Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God or the petition of convenient goods, addressed to God”. Where are we to start?  Do we want to start from the height of our pride and our will, or from the “depth” (see Is 130, 1) of a humble and contrite heart? He who humbles himself is exalted. Humility is the foundation of prayer. “We do not know how to pray properly” (Ro 8, 26). Humility is the disposition required to receive the gift of prayer gratuitously. “Man is a beggar of God” (Prayer as a gift of God, Catechism of the Catholic Church, No.2559).

The love for prayer

Helping the consecrated persons to create a solid habit of prayer is an inalienable task of the permanent formation. In fact, the initial periods of formation, like that of the aspirants and the novices, tend towards this, but formation to prayer does not end there; it goes on throughout all other phases of life. Prayer is a sure journey to know, love and imitate Christ; it a journey of constant interior conversion. It requires several efforts to form oneself and to others to the love of prayer throughout all the different phases of life.

First, there is the question on the reason why it is important to speak on the love of prayer. We know that prayer is an encounter with God, the Father; it is a dialogue of the heart in love. It is thanks to it that the personal love of God can grow. This is indispensable if we want to learn and to teach others how to pray. The Christians, even more the consecrated persons, have to be expert and teachers of prayer. This is indispensable to become mature Christians, with solid convictions; to become persons who feel prayer as a vital need, which they cannot live without. In fact, with the passing of time, all of us may change one or more than one apostolic activities; we can pass from a task to the other within our own Institute and fulfil many activities, yet the essence of our consecration does not change, even less the love and constant exercise of prayer. In fact, the consecrated life is a following of Christ and, in order to follow, know an love God, we need a great love for prayer.

Here is an episode of Pope John Paul II. During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he wanted at any cost to pray again on the Holy Sepulchre, before leaving Jerusalem. They had to change the programme to let him go there and pray for some minutes. If we loved prayer above all other values, we would give it the first place among our activities. This would attract God’s blessings on us and on all those entrusted to our apostolic commitment.  To pray with faith, hope and charity is a very beautiful way of practising the “spiritual motherhood or fatherhood” towards the souls, so dear to the hearts of consecrated persons. To this end, we must remember that before speaking of God to people, we must have spoken with God.

The value of prayer

Am important task within every Congregation, or Institute, is that of forming the consecrated persons to the importance and value, which prayer has throughout our life. Usually, the first steps of vocation are characterised by a great spiritual enthusiasm. The soul experiences particular consolations in prayer, where it discovers an unknown new and ample world. It loves to pray and seeks always more time to do it. God himself urges it, and the soul finds a providential comfort in its vocational journey. We must manage this moment of positive enthusiasm with intelligence and respect of the person.

The formation mistress must patiently introduce the postulants and novices to the art of prayer. She will make them to taste the importance of praying well in all situations, independently from he state of souls which could more or less be helpful. She will have to teach that the value of prayer does not depend on sentiments, but on the desire and will to be one with God, even in moments of spiritual aridity and temptations. She will speak to them on the importance of prayer to persevere in love, for the spiritual growth, for the increase in the friendship with God and for a fruitful apostolate. The objective is that of making the soul to grow in the desire of praising God and speaking with Him in every circumstance of life. Te objective is also that prayer may not be just a “task” to be fulfilled during the day, but a vital attitude of the soul, a tension of the whole being habitually seeking to be one with God and to do his will always.

It may happen that, in a particular moment of the spiritual maturation, a consecrated woman does not find any taste in prayer, as at the beginning of her vocation. She knows that she must pray, can see the need of prayer, but escapes the moments of prayer, experiences particular difficulties to recollect and to remain in the listening to God. It seems that the worries and the daily commitments invade her just at the time of personal or communitarian prayer. This may happen because she cannot perceive God like the other physical realities. These are there, she can see and feel them, and they attract her. But she cannot see God, though he is more real than any other thing and though he is the foundation of any other being, of the whole creation. God is not an immediate object of our sensitive experience. Only the eye of Faith can see Him, only the soul who knows how to love can experience him, only the will well rooted in his love can follow him. Therefore, we need to explain the nature of prayer to those in formation, to the end of introducing them progressively into the art and exercise of prayer. It is important to explain to them the great value of prayer in the journey of personal sanctification. They must learn this not only as a doctrine, but by making a direct and personal experience of it.

It is equally important to remember that in prayer we need to commit the whole person: intelligence, will, imagination, feelings and, above all, the heart, the seat of affections. We must not be afraid at all of showing ourselves to God as we are, because he knows us much better than we know ourselves and knows our needs. Christian prayer is never a treatise of theology before God, neither a very edifying spiritual reading. In the first case, we would have a study of theology, in the second, a spiritual reading, but not meditation. This, instead, is an intimate dialogue with God, who is the personified Love.

We know some definitions of prayer taken from the experience of saints, like that of St. Theresa of Lisieux, who said, “ To me, prayer is an impulse of the heart, a simple glance thrown towards the sky, a cry  of gratitude and love in trials and in joys”. Theresa of Avila defined prayer as “a speaking of love with him who loves us”, while for John Damascene prayer is an elevatio mentis in Deum”, an elevation of the soul to God, etc.

