to the Most Blessed Trinity in union with Christ living in us and in accordance with His intentions.

Because of our corrupted nature, our intentions and thought tend towards sin. We must, therefore, renounce our own intentions and unite ourselves to those of Christ. When our actions endure for some time, it is useful to renew this offering by an affectionate gaze upon a Crucifix, or better yet, upon Christ living with us, and to raise our soul to God through frequent ejaculatory prayers.

Here then, we have four interior means of perfection that at once glorify God and perfect the soul. The desire for perfection is a first flight toward God and a first step toward holiness. The knowledge of God draws God down to us and helps us give ourselves to Him through love. The knowledge of self shows us the need we have of God and stimulates in us the desire of receiving Him in order to fill the void that exists within us. Conformity to His will transforms us into Him. Prayer lifts us up to Him while it draws into us His perfections, making us share in them in order to make us more and more like Him.