To Pray is to Take Notice

I talk about prayer a lot in various programs that I offer. There are many ways to pray and people have many different understandings of what prayer is.

This excerpt from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Man’s Question for God came across my desk the other day. It speaks of what it means to pray in a very simple way:

To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live….

I love the sense of prayer as our response, prayer that which we offer in return for the mystery by which we live.

Heshcel’s words reminded me of one of May Oliver’s poems, Praying:

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

Pay attention. Take notice. And then respond with what is in your heart.

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Enriching One’s Faith With Practices From Another Faith Tradition

The May 2013 edition of U.S. Catholic Magazine has a nice piece written by Heather Grennan Gary titled Spiritual exercises: Can other religious practices strengthen your Catholic core? I have to confess that I was interviewed for the piece so many months ago that I had forgotten about it until I got the e-mail that it had been published!

Gray interviewed several Catholics, in addition to me, who in various ways incorporate into their prayer practices drawn from other faith traditions.

One of the segments of her piece talks about how to assess resources from other traditions. “The essential question Catholics need to ask when it comes to assessing a resource from outside their tradition, suggests Paulist Father Thomas Ryan, is what effect it will have on the coherence and integrity of their faith.” Fr. Ryan makes a point I often make when I am talking about Growing in Love and Wisdom, cautioning against rejecting outright non-Catholic resources:

“I do think there is a difference between syncretism and enrichment,” he says, pointing to a key theme that runs through Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals Dominum et Vivificantem (1986) and Redemptoris Missio (1990)—that the Holy Spirit is present and active everywhere in the world, not just within the church. “The seeds of the Word are out there. We ought to have our antennae up for what might be edifying and beneficial.”

I also agree with Fr. Ryan that “the interplay between religious traditions [is] one of the particular graces of our age, providing Catholics with regular opportunities to be challenged and inspired to live and understand their faith more fully—and to challenge and inspire others to do the same.”

To get a sense of how several Catholics have incorporated practices from other traditions into their own, take a look at Gray’s article, which you can access here.

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Not Whether, But How God is Present

The other day, the priest celebrating a Mass I attended began his homily with the story of a man seeking God. The man climbed to the top of a mountain and cried out loudly, “Lord, let me hear you.” A bird flew by singing.

Still longing for God, the man cried out loudly, “Lord, let me see you.” He noticed some children playing nearby.

Still longing for God, the man cried out loudly, “Lord let me feel your presence.” A gentle wind caressed his face.

Still longing for God, the man cried out loudly, “Lord, let me know you are present.” A beautiful butterfly passed immediately in front of him.

The man came down from the mountain bitterly disappointed that he had not experienced God. He came home to the daughters he loved, and still did not recognize the presence of God.

My spirituality is heavily Ignatian, an approach that presupposes that all of our experience has a religious dimension. All the world – all that exists – is suffused with the reality of God’s presence. This is not pantheism. I’m not saying the world is God or the trees outside are God, the way a pantheist would. Rather, that God’s spirit impregnates everything. This is sacramentality at its fullest; in the words of the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

For me the Incarnation is about a God that desires to be united with us in our entire experience of life. Meaning that God is present in every human experience. That means we are never listening for whether God is present but for how God is present.

In each moment of our existence, God is communicating to us who God is, trying to draw us into an awareness, a consciousness of his presence. Whether or not we are aware of it, at every moment of our existence, we are encountering this God who is continually trying to draw our attention to relationship with God.

Our task is to become more aware of the presence of God in our live so that we can deepen our conscious relationship with God who is always present in everything.

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Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving in Action

Tonight will be the second of the weekly Lenten Soup Suppers at Church of Christ the King in Minneapolis. I think the description of the event does a wonderful job of illuminating the relationship among prayer, almsgiving and fasting, the three traditional Lenten practices:

For many decades, our parish has observed the custom of gathering every Wednesday during Lent for prayer. Over twenty years ago, we initiated the custom of sharing a simple meal of soup and bread on Wednesday nights preceding the prayer service to augment the day’s observance of prayer, fasting penitence and almsgiving. The idea behind the soup supper was inspired by ancient Christian tradition. To whatever degree is possible for each individual, as a parish we observe Wednesday as a day of fasting and penitence. At the end of the day, we gather as a parish and break our fast with a simple meal of soup and bread. Whatever money we might save by fasting throughout the day each Wednesday, we give as alms to feed the hungry. Then we conclude our day together in prayer, reviewing with gratitude the events of the day, noting when and how we experienced God’s presence, asking forgiveness for any wrongdoing and asking for grace to follow God more closely tomorrow.

We can engage in prayer, almsgiving and fasting in different ways during Lent. But I love the idea of a communal parish practice (even though I’ll end up missing most of the dinners since I’ll be speaking at St. Thomas Apostle most of those evenings).

I especially love that the communal practice emphasizes the relationship between fasting and almsgiving, something that was a prominent theme in the writings of the early church fathers. The Shepherd of Hermas, a second century text reads: “In the day on which you fast you will taste nothing but bread and water; and having reckoned up the price of the dishes of that day which you intended to have eaten, you will give it to a widow, or an orphan , or to some person in want.” Gregory the Great preached, “The one who does not give to the poor what he has saved but keeps it for later to satisfy his own appetite, does not fast for God.”

We sometimes forget the relationship, so it is good to have the reminder.

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In Secret and Hidden

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. In Gospel reading for today’s Mass, Jesus gives his disciples some instruction on the traditional Lenten practices: almsgiving, prayer and fasting.

When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be in secret…

When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret…

When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.

We engage in the practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting not to impress our friends and colleagues with how pious we are, but as a way of turning ourselves more and more toward God. Although it has always been a popular pastime among Catholics to trade, “what are you giving up?” responses, Jesus is clear that this one is properly between us and God.

The advice is a little tricky though, because there is potential value in modeling our faith practices to others. We give witness to the centrality of our faith when we take Lent seriously. So for me the issue becomes one of motivation. Is my focus on God or on me? Am I letting someone see what I am giving up with the hope they focus on how good I am or with the hope they see how central God is? The hope that they praise me or praise God? Is it for God’s glory or my own?

Blessings during this Lenten season.

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Jesus With the Elders in the Temple

My sister posted a picture on Facebook last week, taken at a wrestling competition my nephew participated in. She titled it “Lucas ‘schooling’ the refs at pope tourney.”

The first thing I thought of when I saw the picture was the episode recorded in Luke’s Gospel as taking place when Jesus was twelve. Mary and Joseph, returning home after being in Jerusalem for Passover, discover Jesus is not in the caravan. They return to Jerusalem and, after searching for three days, “they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” Luke tells us further that “all who heard him were astounded ad his understanding and his answers.”

What really happened during those three days Jesus was in the temple? Talking about the passage, someone recently commented to me, “They treated him like an adult, or at least that is the way it felt to him.” Were they teaching him? Learning from him? Humoring him? A little of both?

Whatever happened, it is a wonderful passage to pray with. (I had one of my deepest religious experiences praying with this passage when I did the Spiritual Exercises.) And for those for whom images are helpful, perhaps this one will prompt some reflection on the scene.

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Year of Faith, Year of Prayer

At the Mass I attended yesterday at St. Hubert Catholic Church, Fr. Rolf Tollefson suggested that a worthy aspiration for the New Year would be to make it a “Year of Prayer.” Pope Benedict XVI has already, Fr. Rolf reminded us, declared this year to be a “Year of Faith.” In order for a deepened faith to be realized, he suggested, we need prayer.

Fr. Rolf made two suggestions for ways to deepen one’s prayer life that don’t require the kind of major time commitments that seem daunting. First, he suggested that people spend some time before and after Mass in quiet prayer.

This struck me as a simple but worthwhile piece of advice. Many people come scrambling into Church with barely a moment to spare before the opening procession, allowing not even a moment to compose themselves before Mass begins. And far too often, people either leave Mass immediately after communion or are putting on coats and inching toward the aisle before the closing recessional. If you are already in Church anyway, why not take some time before or after Mass in prayer or quiet reflection. (As an encouragement, St. Hubert has in the pews a booklet of prayers of preparation and thanksgiving for before and after Mass, which contains some beautiful prayers by St. Francis of Assii, St. John Chrysostom,St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Ignatius of Loyola and ohters).

The second suggestion offered by Fr. Rolf was that people engage in a daily Examen. Given that an Examen has been part of my own daily prayer for well over a decade and that I often recommend it to others, I was delighted to hear him offer this suggestion.

The method of praying the Examen that he offered was a simple three-part one. First, to “troll for graces,” that is, to go back over the previous day looking for places where there were signs of God’s presence, and expressing gratitude for those graces. Second, to ask for forgiveness of sins and the release of any resentments one might be holding. Finally, to anticipate the next day, looking to see where one might be in particular need of God’s help. A simple, but effective, method of the Examen.

As you may recall from my post of yesterday, “Pray just a tiny bit more,” was one of Fr. Jim Martin’s list of things you can do for a happier new year. Fr. Rolf’s suggestions provide a couple of ways one might do that.

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An Advent Prayer

I’m in New York, where tomorrow I start four days of book talks/signings of Growing in Love and Wisdom. Today, though, I get to take a day to bake cookies with the women in my family. I missed last year’s gathering, but the timing of my trip means I get to hang with cousins, aunts, nieces, a sister and my mom.

So, let me simply offer today a beautiful Advent prayer from the Revised Common Lectionary that I first heard a few years ago. To me, it expresses well what we need from God during this time.

Unexpected God,
your advent alarms us.
Wake us from drowsy worship,
from the sleep that neglects love,
and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.
Awaken us now to your coming,
and bend our angers into your peace.
Amen.

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Taize

Thanks to the efforts of one of our first year law students, we now have Taize prayer twice a month during our common worship period (noon to 12:30 every day). This past week was one of those gatherings.

I love Taize. I used to occasionaly attend Taize worship services in New York and the parish I used to attend here in the Twin Cities offers Taize a number of times during the year.

Before this experience at the law school, the Taize services I have attended have always been in the evening, a time when you expect things to slow down, as the daylight fades into night.

It is a very different experience to walk into a darkened classroom in the middle of the day – only a soft small light making visable the icons on the prayer table in front of the room – and experience this deeply contemplative prayer. I sit and sink into the chants, even as I know that things are bustling all around us.

It is a reminder that even in the frantic activity of our daily lives, we can find time to stop. Time to simply sit. Time to absorb God’s peace.

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Thoughts From a Parable

Yesterday, I offered the reflection at the law school’s Weekly Manna gathering. I decided to use as a basis for my remarks a parable contained in Peter Rollins’ The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales, a book I’ve mentioned before. Rollins presents a number of short parables in the book (although he uses the term “tales” rather than “parables” to describe the short stories he presents), each with its own commentary that invites further reflection by the reader. Many of those tales are based on actual Gospel accounts and parables.

The one I picked for yesterday’s reflection was a short tale title The Unrepentant Son which, as you might guess, is based on the Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. Most of the story is consistent with the Gospel account of this parable, although there is no mention of the older son. After the description of the father’s welcome and the ensuing party, the parable contains a final paragraph of a single sentence: “Later that night, after the party, while he was alone, the younger son wept with sorrow and repented for the life he had led.”

My reflection offered two points one tied to the story itself, relating to the order in which forgiveness and repentance come. While we so often demand repentance as the price of our forgiveness, God models a forgiveness that is not contingent. (This is a theme that emerged during the Fall Retreat Series we did earlier this year.) The second was an invitation to pray with what happens at the end of the fragments of accounts we hear in the Gospels, which included a brief description of Ignatian contemplation.

You can access a recording of my talk here or stream it from the icon below. (The podcast runs for 16:50.)

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