Therefore, from the lived experience of the saints, we can say that prayer is an intimate dialogue with God, who fortifies in the soul the sense of our own life: to fulfil the will of God. The great value of prayer is in its being a continual spiritual renewal, starting from God. Thus, to pray becomes a starting every day anew with Christ in our life of consecration, daily exposed to the dangers and challenges of our relativist and consumerist world. The Christian prayer is, therefore, a covenant relation between God and man, a relation of spousal love covenant with Christ.

It is also opportune to distinguish the difference exiting between sensitive fervour and a resolute fervour in prayer. Fervour is a permanent generous attitude of the soul, in the journey of spiritual perfection. This clarification is important because it conceals the success of many fervent souls. In the spiritual life, the work done with purity of intention is synonymous of victory. The activities are permanent and various, but as sign of total availability for God. One of the many examples is that of St. Giuseppina Bakhita, a religious from Sudan. After suffering slavery in her childhood, she found faith and joined the Canossian Sisters. For more than fifty years, this humble daughter of charity, a true witness to the love of God, lived making herself available for different occupations in the house of Schio. She was cook, linen in charge, doorkeeper and an expert in embroidery. She found her holiness in these humble activities, constantly united with God and filled with great spiritual fervour.

Now, fervour can be sensitive when the taste of fulfilling the will of God, manifested in prayer and daily tasks, accompanies the will; we call it resolute when, though there is no sensitive taste, the will remains firm in what the person has to do. It is very important to know the role of sentiments in our fervour, because sometimes the young novices and sisters think of not knowing anymore how to pray, only because they do not experience a particular sensitive satisfaction. They think that if the sentiment and the sensitive fervour are missing, they do not pray well. They think that God has abandoned them, thus they surrender to discouragement. St. Theresa of Jesus, a great teacher of Christian prayer, says that “he who has started a life of prayer, must never go back; he must persevere to find the fruit”. In fact, prayer does not consist  in feeling special emotions or in the lack of distractions; prayer is a dialogue with God, in which the will has a fundamental commitment. Knowing that persevering prayer is also a daily struggle and conquest of self, we must uniform our will with that of God.

Difficulties in prayer

The distractions are the most common difficulties for persons who wish to pray. Notwithstanding our efforts to recollect, the imagination keeps on flying here and there. No sooner do we start prayer than a hundred things come to mind: things to be done, to remember or to chase away. It seems that anything be more important than prayer at that moment! Distraction is actually interesting, because it reveals to us whatever we cherish most. The seeking to concentrate on prayer causes suffering.  The soul would like, instead, to be in God, at least during the prayer time.

Aridity is another difficulty, especially for those who want to pray sincerely. Aridity is part of the prayer life in which the heart seems to have become insensitive, without any taste for thoughts, memories and spiritual feelings. This may happen in the noviciate, once the consolations of God disappear. It can happen also in the mature religious life and in persons who exercise some apostolate. Aridity is a trial. It is a moment in which life calls us to exercise pure faith, like that of Jesus in the agony of the olives garden.

Routine and tepidity also are difficulties. We try to pray because we have to pray, but without any enthusiasm, without ardour. In this case, prayer looks like a difficult task we have to accomplish. This situation is dangerous, because the soul gradually weakens, escapes from the encounter with God and with self. It is a progressive loss of spiritual energies. It is something similar to the case of a patient who does not eat anymore and who, every day weakens, without being aware of it. This situation, in a consecrated person, can cause venial sins and can spoil the vocation. Great personalities, great successes in life cannot be achieved in one day; they go on being prepared in the soul. With this regard, it is good to consider the good example of St. Maria Faustina Kolawska, a sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. In the life of her convent, se was just one more sister. All her gifts and revelations were hidden to the sisters. Her apparently ordinary, monotonous and grey life concealed in itself a deep and extraordinary union with God. What do little things conceal,  to be so very dear to God?

A further difficulty is laziness. With this term, in our spiritual life, we mean a certain form of depression, a loss of interest for the spiritual things, a form of indifference. “The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26, 41). We must not get discouraged for the difficulties, which we find in prayer. The Lord knows us; he knows that we are weak and limited creatures. The important thing is to start afresh, overcoming every temptation, when we become aware of being far, somehow, from prayer and from the Lord Jesus.

Types of prayer

Vocal prayer- In the religious community life and in the Christian life of all the faithful, vocal prayer has a very important place. It expresses the intimacy of the heart, the response to God as an ecclesial body that lives the mystery of communion, with gestures and words. Te vocal prayer helps us a lot to form the unity of the community, in praying together, like the apostles with Mary. If we have moments of common prayer in the community, we render to God the praise due to Him. The important thing is that the words express the desire of the heart.

