By
Frits Albers
It is because good praying involves all the virtues known to man, that praying is so pleasing to God. Good praying includes at the human level submission, adoration,patience and perseverance, Faith, Hope, praise, humility and thanksgiving, togetherwith a genuine willingness to be sorry for one's sins for the Love of God which includesthe firm resolution not to offend God again. It is because God our Father is so muchmore willing to hear us than we ourselves could ever wish to be heard, that the displayof virtue at the foundation of good prayer is so pleasing to God. Note that for Christiansgood prayer does include the three supernatural virtues Faith, Hope and Love, whichwere infused by God into our souls at the moment of Baptism.Prayerful contact with God should be maintained throughout the day, for therewill never be a moment that we do not need Him. As a Christian grows more and moreinto union with God, the need for good prayer in this transient world becomes evenmore necessary than the need for fresh air in an airless room. This shows that in such alife a habit of prayer has been established as an urge for daily contact with God to riseabove life's contingencies. It is about this rising above life's vicissitudes in the ascent ofa soul to God that this short little essay will have a few things to say.As the saying goes, all art contains a grain of inspiration as well as a hefty doseof perspiration. Any soul in need of prayer is in need of that special divine touch "thatthe world cannot give". Yet, at the same time, the pearl of divine inspiration, howevertiny, does need the human framework to enshrine it and set it off. In a dissolute life theart of prayer is not present because the original inspiration is rejected. However, inmany worldly and superficial lives the art is not present because the habit is not beingformed through lack of ‘perspiration’: the willingness to practise in order to becomeproficient. But this does not mean that a soul cannot be thrown off its horse and beforced to ask in all humility: “Lord, what is it that You want me to do?” as oncehappened to a famous persecutor in sight of his own Damascus. And in answer Saul wasled, led by the hand. Although in his case the Inspiration had dawned on him in such aflash of brilliant Light that it had blinded him, it did not remove from him the need forthe other requirement. For now the perspiration had started: “I Myself will show himhow much he will have to suffer for My Name...” (Acts 9:16). Even St. Paul had to learnfrom scratch.Prayer of Petition.There is nothing wrong with prayer of petition, and, as this little essay willshow, it is capable of transforming a soul, leading it to a very high degree of perfection.For good prayer of petition too contains all the virtues known to man, and because ofthis, it is not easy to do it properly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 2 2The Most Common Scenario.Imagine the Angels who live in the sight of God being spectators to the mostfrequent re-enactment which goes something like this. One of our friends or relativesasks us for a prayer so he or she may find a house or get a job. Of course we dutifullypromise whole-heartedly. So next time we kneel before our bed or come inside a churchand remember the promise, we say a Hail Mary that the petitioner may be granted his orher request. And if our friend is lucky, we remember it a couple more times. Not a heftydose of ‘perspiration' here, the practice that makes us proficient, nor a great occasion forAngels to come down the ladder laden with heavenly gifts, to ascend again carrying ourpetitions, as had been the case in the prayerful life of Jacob the Patriarch as described inthe Book of Genesis even before God had renamed him Israel. (Ch. 28).“Struggling with God....”"That night he rose and taking his two wives with their servants andhis eleven children, Jacob crossed the ford of Jabok And when allthings had been brought across that belonged to him, Jacob was leftalone. And behold, a man wrestled with him till daybreak who,seeing he could not master him, struck him in the socket of his hipand Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him. And theman said: ‘Let me go, for day is breaking’. But Jacob answeredhim: ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’. He then asked:‘What is your name?’ ‘Jacob’, he replied. He said: ‘Your nameshall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; because you have been strongagainst God, you shall prevail against men’. Then Jacob made hisrequest: ‘1 beg you, tell me your name’, but he replied, ‘Why do youask my name?’ And he blessed him there and then”. (Ch. 32).This glimpse in the life of this beloved forebear of Our Lord and Our Lady,known for his prayerful communion with God, cannot fail to give us the necessaryinsight into what is really involved in prayer of petition, and that the word ‘perspiration’used before in this context is not out of place. Here we have what can only be called agraphic representation of what nowadays goes under the name of an “All-Night Vigil”in which human souls, in union with countless examples since this first write-up inGenesis, wrestle all night with God for graces to be brought down on parched souls. “Iwill not let You go unless You bless me!” And humbly mortified we acknowledge thatthis is a far cry from the perfunctory prayers we tend to say in response to a sincererequest from a neighbour in need.