Sometimes we make prayer
more complicated, more “mystical” than it really needs to be. Prayer is a
conversation with God, a dialogue, not a monologue. But bear in mind that not
everyone in St. Augustine’s day was literate. Some then and now, who need to
hear what God has to say to them; need to have it read aloud to them by others.
Prayer is a dialogue. Your prayer is a conversation with God. When you read,
God speaks to you; when you pray, you speak to God....[i]
Reading silently in St. Augustine’s
day was revolutionary. Augustine, remarked about St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,
that, “When he read, his eyes
scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent
and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not
commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him
reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud.”[ii] In our culture today most of us read silently, and in our
private prayers pray silently.
Whether
reading silently or aloud it is important to be hearing the word and praying in
response, not just with the ears, but also with the heart, as St. Benedict
says, “Let us
therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in sight of the Godhead and
of His Angels, and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind
may be in harmony with our voice.”[iii]
In
public prayer, of necessity we pray aloud, but in private prayer we may pray
silently, or aloud. Praying aloud may help us to remain focused both on the
presence of God and on our part of the dialogue with Him; but silent prayer also
has its own great benefits. “St. John Damascene says: "Prayer is the
ascent of the mind towards God,"[iv]
and silent prayer and meditation is a very legitimate aspect of practicing the
awareness of the Presence of God. In the silence, by grace, one turns one’s
attention to the abiding Presence and simply rests in God in quiet
adoration.
Such silent prayer is often referred to as “Mental Prayer
— “a silent elevation and application of our mind and heart to God in order to
offer Him our homage and promote His glory by our advancement in virtue”
(Adolphe Tanquerey). In Saint Theresa’s definition from her Life she says:[v]
“Mental Prayer is nothing else than an intimate friendship, a frequent
heart-to-heart with Him by whom we know ourselves to be loved.”[vi]
Lovers
know that love need not always be spoken aloud but may be sometimes just
silently enjoyed. The challenge posed by Mental Prayer is that of remaining in
that place of quiet. It is so easy to drift away. Brother Lawrence would
caution us against emotional acts of penitence when we wander away from the
Presence, saying that all that is required is a small apology and a simple return
to the Presence of God.[vii]
There is both a time for Mental Prayer, and a time for vocal prayer in our
private devotions.
In speaking of vocal prayer and devotional acts St.
Thomas Aquinas says, “Firstly, in order to excite
interior devotion whereby our minds may, when we pray, be lifted up to God; . .
. men's minds are moved by external signs, whether words or acts so that we may
be able”[viii]
to understand, and, by consequence, also to feel. Wherefore St. Augustine says
to Proba “‘By words and other signs we vehemently stir ourselves up so as to
increase our holy desires.’ Hence in private prayer we must make such use of
words and other signs as shall avail to rouse our minds interiorly.”[ix]
Sometimes silent prayer is not enough, and sometimes kneeling, or standing, or
raising the hands and other similar acts help us to quicken both mind and
emotions in prayer.
C. S. Lewis gives us insight into a third way of prayer
in his opinion on the proper way to read poetry. He held that poetry was meant to be read
aloud; that’s the only way that you can connect with the rhythm of poetry, at
the very least when reading poetry one’s lips should be moving. Writing to his brother Warnie, Lewis says, “I
most fully agree with you about ‘the lips being invited to share the banquet’
in poetry, and always mouth it when you read, though not in a way that would be
audible to other people in the room.”[x] Sometimes when praying either silently or
aloud doesn’t feel effective, invite your lips to share the banquet of prayer,
and mouth the words you pray.
Always in considering prayer we have to bear in mind the
frailty of human nature. It is hard for us to continue to pay attention, and
while we may begin with good intention, whether our prayers are silent or
vocal, we may wander away from a keen focus on the presence of God, and even
from what we are saying in our prayers.
Aquinas is reassuring on this point and says, “it
is not necessarily required that attention should be kept up throughout the
prayer, but the initial intention with which a man comes to prayer renders the
whole prayer meritorious, as, indeed, is the case in all other meritorious
acts.”[xi]
God is generous and always looks on us through grace, accepting even our
dimmest attempts at prayer.
In light of this St.
Augustine prays, “Give joy to the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I
have lifted up my soul. For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild.” [xii]
Aquinas goes on to say, “It seems to me that he calls God "mild"
because He endures all our vagaries, and only awaits our prayers that He may
perfect us. And when we offer Him our prayers He accepts them gratefully and
hears them. Neither does He reflect on the careless way in which we pour them
out, He even accepts prayers of which we are hardly conscious![xiii] When you find yourself in that state, make a
simple apology, and turn again with your full attention to your prayers.
1 comment:
A wonderful reflection on prayer, I often find myself having to slow down when reading a psalm or other prayer, and one way to do that is to force a quiet reading out loud or moving of the lips, to pause on each syllable and word to try to deduce God's meaning to me. We have learned in this society to read quickly and scour a text for information, and this doesn't work well when prayerfully seeking God's word in a text.
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