lv orientation 7 09
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Praying Our Experiences
Lasallian Volunteer Orientation
August 28, 2009
Prayer = raising what’s on our minds
and in our hearts
to God
Thomas Merton on Prayer:
In prayer we come to know ourselves
as we are in the hands of God
Model: Mary pondered these things
in her heart…..
Assumptions:
• God is already in our life• We are in God; in God we live & move & have our being• God’s word comes to us
- Scripture- Jesus- Creation (our own history)
We pray our experiences when we
use the content of our lived
existence as the content
of our prayer
Praying our experiences means being open
to seeing ourselves as we are & to
seeing our personal history – as it
is known to the Lord
Distinction:
• Knowing / knowing about• Praying / praying about
We pray our experiences/history not in order to change but to DISCOVER; to REVISIT our experiences.
Fact vs. Issue (in my life, pushes my buttons)
• baggage• emotional content (out of proportion)• it’s in the way
Necessary: stabilize the emotional content / revisit the issue so that it becomes a fact.
Types of questions when dealing with issues:
What question = factWhy question = motive, judgmental, negative, condemnation
ASK: “What” questions, not “Why” (we often don’t know why)
God is facilitating this process of discovery within us;
half of our struggle is denial.
God is facilitating this process of discovery within us; half of our struggle is denial.
The goal of the spiritual life is not achieving virtue, as
traditionally presented. It is, rather, the Discovery –
Dialogue – Doing, the true work of our salvation.
The aim of prayer is to come to know
God through the realization that our
very being is penetrated with
God’s knowledge & love for us
- Thomas Merton
To touch the hearts of your students
is the greatest miracle you can perform
& one which God expects of you
- De La Salle
You must constantly represent the needs of
your students to Jesus Christ, explaining to him
the difficulties you experience in guiding them.
- De La Salle
Examine before God how you are acting in your ministry
& whether you are failing in any of your responsibilities.
Come to know yourself just as you are. Find fault with
yourself accurately, unsparingly….. - De La Salle
The spiritual life is not passive;
it is very active
Pray the way you can,
not the way you can’t
(be open to other possibilities)
How do the saints report back that they spend their time in prayer?
Saints report back…1. Reflective prayer (intellect), meditation – the thinkers
Focus: i) Sacred Scripture; ii) Life
St. Ignatius: contemplation = thinking & imagining St. Theresa: going inside our interior castle St. Benedict: lexio divino
Saints report back…2. Affective prayer (will) – the heart people - Comes out of longing (willingness) of the heart - The Jesus Prayer - Mantras - The Rosary (touch = incarnational)
Saints report back…..Saints report back…..
3. Contemplative prayer - To be present to God & ourselves as we are - Centering prayer - De La Salle’s “simple attention”
Mother Theresa was afflicted with feelings of abandonment by God from the very start of her work among the homeless children & dying persons in Calcutta’s slums. From all available evidence, this experience persisted until her death five decades later, except for a brief interlude in 1958.
From Mother Theresa…..
I am told God lives in me – and yet the
reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is
so great that nothing touches my soul.
From Mother Theresa…..
I want God with all the power of my soul – and yet
between us there is terrible separation…..
Heaven from every side is closed.
From Mother Theresa…..
I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.
In our brokenness
we come to know
God’s acceptance & love
Pray the way you can,
not the way you can’t
(be open to other possibilities)
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