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3 3Repairing the Damage....Once a Catholic enters into a more thorough relationship with God with theinevitable result that the need for prayer begins to work itself upwards to the consciouslevel and starts to move around there, it will be difficult to escape the next phase. Oncepraying for others is being taken more seriously, we become aware that the salvation ofthe whole world depends on the Catholic Church; that the Catholic Church is made upof Catholics, and that a simple exercise in arithmetic will very quickly convince us ofthe truth that, if the number of people in the world is divided by the number of livingCatholics, that we then roughly arrive at the number of souls Divine Providence mayhave allocated to each individual Catholic and to the care with which each individualCatholic ought to live out the tremendous Gift of his or her own Catholic Faith. And ifthen we see how many Catholics are flouting the rules and are openly living by the waysof the world, it will not be very difficult to extend this exercise in salvation arithmeticonly a little bit, and to come to the alarming conclusion that a great number of people inthe world may miss out on the original allocation and distribution of Catholic support. And if one would object that the word ‘alarming’ is too strong a word to use in thiscontext, then let him be reminded of what Our Lady of the Rosary revealed to threelittle children, and subsequently to the whole Church, on July 13, 1917 at Fatima whenShe spoke those ominous words:“Many souls go to Hell because there is no one to pray or tobring sacrifices for them....”And once this realisation gets a foothold in a Catholic's consciousness and underthe influence of grace starts to preoccupy a Catholic mind, then the translation intoaction will not be all that far away as a result of the blessing asked for “in the strugglewith God....” The weight of the fate of souls on the road to perdition with no one to prayor to bring sacrifices for them, abandoned by the Catholics into whose spiritual carethey had been entrusted in the first place when in Baptism God had infused into thesesouls the supernatural Gifts of Faith, Hope and Love, will be too much to ignore. Andthen the questions start crowding around:“May I casually assume that the eternal fate of the men who pick up the rubbishat my gate is secured?” “Who looks after the spiritual well-being of the people in my employ?” “Or of those who look so faithfully after my car so I do not come to grief on theroad?” “Or of those whom only yesterday I met for the first time?” When I think of the tradesmen I deal with casually, infrequently or daily, must Inot interpret the fact that God brought me into contact with these souls, that thereby Healso entrusted to my Catholic Faith their eternal wellbeing? Hopefully in conjunctionwith others, but what, if not....? If I happen to be the only one ‘to pray and to bringsacrifices for them’? If the Mother of God came down from Heaven to tell us Catholicsthat many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray or to bring sacrifices for them,then how many of these poor souls would only have me to pray for them? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 4 4And God will forgive us if it is with a sigh that we open our Catholic toolbox ofprayers and sacrifices and begin in earnest the task of repairing the damage done in somany souls by the neglect of those Catholics to whom they had been entrusted in thefirst place. But it will be a great comfort for us to know, after we have come this far,that we are enduring in a very small way what must have have been “in the mind ofChrist” (Phil. 2:5) and in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, when the fate of the souls ofthe whole world and of all times had been entrusted by God to this singular pair, to thisunique beginning of His unique Catholic Church? If the realisation grows on us that weare their instrument, and that it is through us that they are looking after the lost sheepentrusted to their care by the Father, then we will be in daily contact with them in ordernot to fail them. In fact, at our Sunday and weekday Masses, it will soon become ourhabit to bring along all those God has entrusted to the care of our Catholic Faith, theknown ones and the unknown ones, in order to present them to Him for His blessing, ablessing earned after struggling with God in the period of thanksgiving after HolyCommunion “Standing in”.We must all admit that we can never quite avoid that initial somewhat sinkingfeeling that comes over us when in the middle of our own work, someone “in anemergency” imposes on our generosity with that all too familiar request ‘to come overand mind the children’ because Johnnie has to be rushed to casualty. It means droppingthe ironing and doing the dishes at our end in order to attend to the emergency only tobe confronted at the other end with a sink full of half-done dishes and a heap of ironing.