Ang Pag-ampo [Prayer]: August 30, 2017
Prayer
What is Prayer?
Prayer - usa ka personal nga relasyon nga kinasikasing uban sa hunahuna
tali sa
tawo ug sa Dios. [It is a personal,
heart to heart and mind relationship between human and God].
It is the anchor of the human action.
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Traditionally defined by Evagrius Ponticus (346-99)
as “the dialogue of the mind with God” or by St. John of Damascus (ca. 675-ca.
749) as the “elevation of the mind to God.” Mind should not be understood here
in a merely intellectual way, because prayer involves also our freedom and
emotions. God is present in a way that goes far beyond the presence of human
partners in dialogue.
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To pray is to invoke, adore, praise, thank, express
sorrow, and ask blessings from our personal creator and Lord. Prayers maybe uttered
aloud or occur silently in the heart, can take place alone or with others,
within the official liturgy of the church or beyond it.
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Jesus prayed publicly and in private (e.g. Mk 1:35 ; 6:46 ; 14:12 -26,
32-42), taught his disciples to pray (Mt 6:9-13; 7:7-11; Lk 11:1-4),
and with them inherited OT tradition of prayer represented classically by the
psalms.
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The richest collection of NT prayers occurs in the
opening chapters of Luke’s gospel (Lk 1:46 -55,
68-79; 2:14 , 29-32).
Acts
4:24-30 records a moving prayer in time of persecution. Christians
believe that the Holy Spirit makes possible their life of prayer (Rom 8:15 , 26-27; Gal 4:6).
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“Do not pray as it is imposed to you or because it
is necessary. Pray because you need it and it is meaningful for you and it will
help you.”
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In prayer we welcome Jesus into our hearts so that
we may go out
to people
bringing him with us.
Two Kinds of Prayer:
1.) Vocal - are those prayers
that we learn or read from books. We call
them vocal prayers because we say them loudly or at
least with lipsing. They are really
prayers composed by other people. We borrow them and
use them in speaking to God as if
they contain our own words. (Pinaagi sa pagtingog, pinaagi sa baba, pwede kantahon
pwede pud sulti-on).
2.) Mental - the words that we
use in this kind of prayer are composed by our minds. We do not say this prayer loudly. We do not need even to open our lips. We may say this prayer
just with our mind. (Pinaagi sa
salabutan, kaisipan, o hunahuna).
What is Meditation?
Meditation it is usually
called mental prayer in contrast with vocal prayer. A prayer composed by our minds. In meditation we
have a personal discussion with God. We
discuss with God our problems and difficulties, our sorrows and pains, our
hopes and desires, our joys, etc. We can
also pray for our family, our relatives and friends, our country, and for the
world during our meditation. (Pinaagi sa
pagpamalandong ug hunahuna).
Although a meditation can
consist of a conversation with God from the beginning to the end, many of those
who meditate usually divide the time of their meditation in three parts – consideration,
application
and conversation.
It is very helpful especially for beginners to proceed with the three steps.
First, we consider either a passage or an event in Sacred Scripture or the
life of Saint, etc. Then, we consider how it can be applicable to each of us personally. At
the end we discuss the matter with
God, asking him to help us to be able to practice our life what we have learned
in the application. We may discuss the matter also with the
Blessed Virgin Mary, with an angel or with a Saint.
Conversation with God is an important
component of meditation. Without it, we
are just going to have a mere study. We meditate not just in order to learn
something, but to grow in holiness with the help of God.
Fr. Pio of Pietrelcina, the modern pious Capuchin
stigmatist, who died on September
23, 1963 at San Giovanni Rotondo, has said that the purpose of
meditation is the transformation of the soul in Christ. In other words,
attaining a certain degree of holiness.
By meditating we try as much as we can to attain a perfect
union of our souls with God. In order to attain such a union, it is pivotal
that we understand in what that union consists of St. John
Our purpose in attaining union of likeness with God is to
be able to love him as he loves us, which is a way for us to attain eternal
salvation. Peace of mind, heart and soul will follow automatically as we savor
the sweetness of our oneness with God.
Our glory and happiness in heaven will consist in being
able to love God as we see clearly how lovable he is. Since our earthly life is
a preparation for heaven, we can say that it is supposed to be a period of
learning or of practice in loving God.
Our happiness in heaven will be in proportion to how much
we can enter into a union of love with God, and our capacity to enter into that
union will be as much ae we have developed our love of God in this world.
As we make progress in meditation, we will realize more and
more that God is not far away from us; that he is beside us all the time. Have
we not learned in Catechism that God is everywhere? If he is everywhere, then
we do not need to look for him somewhere far away. We can find him anywhere. We just have to
open ourselves to him, and we will find him.
It is true that there are places especially set aside for
prayers. However, this is only because at times we need a place where we can
pray with the least possibility of distraction so that we can pray better.
Churches have been built for this purpose and also for us to have a place for
the continuous sacramental presence of Christ in his totality. Any place where
we can be alone with God and where we can be where we can be least disturbed
will be suitable for meditation. Some people have their eyes closed while
meditating in order not to see anything that may disturb them. Those of us who
think that we can meditate better with closed eyes should not hesitate to close
our eyes.
