FRANCISCAN PRAYER-LIFE
Franciscans,
following the example of St Francis, try to make prayer and contemplation the
soul of all we are and do. St Francis was a living prayer.
Summary of Forms
There
are many forms of prayer. The individual person learns from experience which
form suits him or her best. In the course of time, we may change our manner of
praying many times and even return to earlier forms. And we can use several
forms in one day.
In
the verbal form of prayer, there is an active, vocal participation in saying a
prayer from memory or by reading a text. The prayers that St Francis prayed
spontaneously or composed in writing have been collected for his followers, who
pray them verbally, especially when we meet with other Franciscans.
St
Francis gave much time to meditation on the Old and New Testaments, especially
on the text of the Gospels. While meditation appears to be a silent act to the
outward observer, inwardly, within the person meditating, it is a very active
process. In meditating, an individual is reflecting inwardly on a thought,
image or passage from Scripture. The mind and the spirit are actively engaged
in meditative prayer.
A
simple form of meditation is spiritual reading, which we try to do daily. Just
as we take bodily nourishment daily in our meals, so also we feel the need to
take spiritual nourishment daily. What we read is not limited to the
Scriptures. It may be a book on prayer itself, or on some aspect of the
spiritual life, or on the life of Jesus or of a saint.
Verbal
prayer and meditation can lead into a simple form of contemplation. We
shouldn’t be scared off by such a high-sounding word. Simple contemplation is
very much a part of ordinary Christian prayer-life. What, then, is contemplative
prayer? It can be considered as a response to the exhortation: "Be still
and know that I am God."
God
the Supreme Being, the "I Am who I Am" of Exodus 3:14, is always
inviting us to meet Him where He is, by simply being quiet in his presence; not
thinking, feeling or imagining but simply being, being present to the Lord and
to ourselves in silent awareness.
Being
with God, resting in His presence, this is the essence of contemplative prayer.
While being very simple, contemplative prayer can prove to be very difficult. It
is difficult not in itself, but because we are so thoroughly oriented to doing,
to being active, rather than to simply being. It’s hard to clear our minds of
its preoccupations, to stop planning our next moves.
How
do we practise contemplative prayer? To begin, we just sit down, relax and let
go of everything. As tensions melt away, we make ourselves aware of God, our
loving Father. This increasing awareness of our Father's presence leads to
various responses - acceptance, surrender, repentance - which break down our
internal barriers and lead to deepening levels of awareness of self and God.
As
our intimate awareness increases, praise, thanksgiving and intercession are
natural responses to a Creator and Saviour who finds us worthy to share His
presence with us as a friend.
Contemplative
prayer puts us directly in touch with God in His holy, comforting and healing
presence.
For
that very reason it can well be subversive, because such prayer is a source of
great strength and vital energy. It has the same effect on us as the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit had on the Apostles at Pentecost, changing them from
fear-filled humans to emboldened evangelizers, intent on spreading the Good
News to every corner of the earth. As our source of energy, contemplative
prayer is absolutely critical to our success as evangelizers of our world and
of our culture.
Contemplative
prayer is a subversive activity because it helps us very effectively to
"put on Christ" (Gal 3, 27). We can say, as did
Carlo
Carretto, In Search of the Beyond,
has this advice about simple contemplation:
Your heart has been tried by
suffering and darkness; now allow it to stop relying on the earth.
Do not think of anything else. God
is before you, with you, in you.
Contemplation is not a matter of
watching, but of being watched, and God is there
watching you.
And if God is watching you, he loves
you, and in loving you God gives you what you are looking for: himself.
What other gift could there be
for one who has searched so hard?
Our heart is so hard to satisfy.
Things can never fill it.
God alone can.