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)