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PAGE 9—The Georgia Bulletin, March 30, 1972
An outside procession on Hunter Street marked the observance of Palm Sunday at Immaculate Conception Parish. Fr. Thomas
Giblin, OFM, the pastor, led the procession.
Pointers On Prayer
(The following practical helps
in prayer are excerpted from
HAIRCUTS AND HOLINESS, a
book by Louis Cassels just
published by Abingdon Press.)
BY LOUIS CASSELS
(NC News Service)
A college professor paused
to examine the titles on
display in the tract rack of his
church. He visibly recoiled
from one little green-and-
-white pamphlet which he
found in a prominent spot.
“This,” he remarked to a
companion, “is carrying the
‘how to’ craze too far.”
The pamphlet was entitled
INSTRUCTIONS IN THE
LIFE OF PRAYER.
Many sensitive and
intelligent laymen share the
professor’s distaste for any
pamphlet, book, or article
which suggests that there are
techniques in prayer. They
feel that private prayer
should be unstudied and
unrehearsed, a spontaneous
outpouring of the heart to
God.
Spiritual directors agree
that spontaneous prayer has
great value and that it is
appropriate for any time,
place or circumstance.
But from the time of Jesus
until now, they have also
insisted that there are rules to
be learned and disciplines to
be practiced in prayer. When
his disciples said, “Teach us
to pray,” our Lord did not
respond with a lecture on
spontaneity. He gave very
explicit and practical advice,
including a model prayer.
Over the centuries,
hundreds of saints and
scholars have contributed to a
massive literature on prayer.
Outlined below are seven
specific suggestions which
have been commended by
many Christians through the
ages:
Pray each day at the same
time. No matter how many
spontaneous prayers you may
offer during the course of the
day, you should also have a
fixed, regular time for private
prayer. Treat it as the most
important appointment in
your day and don’t let
anything intrude upon it or
crowd it out. Some people
pray best early in the
morning, before they are
involved in the day’s
activities. Others prefer to
pray before retiring at night.
The important thing is to
pick a time you can call your
own and stick to it every day.
It is helpful to have a
regular place as well as a
regular time for prayer. It
may be any place you find
convenient, so long as it
affords complete privacy.
Jesus recommended a closet.
In the modern home or
apartment, that might be
translated into a bedroom or
bathroom. Lock the door if
possible. Your ability to
concentrate on your prayers
is directly related to your
assurance that no one will
see, overhear or interrupt
you.
The posture you assume in
prayer does not matter to
God, but it may make a great
difference to you. You can
stand, sit, kneel or lie down
to pray. Kneeling is a physical
act of humility which helps
many people to prepare
psychologically for prayer.
An uncomfortable position
may be a distraction, but one
that is too comfortable - for
example, lying in bed -- is
likely to lead to drowsiness
rather than concentration.
Prepare for prayer with a
brief period of devotional
reading. This helps you to
make the transition from the
hectic world of daily routine
to the quiet mood of prayer.
It enables you to focus your
attention on God, an act
which is both the
precondition and the purpose
of prayer.
Pray as long as you need to
or want to, and no longer.
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Jesus warned that
long-windedness is not a
virtue in prayer, and the
model prayer he gave to his
disciples has only 67 words.
Until you are far advanced in
the spiritual life, you may
find it difficult to sustain a
genuine mood of prayer for
longer than five or ten
minutes at a stretch. It is
better to pray briefly and
regularly than to indulge in
marathon prayers one day
and then skip several days.
Pray whether you “feel
like it” or not. It is your will,
not your fleeting emotions,
which you offer to God in
prayer. Even the most saintly
go through frequent “dry
periods” when they do not
feel the least bit prayerful.
But they keep on praying.
Do not be ashamed to
offer “selfish” prayers, or to
seek God’s help in “little”
things. Jesus included in his
model prayer a petition for
bread, which is about as
mundane a request as you can
make. But you shouldn’t let
personal petitions dominate
your prayer. They are likely
to do so unless you
deliberately practice other
kinds.
What other kinds? Spiritual
directors have identified four
- intercession, confession,
thanksgiving and adoration.
Intercession has been
described as “loving your
neighbor on your knees.”
This is the prayer in which
you seek God’s help for other
people. It is important to
avoid value and meaningless
generalities (“Please bless the
poor and sick”) and to pray
for the specific needs of
specific individuals.
