"The Life of Prayer" by Fr. Dave

THE LIFE OF PRAYER: INSIGHTS OF BLESSED FATHER CHAMINADE

1.       PRAYER AND MEDITATION, NOT MUCH  about  PRAYERS,      DEVOTIONS

·         3:00 (community, vocation, mission)

·         Act of consecration daily

·         Magnificat – a favorite Marianist prayer

·         Other devotions as normal, by inclination: rosary, stations, adoration, etc.

2.       IMPORTANCE OF MEDITATION

·         Core of spiritual life, for everyone

·         For religious, in unusual circumstances, other things could go, not this

·         Internalizing, personalizing

·         Linking to great Xtian tradition

·         A little lost today: going to India to learn meditation....urgent need to recover

3. “JESUIT” style prayer, Chaminade learned as a boy (as I did, many do still)

a.       Scripture based usually

b.      Considerations, affections, resolutions as 3 key moments

c.       Methodical, logical, busy mind, imagination, feelings, conscious, analytical

d.      To make you a better person

e.      Discernment

f.        Deep value, good start, advice to you –

g.       Fits some personality types better than others, might be a starting point

h.      Often come back to

4.       SULPICIAN prayer modifies Jesuit style: Chaminade at seminary in 1780’s

a.       More feeling

b.      Aim: form good priests – other Christs

c.       Adoration, communion, cooperation as 3 key moments

d.      faith in head, heart, hands

e.      More feeling, non-verbal, non-analytical

f.        To enter into the “Mysteries” of Christ

g.       Great emphasis on the “presence of God” - just be aware, live in awareness

5BENEDICTINE prayer: Chaminade and scriptural heritage:

a.       Scripture, lectio divina, liturgy,              personal application

b.      Bible in Chaminade’s day: not so available, not so encouraged

c.       Chaminade deeply immersed in biblical thought, Love for Bible, love for liturgy

d.      Meditation on Creed: each truth lights up from inside, principle of life

e.      Not vision, experience but faith – don’t ever expect something different

f.        Not activism or effort but faith, Providence – slow discernment, looking for signs

g.       Very relaxing, concentrating, approaching oriental med, early Church

h.      Cp. Mantra, Jesus prayer, breathing, murmuring

6.       CARMELITE PRAYER: mystical experience (Teresa, John)

a.       Chaminade was cautious, but mysticism VIP:

b.      “Prayer of faith and the presence of God”

c.       Caution about Jansenism: vs. overly enthusiastic displays, or overly rigorous stance

d.      Caution about Quietism (doing nothing): need for effort, active approach

e.      Yet Cham seems to have had such experiences

f.        Pure faith as key, but a feeling takes over

g.       Prayer of simplicity (Teresa)

h.      What prayer is for: to penetrate oneself with faith, faith of the heart

7.       ORIENTAL PRAYER

a.       Not heady, we Westerners may have more ideas and methods

b.      Sense, feeling, attitude, new level of awareness

c.       8 steps of yoga: commandments / discipline / body / breath / withdrawal / meditation / contemplation / realization 

“I am more thoroughly immersed in the immensity of God than a fish is in the ocean, a bird in the wide expanse of the air.  I am in God as my thoughts are in my mind, without occupying any space....If our faith be great, we shall soon feel ourselves dwelling in God, and we shall, as it were, feel God within us; we shall experience that in God ‘we live and move and have our being.’”

Chaminade: “Prayer of Faith and the Presence of God,“Writings on Mental Prayer, par.  379ab