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You will lose the fight without
prayer. Tree beside running waters - Jer. 17, Ps. 1,
Ps. 72.
Prayer
itself is a battle. (CCC)
There
is so much more God wants to give. “O
souls, created for these grandeurs and called to them. What are you doing? How are you spending your time?” (John of the
Cross)
Why
so few? “As he said all were called, I
feel sure that none will fail to receive this living water unless they cannot keep the path.” (T. of A)
2 Any circumstances will work: growth in
prayer does not depend on a person's immediate situation.: "the time is
always propitious for God to grant His great favours to those who truly serve
Him"
6 God gives prayer growth precisely according
to our degree of readiness for it. He forces no one.
(Helicopter trying to land.)
7 Retrogression is possible – backsliding into
mediocrity.
John
of the Cross and Teresa of Avila never say a thing about methodology.
Conditions for Growth: St. Teresa
Living, as we do, in a consumerist age that
looks to technology to solve most of its problems, we will, unless immersed in
a serious prayer life ourselves, assume as obvious that prayer is mainly
something produced in a human manner. This is partially true of beginning
discursive meditation, but the trouble begins when the assumption is
uncritically extended to all mental prayer. That it is so extended is
made clear when one reads books and articles on the subject of contemplation,
or if one simply reads advertisements to see what is being sold (always the new
"technique" or "mantra" or "process").
While some of this is good for some people at some times, the extension of it to
most people at most times is more than misleading. Extended
indiscriminately, it becomes a dead end and more than a dead end. It
blocks real prayer growth.
For
John and Teresa they have not a single sentence that speaks of methodology as a
means to deep communion with the God of revelation.
1 Primary
need: to do God's will from moment to moment throughout the day.: The whole aim of any person who is beginning
prayer-and don't forget this, because it is very important-should be that he
work and prepare himself with determiniation and every effort to bring his will
into conformity with God's will.
3 Conformity to the divine will does not mean
merely that we fulfill the commandments, but also that we generously go beyond what is strictly required.: Everything we gain comes from what we
give. ... If you are to gain this, He would have you keep back nothing;
whether it be little or much, He will have it all for Himself, and according to
what you know yourself to have given, the favours He will grant you will be
small or great.
4 Purification: from faults. Even after
she had been purified a great deal and was receiving "sublime contemplation"
from her Lord, St. Teresa still saw an abundance of imperfections in herself: How I fail, How I fail, How I fail-and I
could say it a thousand times-to get rid of everythign for You! ... How many
imperfections I see in myself! What laxity in sevring you! Indeed I think
sometimes I would like to be without consciousness in order not to know so much
evil about myself.
5 Guided by Revelation, not by a naturalistic
common sense. (Follow God’s direction, not advice on technique)
**People
advancing need to be especially alert to the subtle attractions to mediocrity
that still lie before them. The devil, says Teresa, is cunning with them,
and he does not try to get them with obvious sins. Prayer, she feels, is
the best way to detect these allurements. God gives "a thousand
warnings" (though Teresa doesn't list them, Dubay offers: loss of peace at
prayer; pricks of conscience at small omissions and clingings; minor returns to
worldliness such as overuse of frivilous intertainments or excesses in
food/clothing/etc; corner-cutting of regulations; idle chatter)
8 Virtue
and Prayer are correlatives. Earnest striving for virtue directly
causes a deepening of prayer. anyone who experiences being in love will
readil understand how depth of love communion transforms style of life, and
conversely, how style of life deepens (or damages) love communion. 9
Determination. It is most important-all-important, indeed-that they
should begin well by making an earnest and most determined resolve not to halt
until they reach their goal, whatever may come, whatever may happen to them,
however hard they may have to labor, whoever may complain of them, whether they
reach teir goal or die on the road or have no heart to confront the trials
which they meet, whether the very world dissolves before them.
Specific
Conditions
1 Humility-Prayer is intertwined with reality -
False humility thus gets us nowhere. Not
merely an intellectual acknowledgment, but must be reduced to practice.
Generous in sharing. Obedience to human superiors (doesn't mean you can't
talk or even question). *Pride withers a vibrant prayer life* Human
blame is more secure that human praise (the latter she considered a torment:
because like with Jesus, the soul is freed and it reigns when it is
persecuted). Self-defense/justification, while there are occasions when
it is right, Teresa notes they are few (recall the silence of Jesus in His
passion; also, it requires we rely on God's help to resist rebuttal; 3rd, in
small matters that do not harm us, it can gain great spiritual victories; 4th,
"we can never be blamed unjustly" even if it is for the wrong things;
5th, if you are vindicated by another means, your silence during the trial
teaches much to the accuser; 6th, God will have others stand up for us when we
need it (as Christ did).; 7th, gains freedom from concern and worry of others'
opinion, and can rest more readily in God @ prayer). Detachment: A Note-Inner
freedom from selfish clingings is so basic a condition for growth to maturity
that an entire chapter in this book has been devoted to it (Ch 8).
2 Solitude: (not isolation!) a healthy
turning toward one's beloved. Try to put aside all unnecessary affairs
and business. Think of the plant choked up by the thorns in Jesus'
parable. For starters, a drastic reduction in our exposure to the mass
media. Don't meddle in other's affairs. Avoid Idle talk. It is very
important that those who visit us leave with some benefit, and not after having
wasted time, and that we benefit too. Waste of time and prayer depth are
incompatible.
3 Suffering and Growth in Prayer-Just as
Jesus Himself had to suffer, embrace the daily crosses that are sure to
come. If the soil is well cultivated by trials, persecutions, criticisms,
and illnesses-for few there must be who reach this state without them-and if it
is softened by living in great detachment from self-interest, the water soaks
it to the extent that it is almost never dry. Teresa says thee trials God
sends to those of deep prayer are often severe and intolerable, so that they
cannot be borne were not God also to give special consolations. God gives
help. Love is the measure of our ability to bear crosses.
4 Love-Generosity-Growth must happen in the midst of a life lived on a battlefield.
That battlefield is the people we are called concretely to love.