There are beginners in meditation who find it very helpful
to have a composition of place when they meditate. For example, as we meditate
on the words of Christ, “There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life
for his friends” (John 15:13), we can close our eyes and imagine that we are on
Calvary on the first Good Friday, looking at the dying body of Christ nailed on
the cross. As we look at that Sacred Body, we can try to feel how much Christ
really loves us. Then, at the end we can converse with Christ, appreciating his
love and asking for the grace to be able to love him in return.
Progress in Spiritual Life
We have to grow in our spiritual life in order to attain
the life of union of likeness with God. Our series of meditations on the love
of God is a great means of spiritual growth. However, before we start on any
spiritual endeavor, let us remember that for spiritual success, we need the
help of God. We cannot do it on our own. Our Lord has said that without him, we
can do nothing (Jn 15:5). What our Lord Jesus Christ means on the context of
mystical vine is that we need to draw graces from him in order to grow in
holiness. It is therefore necessary that whenever we meditate, we abandon
ourselves totally to God, realizing that we are incapable of any spiritual
accomplishment without his aid.
We should set aside a time for meditation as much as
possible everyday from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on our availability and
capability. As we make progress in our spiritual life, we will discover that
eventually the time of meditation will be the happiest time of our day. Even if
a time our meditations maybe dry to no fault of our own, we will still find a
certain degree of spiritual refreshment in every meditation.
Those who have attained to a high degree of perfection have
even experienced a type of contact with God, which surpasses meditation, and
that is contemplation. According to St.
John
Scriptural References
We believe that the Bible is the word of God and that it is
the primary source of our knowledge about him. The Bible has very much to offer
to us as we try to find the way to an intimate union with God. And it is to be
used extensively to reach out to the people of God so that as much as possible
everyone can be acquainted with God. It is indeed very refreshing to be able to
quote from the word of God freely, without any restraint whatsoever.
Help of a Spiritual Director
It is very helpful for a soul trying to attain spiritual
perfection to have a spiritual director. A spiritual director helps a person
trying to live a holy life by giving him spiritual guidance. And it is usually
a priest and religious sister but a holy layperson who has an extensive
knowledge of the sacred sciences especially the Bible and Christian
Spirituality can also act as a spiritual director.
Prayer and the
Ministry
Prayer is a must for
effective ministry. The Jesuits seek to be “contemplatives in action,” and
the Dominicans have as their ideal: Contemplata aliis tradere (To Hand Over to
Others what One has Contemplated), while the members of the Notre Dame de Vie
Institute express the same ideal this way: “Action et Contemplacion bein uni”
(Action and Contemplation Well United).
There is no argument about the necessity of prayer and its
unity with ministry, there is plenty of difficulty when it comes to integrating
prayer and service in the life of the minister.
The main
activities in the seminary are study and prayer. And often study and prayer are precisely the
most neglected activities of priests after they have left the seminary.
The prayer that
is often neglected by the Church’s ministers is mental prayer, meditation or
contemplation.
The great Church
reformer Charles
Borromeo had to remind his priests not to neglect the care of
their own souls while they took care of the souls of their parishioners, and he
exhorted them explicitly to meditation.
According to our
late Pope John
Paul II, “Do not be so taken up by the work of the Lord that you
forget the Lord of the work.”
We
must be convinced of the necessity of regular mental prayer, or quite time with
the Lord for spiritual life. Time spent in
prayer is no less pleasing to the Lord than time spent in active ministry. The
incident in the home of Martha to tell Mary to help her is a good indication of
the pleasure the Lord takes when his disciple simply stays at his feet to
listen to him (Lk. 10:38 -42).
Prayer
is a necessary preparation for the active ministry. For what makes
us effective in ministry is not our talent and techniques but our union with
the Lord and our docility to his grace. More activity does not always translate
in greater effectiveness. A person can carry fifty sacks of rice into a
delivery truck, spending much time and energy in the process. But if he knows
how to operate a forklift, he can load the same amount of cargo into a truck
with much less expenditure of time and energy.
According to
Bishop Bacani, the secret of fruitfulness in the ministry is to do the work of
the Lord and to allow ourselves to be used by the Lord to accomplish his work.
It is not enough to work for the Lord. It is necessary to do the work of the
Lord.
Prayer
is an essential requirement of ministry. But prayer is itself a
ministry.
God does listen
to prayer! And he grants our prayers more easily when we pray for others
because such prayer is very selfless. The whole of John 17 is prayer of Jesus
to his Father.
According to
Bishop Bacani, a minister who does not pause to pray will likely suffer from an
overdose of work and find himself losing enthusiasm for the ministry itself.
And all work and no prayer make an ineffective minister. The minister needs to
heed the call of Christ, “Come to me all you who labor and find life burdensome
and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28 ).
The time of prayer is a time of resting in the Lord and of receiving new power
and energy from him who loves us.
The important
thing is to set aside daily a time with the Lord and for the Lord exclusively
so that we may grow in intimacy with him and may be filled more and more with
his presence.
Lastly, prayer is our protection against sin and temptation.
Pray even if you sin. There is still hope for a minister who keeps on praying
despite his sins. But it will be very difficult to save a minister who has
stopped praying. Prayer and the ministry are as inseparable as body and soul.
He who prays will minister effectively. He who does not pray will experience
sterility.
By: Danny B.
Arellano
07/21/06
– Finished
03/12/10
– Edited
Sources:
Bacani, Teodoro. A Spirituality for Ministry. Manila
Cruz, Mario. Meditations
of the Love of God. California
O’Collins, Gerald and Farrugia, Edward. A Concise Dictionary of Theology. Philippines