Confession is the prayer in
which we acknowledge our
sins and accept God’s
forgiveness of them. Here
again, it is better to be
specific whenever possible. In
confession we humbly and
contritely admit that we have
become separated from God
by our own sinfulness, and
we open our lives to the
healing, reconciling, restoring,
uplifting grace of him who
loves us in spite of what we
are.
Thanksgiving means
counting your blessings. As in
the case of intercession and
confession, it is always better
to be specific - to thank God
sincerely for particular good
things in your life. The true
spirit of thanksgiving also
accepts the adversities of life
and sees even in them the
merciful if sometimes
mysterious hand of a loving
Father.
Adoration is the highest
form of prayer. It means
lifting up your heart to God
and saying in whatever words
you find most meaningful
that you acknowledge him to
be worthy of your utmost
love and obedience. The
Lord’s Prayer begins with a
simple expression of
adoration: “Our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done.”
Public Prayer
BY BISHOP JOSEPH G. VATH
(Bishop Vath is Ordinary of the Diocese of Birmingham, Ala. We
continue his excellent pastoral letter on prayer.)
We have been speaking of prayer as communing with
God in a very personal way since this must be our essential
foundation in prayer. However, we know that God made us
social creatures, interdependent upon one another in many
ways. Hence we understand readily the necessity of prayer
in a community way - praying together as God’s people.
The highest form of community or public prayer Christ
gave us at the Last Supper when He instituted the Holy
Eucharist. This we know as the public prayer of the Church
par excellence.
When I spoke of the re-vitalization, re-orientation and
reformation of our official prayerlife in the Church, I was
speaking of the Liturgy — specifically the renovation of our
Liturgy as outlined in the document of Vatican Council II.
It was assumed by the Council Fathers that all our Christian
people had made their basic commitment in faith to Jesus
Christ as Lord and Saviour and that the Liturgy would
mean our coming together in a faith community to
celebrate the paschal mysteries, the suffering, death,
resurrection and ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Would
that such were the case! The fact is that the basic
commitment in faith that was taken for granted as we
began the renewal of our Liturgy was so obviously lacking
that many became enmeshed in a tangle of irrelevant and
inconsequential non-essentials.
We have seen great controversies over guitars, and bongo
drums, over women lectors and cantors, over processions
and the sign of peace while the essential Liturgy of the
Word and the Eucharist which is the foundation and source
of our unity is obscured and neglected.
I ask the people of God in the Birmingham Diocese
during this centennial year to lay aside the controversy and
the incessant discussion on non-essentials and let us
concentrate on the true meaning of the Liturgy.
As a first step towards the renewal of our Sacred Liturgy
I ask pastors and liturgical committees of parish councils to
begin this Lent to make sincere and thorough preparations
for the celebration of our Sunday liturgies.
Specifically, I ask pastors, associates and all presiding
celebrants to make proper preparation for the Liturgy by
study, prayer and reading of the Scriptures so as to make
the Word of God live in their homilies to the faithful. They
are requested likewise to use every possible means to see
that the faithful can hear and understand every word and
gesture of the celebrant. This will require much planning
and practice but I believe this is essential for the renewal of
our Liturgy.
Furthermore, I ask every Lector, be that person male or
female, to prepare the readings from Scripture beforehand.
In his splendid treatise entitled, “Christ Present and Yet to
Come,” Fr. Joseph Champlin suggests the reading of the
passages aloud about five times so as to appreciate and be
able to convey the meaning of the Scriptures.
Since music in its many forms has become a part of our
Liturgy, I beg organists, musicians and choir-directors to
prepare properly and worthily the hymns, songs and
responses to be made by the choir or the faithful. Music is
such a beautiful adjunct to the Liturgy and the ancient
adage is still true — “He who sings well, prays twice.”
I ask the altar boys to conduct themselves as reverently
and competently as possible so that their example of faith,
modesty and devotion will be an asset to the congregation.
The ushers, who serve to create and maintain order and
decorum, are asked to be an asset by their punctuality,
kindness and courtesy.
Those who bring the gifts to the altar at the offertory
must be mindful of their role also in a beautiful, decorous
and devotional liturgy.
When a community of the faithful comes together after
all the preparations for a meaningful Liturgy have been
made to celebrate in joyful faith the paschal mysteries,
surely everyone can see the unity, love and community
deepening. Then the faithful emerge in a society more
Christ-like in love and concern for one another. This is the
type of renewal in faith and love for which we yearn, pray
and hope.
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