PRAYER FROM THE HEART

december 18, 2009

Listen to this instruction on prayer a mother wrote in a letter to her son: "Pray with your mouth. Cry out with your heart. Ask in your deeds that God come to your aid always, day and night, in every hour and every moment. As you lie quiet in your bed, say: Keep watch over me, Lord, throughout the day, and guard me in this night if such is your will. May you find me worthy to be protected under the shadow of your wings, filled with the Holy Spirit, surrounded by your royal defense, ringed by guardian angels, so that even if I am restless in this night, I may sleep the sleep of peace. And if I wake in the night, may I feel that you are the guardian of my sleep, and my Savior. Amen."

That was written in the 9th century, but it's probably not much different from the kind of instruction on prayer that many mothers have given their children. It helps us realize that the basics of Christian faith and life have not changed over the centuries, and that the way we first learned from our mothers how to pray is basically the same as was used by all the generations of Christian believers.

The kind of prayer that people learn in the home or discover on their own is sometimes called devotional prayer. In many Catholic homes, through many generations, there could be found prominent displays of the outward signs of religious devotion: a picture of the Sacred Heart enthroned over the mantle, vigil lights burning on a home altar before a statue of Mary or a favorite saint, a crucifix on the wall, a bible in a prominent place, palm branches taken from church on Palm Sunday, and so on. Catholics of all ages have worn religious medals or scapulars as a personal reminder of the power of God, and of the power of the Blessed Mother or another saint to intervene in human affairs.

Devotional prayer has never been confined to Catholic homes. At the parish church there have been such devotional prayer activities as novenas, Forty Hours devotion, exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, group recitation of the rosary, and the Stations of the Cross on Fridays.

The great renewal of liturgical prayer in our time, a blessing in itself, has perhaps caused some to lose sight of the supportive value of devotional prayer. Catholics understand today that the public worship of the Church -- the Mass and other sacraments -- is their prayer too, not just that of the clergy. Catholics are better able to understand the Mass today, and their participation in it is more active. All this is to the good. But the reform of public worship was never intended to do away with personal, devotional prayer.

To be honest, Church authority has always been cautious about devotional prayer, for the simple reason that it is difficult to control, and what may begin in a balanced way may in time distort the Church's faith and actually harm people by giving them false or immature ideas of God, Christ, and the Christian life. Devotional prayer can sometimes turn into various forms of superstition and magic.

Very subtly, the whole center of Christian faith, who is Christ Jesus, can be lost or made secondary. So, all devotional practices can renew faith or become a distraction from the hard work of making the gospel come alive in one's life and activity.

The challenge, then, is to provide for devotional prayer in our daily lives, but not allow it to become unbalanced, or to take the place of carrying out the Church's mission.

God has placed within each of us a heart capable of great love for him, and one of our most important needs is to express our devotion and love for him in a personal way. If love is not expressed, it tends to grow weak and die. While the Mass and sacraments remain the center of our life of worship, each of us needs to express our faith, hope, and love in very personal terms.
Devotional prayer, or call it prayer of the heart, or personal prayer, if you like, has the great advantage of being able to fill this need. It also has the advantage of enabling us to pray humbly. Humility means that we recognize our total dependence upon God, who creates, sustains, nurtures and empowers us. Humility draws us into a profound spirit of gratitude and awe. We recognize ourselves as creatures, and--filled with reverence for the God who has made us -- we are able to come to him in great simplicity as his children. Devotional prayer is prayer that everyone can pray. It is prayer that never gets lost in big words or deep theological abstractions. It is prayer straight from the heart.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 09-Jun-2010 10:44 sitemap