“No, luv, of course we don't mind”. And deep down, we don't. It is just.... And with trueresignation we begin the task of “standing in”. Our friend's work is being taken care of,and it is our friend who reaps the benefit.In the spiritual life there is a way of praying which is different from the routineunderstanding of it that was discussed before and which is not unlike the familiarsituation described here. Normally, we pray FOR someone and so FOR someone else'sneeds from our own surroundings. From where we are, we decide the time, the place,the duration and the ‘object’ of our prayers of intercession. Even if we are intense andare prepared ‘to struggle with God’ it is still largely a question of “us” and “them”.“We” pray “for them”. But that was not the only way Our Blessed Lord prayed for us.For that, He could, so to speak, have remained “in His Father's House” and prayed forus there. But the human race was “in an emergency” and He came down to us, to ourdirty washing and an endless array of half-done works we could not possibly attend toourselves. Thus He identified Himself with us. He literally “stood in” for us. His prayerswere not only said FOR us, He said His prayers in such a way that they became ourprayers. His prayers were not only said “on our behalf”: by an altogether miracle of“Divine Art” He was capable of putting His prayers into our mouths, so that, for the firsttime, the Heavenly Father heard the human race pray as it ought to have prayed. And, as -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 5 5in the little story above, our work got done and we reaped the benefits, just as a tinybaby receives personally all the benefits of the regenerating waters of Baptism simplybecause some grown-ups, the parents and God-parents, thought it important enough to“stand in”, “stand proxy”, for the helpless little creature.St. Paul is quite adamant about this further development in praying.“The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when wecannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit Himselfexpresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words; andGod who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well whatHe means, and that the pleas of the Saints expressed by the Spiritare according to the mind of God” (Rom. 8:26-27).“The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of HisSon into our hearts: the Spirit that cries Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).So the pleas of the Saints are now united within all humanity with the way theSpirit prays, even cries, within souls, even (and maybe even especially) within those“who cannot choose words to pray properly”.Is it possible to imagine the mind-boggling results if the father of a rapeddaughter, or the mother of a murdered child, not only prays FOR the assailant in theway as is usually understood, but actually puts in the mouth of the perpetrator of theterrible crime very fervently and very devotedly “The Act of Contrition” or the “HailHoly Queen”, not only once, but day in day out, standing in for the sinner, letting him,as it were, say those blessed words which he himself in all probability would not be ableto choose, and letting the sinner have the full benefit of this prayer as if it was said, notonly on his behalf, but very really BY him because of the intimate relationship of“standing in” and “standing proxy” for a helpless creature. For, once we are in the habitof knowing ourselves responsible for the salvation of all those whom God has entrustedto the care of our Catholic Faith, then there is no need to call on a great stretch of ourimagination to acquire the habit of praying like that for all those precious souls everytime we hear Mass, say a Rosary or do good works during the day as if called up to‘stand in’ for an emergency which according to the above-quoted words spoken by OurBlessed Lady at Fatima, we are. If we can put prayers in the mouth of one soul entrustedto our care, to let that soul have the reward of those prayers as if said by him personally,then it is only a matter of intention or habit, to surround other souls with this realisticexpression of our love and care, and in fact to extend it to all those whose eternalsalvation God has made us co-responsible for. Quite obviously, nothing would morespeedily dissolve in our own hearts any vestige of hatred or malice, which would extendour usefulness as Christians even further. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 6 6Paying the Price....Is it humanly possible to go even further than that? Is there no end in sight to thedemands Christ makes on His followers? If the foregoing is not heroic, what is....? Is ittruly given to mere human beings to penetrate ever further into the Mystical Life ofChrist, where He lives in the most intimate relationship with His Bride, the Bride of theLamb of God, Our Holy Mother, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church?The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’.No, it is not given to ‘mere human beings’ even to come this far.But Catholics are no longer ‘mere human beings’. A baptised Christian is analtogether new creation, a sharer in an altogether New Life, the Life that Christ lived onearth. A Catholic Priest is more, much more, than a ‘mere human being’ when he workshard at the preservation and the perfection of his vow of celibacy. In his consecratedmanhood he is truly Christ-back-on-earth. He has free access to supernatural powers.And so the answer is ‘Yes’. Yes, it has now become ‘humanly possible’ for aCatholic not only to come this far but to exhaust his participation in that mystical life ofChrist even further.In His human flesh Our Blessed Lord and Saviour not only prayed for us sinnersto His heavenly Father in the manner spoken of before, ‘standing in’ for us and for allhumanity in such a way that we should have the immediate benefits of these prayers ofadoration, intercession and thanksgiving. There was a price to be paid for these‘immediate benefits’ when we were still helpless, as the three greatest Apostles, St.John, St. Peter and St. Paul remind us.St. John:“He was in the world that had its being through Him, and the worlddid not know Him. He came to His own domain, and His ownpeople did not accept Him....” (John 1:10,11).St. Peter:“Remember the ransom that was paid to free you from the uselessway of life your ancestors handed down was not paid in anythingcorruptible... but in the precious Blood of a Lamb without spot orstain...” (1 Pe. 1:18,19).“Think of what Christ suffered in this life, and then arm yourselveswith the same resolution that He had: anyone who in this life hasbodily suffering has broken with sin, because for the rest of his lifeon earth he is not ruled by human passions but only by the will ofGod....” (1 Pe. 4:1-2).“If you can have some share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad...” (1 Pe. 4:13) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 7 7St. Paul:“We were still helpless when at His appointed moment Christ diedfor sinful men" (Rom. 5:6)."...but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us whilewe were still sinners" (Rom. 5:8)."Since God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up to benefitus a14 we may be certain, after such a gift, that He will not retuseanything He can give" (Rom. 8:32).“….redeemed in Christ Jesus, Who was appointed by God to sacrificeHis life so as to win reconciliation through Faith" (Rom. 3:25)."Now before we came of age we were as good as slaves to theelemental principles of this world, but when the appointed timecame God sent His Son, born of a Woman, born a subject of theLaw, to redeem the subjects of the Law....” (Gal. 4:3-5).How many still “have not come of age” St. Paul acknowledges in the same breath whenhe wrote a bit further on in this same letter to the Galatians:“….how can you want to go back to elemental things like these, thatcan do nothing and give nothing AND BE THEIR SLAVES? Youmake me feel I have wasted my time with you!” (Gal. 4:9,11).Universal Redemption has been assured in Christ Jesus, but, according to thesewords written here, and according to innumerable similar references in SacredScripture, and according to the previously quoted words of Our Lady spoken at Fatimain 1917, universal salvation has not been assured.... And it is here that the revelation isbeing made, that the suffering and dying of Christ in His Mystical Body still goes on,hour after hour, day after day, year after year, century after century....“It makes me happy to suffer for you as I am suffering now, and todo in my own body what I can to make up all that has still to beundergone by Christ for the sake of His Body, the Church”. (Col. 1:24).Finally, we must take into account the words spoken by Our Lord Himself:“Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer all this and soenter into His glory?” (Lk. 24:26). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 8 8But who is Christ? When the Lord appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus Heinformed this persecutor of His Church in no uncertain terms: “Saul, Sau4 why are youpersecuting ME?” (Acts 9:4). If Christ identifies Himself with His Mystical Body, mustwe not extend His words to mean that it also has been ordained that He should suffer allthis in His Mystical Body as well, so that His Mystical Body should make up what hasstill to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His Church, the sole Instrument ofSalvation?And thus, yes, it is possible for Catholics to go further than to stand in forsinners in their prayer life, and “by proxy” say the prayers these sinners entrusted totheir care should say themselves but do not say in their state of utter helplessness. It is inthe power of all Catholics “to arm themselves with the same resolution that Christ had”,“to help pay the ransom” and, as part of the Mystical Body of Christ, to volunteer “tomake up in their own bodies all that has still to be undergone by Christ”, so that whenChrist does come into His world and enters in His own domain at the end of any sinner'slife, He will be accepted. How far a Catholic is prepared to go here is now left to the intimacy between avictim soul and the Bridegroom....
F. Albers.
.... JULY 1995.
....
Taken from: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5m409i14wh0J:users.pipeline.com.au/~rossj/files/Divine_Art.pdf+&hl=en&gl=au
No comments:
Post a Comment