Day 344: Guides for Prayer (2683-2690)

• It’s Day 344!!

• ARTICLE 3: GUIDES FOR PRAYER

• A CLOUD OF WITNESSES

• The Letter to the Hebrews Ch 12 talks about how we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before us and have lived out their life following after Jesus

• When the Letter to the Hebrews was written, the cloud of witnesses was the Old Testament folks, still living in covenant with the Lord God

• They contemplated God

• They praised God

• They constantly care for whom they have left on Earth

• These are the saints in Heaven

• We are surrounded by them, the Communion of Saints

• Paragraph 2684 says, “In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God’s love for men has been handed on, like ‘the spirit’ of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is truly the dwelling of the saints and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple.”

• There is no one way for Christian prayer

• There is one way to the Father

• That is Jesus

• There are different spiritualities

• There are different ways of living

• There are different ways of praying

• SERVANTS OF PRAYER

• There are different places we learn how to pray

• There are different ways in which people have consecrated their lives in prayer

• The Christian family

• Ordained ministers

• Religious brothers and sisters

• Catechesis of children, young people, and adults

• What is the aim?

• Teaching people how to meditate on the Word of God

• We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in Heaven and on Earth in our history and our patrimony of our Church

• There are all these different spiritualities and sources of people in the Church who are teaching us how to pray

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we praise and glorify your name. We thank you. We thank you for giving us this day. We thank you for calling us to be yours, for calling us to be in communication with you. Thank you for teaching us how to pray, both through your Church generally, as well as through the individuals and the groups of people you brought into our lives. Lord God, in this moment, we raise before you all of those who have ever, ever taught us how to pray. From our moms and dads, if they taught us how to pray, for our grandparents if they taught us how to pray, for our teachers who taught us how to pray, for the religious sisters and brothers who dedicated their lives to not only developing and deepening their prayer life, but also teaching others. We pray for the priests and deacons and bishops and pastors who have taught us how to pray. And we thank you, Lord God, for all those who just came into our lives out of the goodness of their hearts. And they just showed us how to take one more step closer to you. We thank you for them, and we ask that you please bless them right now. Bless them now and always in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Paragraph 2683 says, “The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were ‘put in charge of many things.’ Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.”

• The saints in Heaven are the Church Triumphant

• What are some of the things we do?

• We glorify God

• We bless God

• We also INTERCEDE FOR OTHERS

• That is what the saints in Heaven are doing also

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about St. Thérèse of Lisieux…

• She prayed that through her intercession before God’s heavenly throne, she would devote eternity to intercede on behalf of those souls here on Earth

• Saints in Heaven are interceding on our behalf as they worship God and praise God constantly

• Paragraph 2684 says, “In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God’s love for men has been handed on, like ‘the spirit’ of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is truly the dwelling of the saints and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple.”

• Something similar happens in the Church

• We each have a spiritual mentor of sorts even if we know of them or not

• There is a way of praying in the Church that arises in certain contexts and certain moments in history that gets passed down to the next generation and to the next generation etc. 

• It is part of the Living Tradition of Prayer

• Paragraph 2685 says, “The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the sacrament of marriage, the family is the ‘domestic church’ where God’s children learn to pray ‘as the Church’ and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church’s living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit.”

• What would it mean to be discipled in prayer?

• How would it feel to be walked with from someone who has actually been there before?

• Someone who can show us what distraction is like?

• Someone who could teach us about dryness in prayer?

• Someone who could teach us how to persevere in prayer?

• Wouldn’t it be incredible if families said that they are going to be serious about this?

• If they said they are going to know what they believe and they are going to worship the way God wants them to worship?

• If they said they are going to strive to live the way He wants them to live?

• And also they are going to disciple their kids in prayer?

• Not just teach them memorized prayer

• Paragraph 2688 says, “The catechesis of children, young people, and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on The Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it in liturgical prayer, and internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a new life. Catechesis is also a time for the discernment and education of popular piety. The memorization of basic prayers offers an essential support to the life of prayer, but it is important to help learners savor their meaning.”

• What if when you were a kid, you had someone who showed you how to pray?

• And then you got bored and they taught you how to deal with boredom?

• And then you get distracted and they taught you how to deal with distraction?

• If you had parents or family members who showed you how to pray and disciples you in prayer, you are blessed indeed

• If you didn’t, YOU can be that blessing to others

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about his summer camp for middle schoolers…

• We all don’t get a chance to have a spiritual director

• Yet we all need to be taught how to pray

• Paragraph 2690 says, “The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith, and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer (spiritual direction). Men and women so endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer. According to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should ‘take care into whose hands he entrusts himself, for as the master is, so will the disciple be, and as the father is so will be the son.’ And further: ‘In addition to being learned and discreet a director should be experienced…If the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life, he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it, and he will not even understand them.’”

• This is true when it comes to parents, pastors, etc.

• You have to see yourself in some ways as the prototype in the sense that we are trying to help the young people we are serving become like us

• You might hear that and not want them to be like you

• If you are in a place of authority and responsible for their spiritual life, then the goal should be to want them to be an imitator of you

• St. Paul said, “Be imitators of me as I am an imitator of Christ.”

• If I am not an imitator of Christ, then I need to check myself

• I need to stop and ask what the goal is here

• Because I am far from perfect

• If my students live exactly the way I am living and prayed exactly the way I pray…

• If they had a relationship with God the way I have…

• If they had a relationship with their friends and people around them the way I have…

• Would they become great saints or not?

• If they lived like me, would they become great saints, or just become nice people?

• That is a really sobering question

• Not all of us are called to have a spiritual director or to be a spiritual director

• If we seek a spiritual director, they are not going to be a perfect person

• BUT…

• They have to be striving for holiness and they should have some experience

• There is a dearth of spiritual directors

• There are so many people who want direction and mentorship

• So keep this in mind

• The Holy Spirit is THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR of the faithful

• So we stay close to the Church and let the Church teach us

• We listen to the Holy Spirit

• We listen to The Word of God

• We let the Holy Spirit guide us and the Word of God form us

• When we do that, we know God is going to provide 

• Whether that is through His Word and through His Church and through His Spirit

• OR…

• Through His Word, Church, and Spirit in the person of a reliable spiritual director

• DO NOT BE AFRAID!!

• There are so many places that we can learn how to pray

• There are so many sources of teaching how to pray

• Online 

• Your local church

• A spiritual director that you can trust

• You and I are in the SCHOOL OF PRAYER

• WE ARE LIFELONG LEARNERS

• THERE IS NO GRADUATION

• Because for all Eternity, you and I will be, God willing, with that Communion of Saints

• What will we do then?

• We will spend Eternity contemplating God, praising God, and constantly caring for those whom we have left on Earth

• THAT IS OUR DESTINY!!

• THAT IS OUR HOPE!!

• THAT IS OUR PRAYER!!

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT…