Before becoming Catholic, I took
seriously the call to “pray without ceasing,” that St. Paul wrote. I knew that
this meant being in communion with God in our daily lives and about our work. I
knew it did not just mean to pray with words. My depth of understanding this
was limited to what I could glean from Scripture, in my limited knowledge. Upon
becoming Catholic, I have found the treasury of wisdom in the Saints on how to
prayer, why to pray and what to pray. They have taken me up on their shoulders
and shown me prayer in its true depth.
St.
Maria Faustina once wrote in her diary:
A soul arms itself by prayer for
all kinds of combat. In whatever state the soul may be, it ought to pray. A
soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a
soul which is striving after this purity must pray, or else it will never
attain it; a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall
again; a sinful soul, plunged in sins, must pray so that it might rise again.
There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to
the soul through prayer. (145)
All of the Saints have relied
deeply on God through fervent prayer throughout their Christian life. They have
sought out the grace of God through their prayer, not only for themselves, but
especially for others. “Every single grace comes to the soul through prayer,”
St. Faustina wrote. This is a very great mystery.
There have been times in my life,
(and the battle continues) when I believed God to grant graces without prayer.
“He knows my needs, and is a loving Father,” I would tell myself. Yet, the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit do not will to operate this way. In fact, Christ
himself, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, prayed. He prayed
continually. Sometimes he prayed all night long, as we read in St. Mark’s
gospel. In the Gospel of St. Luke, we read that Jesus taught his disciples “their
need to pray always and not to lose heart. […] And will not God
grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? (Luke 18:1,7
NRSVCE)”
At his Passion, he told the
disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Pray, lest you enter into temptation.” I
believe it was St. Louis de Montfort who wrote that the disciples fell, even
though they were in the presence of the Son of God, because they did not take
him seriously when he said to pray always. St. Peter later wrote, “For it is a
credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.
(1 Pet. 2:19 NRSVCE)” There is a great call, then, from the Scriptures, to
constant prayer and awareness of God. It is for our good. It is for our
salvation. What, then, does that look like?
The Saints in union with the whole
Church have recognized prayer as more than just vocal prayer. The following are very simplified definitions of three forms of prayer. There is vocal
prayer, which is our normal discussion with God from our lips, supplication,
intercession and thanksgiving. These could be spoken or sung. There is mental
prayer, which is thoughtful meditation and delight in the Lord. Finally, there
is contemplation, which is a deep prayer, silent before the Lord in love with
him, usually associated with intuitively seeing his Truth. Cor ad cor loquitur. Heart speaks to heart.
In becoming Catholic, I found a
great wealth of understanding of prayer, but most especially a great practice
of prayer. And I have discovered that there is a place for each form of prayer.
Praying without ceasing is not taken lightly by the Saints. They have all done
it in many ways because they recognized the need they have of God. This is how
they became Saints. As St. Faustina said, no grace can come except through
prayer. St. James wrote the same: “You have not, because you ask not. […] ‘God
opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ […] Humble yourselves before
the Lord, and He will exalt you. (James 4:2, 6, 10 NRSVCE)”
Prayer is ultimately an act of
humility. It is our means of relying on God alone. It is our means of
recognizing our poverty. It is our means of relation with God. It is our means
of coming before the One who gives all good things, the one who corrects and
trains, the one who blesses and judges. We must rely on him. We must ask for
the things we need, spiritual and physical. Prayer is for the small things as well as for the large
things in life, whether they be the blessing before the meal or the salvation
of a soul. We can do nothing without Christ, not even wake up, and especially
not save our souls.
Allow me to leave you with a
thought on the gift of Our Lady, the Most Holy Rosary. There cannot be enough
said about the Rosary, its graces and wondrous effects. Though you may think it overly praised, it is much more valuable than many believe. Our Lady has shown us
many ways in which to prayer, simply through the Rosary itself. It is filled
with tremendous amounts of wisdom and grace. I cannot express the true depth of
the Holy Rosary. Through it, she teaches us to pray with her and with her Son.
On the smallest of levels, our
simple prayers of the lips are lifted up to heaven in a petition before God,
through the hands of the Blessed Virgin to help us now. The Lord’s Prayer is
the greatest prayer, and is most profound, containing all we need. Through
these prayers, we praise God, thank God, petition God for our needs. The Lord’s
Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be are all said in light of the life of
Christ. We know love, because he first loved us. In remembering his life, death
and resurrection alongside Mary, how can we not trust in him? Sometimes, these
simple prayers, with very little meditation are enough to lift me and give me
strength, if for no other reason than that Our Lady is praying for me, or for
whomever I am praying for. My wife has prayed the Rosary on several occasions
for me, and I remotely felt the help. What power! Though, we know many more great, great miracles have been wrought at the request of our Mother through the Holy Rosary.
The mental prayer, the meditation,
is the most beneficial to the growth of our souls in virtue, though. By
meditating on the life of Jesus and Mary, we come to know true virtue, true
holiness and true love. It is very important to meditate often on the life of
Christ, especially his Passion. It is the “renewing of the mind” that St. Paul
wrote about to the Romans. Without meditation on Christ’s life, there is very
little hope to come up against suffering and temptation with preparedness. (Do
we think that St. Paul was able to endure his litany of sufferings without
constantly meditating on Christ’s sufferings? Far from it! He constantly writes
of sharing in Christ’s sufferings, as in Romans 8:16,17). The Rosary’s most benefit lies in the
mediation on each mystery. These mysteries of Christ and his Mother are endless
as a source of wisdom, insight, understanding and grace. Through them, we can
grow in likeness to Him.
Finally, through meditation on the
mysteries of the life of Christ and his Mother, we can be led into silent
contemplation. We can be led into a deeper knowledge of Christ, and thus come
to love him more and more. This is the ultimate end of prayer. The beginning is
humility and poverty of spirit. The end is to be lifted up in love with God
himself. To know God is to love God. To love God is to obey God. To obey God is
to have eternal life dwelling within us. “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent. (John 17:3)”
St. Maria Faustina, pray for us.
O Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us.
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