Liturgical prayers: They are the liturgy of the Eucharist and the liturgy of the Hours. These also are prevalently vocal prayers. In virtue of our religious consecration, we have the duty to sanctify in a particular way the course of the day and of the night with the praise of God. To celebrate the Liturgy of the hours requires not only to attune the voice with the heart that prays, but also to get a richer liturgical and Biblical instruction, especially with regard to the Psalms. “Ecce quam bonum at quam iucundum habitare fraters in unum”, (how good and how sweet it is for brothers to live together!)  (Psalm133).

Meditation or mental prayer. It is a conversational-affective prayer. Surely, it is a well known method. We want to remember it to the end of offering some helpful means of formation to prayer. We speak of the personal and individual prayer, the one that we make mentally in the chapel or in our own room. The parts, which compose it are:

a)       Preambles. Meditation usually lasts one or half an hour, according to the different rules of the Institutes. Usually we make it at the beginning of the day, so that it may sign the rhythm of the day. We usually start it with the song of the Veni Creator to ask the help of the Holy Spirit. Then, in the chapel or in our room, we renew our faith in the presence of God for some short instants, like, “Lord, I know that you are here; I believe in You, I love and adore You.  You are my God, the love of my soul … “. The important thing is to make a sincere act of humility and of gratitude before our Creator and Lord.  The catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Humility is the foundation of prayer” (No.2559). In truth, before God we wonder, “Lord, go far from me, because I am a sinner! ”Si iniquitatis observaveris Domine, Domine quis sustinebit? Then, we put in God’s hands the fruit we aim at. This is very important for prayer to flow with interest.

b)       The composition of the place: it helps our imagination in re-creating a gospel scene to favour the contemplation and the colloquy with God, Jesus and Mary. Then there is the development of meditation. After the mentioned first steps, we make the traditionally called “points” of reading, in two parts: the discursive part with reflections and considerations, and the affective part, made up of colloquies: the intimate conversation with God in the heart.

A useful counsel to instruct the novices in this method is that the Superior, or the Mistress, makes the meditation at high voice (a little as our mothers did when we were children) for some time. The novice, then, gradually discovers  how to pray, how to turn to God and starts doing it alone. It is important tat the considerations made with the intelligence penetrate the heart.

c)       The points for the meditation. We should prepare them the previous evening and can be taken:

• from the Sacred Scriptures, above all from the Gospel;
• from the Magisterium of the Church (the encyclicals: Redemptor hominis, Dives in misericordia, Redemptor Mater, Evangelium vitae, Fides et ratio. Apostolic exhortations: Vita Consecrata, Redemptionis donum, Reconciliatio et poenitentia, Familiaris consortio. The apostolic letters: Mulieris dignitatem, Novo millennio ineunte … from the sermons of the Holy Father during his journeys and his ordinary teachings …;

-          from the liturgy (many very beautiful texts  from the Eucharistic liturgy and the liturgy of the hours);

-          from the Fathers of the Church (choose one of them and go deep into it);

-          from secure spiritual authors.

The superiors have the duty of helping the sisters in formation in the task of finding secure authors, faithful to the doctrine and the teaching of the Church. For the consecrated persons, the prayer of the founder can become a true “school of prayer”. God has wanted to give you a charism through your founder, therefore their writings, their letters and prayers are inestimable treasures for all the consecrated persons.

d)       We conclude the meditation with a resolution. It is convenient to remember, during the day, this resolution and the main light received during the meditation. They can help our conversion to the Lord Jesus: metanoia. The meditation must enlighten my day, must help me to see everything with faith, to be strong and courageous in my vocation. It must help my conversation with the Lord, present in my heart throughout the day.

Meditation has complementary parts, namely: the remote and the immediate preparation. The remote preparation begins with the night silence and the silence before prayer; the reading of the points during the evening prayer.  The immediate preparation, which goes from the moment we get up till we start our prayer. This requires that we remember the points of meditation; we cultivate recollection and silence, the dedication and offering of the work.

A final consideration on recollection and
its role in prayer life

      Recollection asks of us “to be calm”. Habitually the person finds himself before a multiplicity of things he has to do. Man worries because of friendly or hostile circumstances;  desires or fears,  worries or passions may trouble him. He is always busy fighting or defending himself, acquiring or repelling something, building or destroying. We, therefore need to chase away disordered desires, in order to turn towards the unique important; we must deny our will and tell ourselves, “Now I have nothing else to do except to pray. I want to use the next thirty minutes –or any other fixed time- exclusively for this. The remaining things do not exist anymore. I am completely free and am here only for this”.

      Man is a cunning creature and the cunningness of his heart appears in Religious life. When he begins to pray, soon some other thought comes from his internal disquietude, intrudes into prayer and demands attention.. Anything, a work, a conversation, a commitment, a research, a book, newspapers seem more important and prayer is felt as a pastime. Nevertheless, as soon as he interrupts it, after some reflection, the time, which seemed to be scarce, now is more than enough and he uses it in useless things.

To recollect means to overcome this deceit of disquietude and to be calm, to free ourselves from all that is not prayer and to be at the disposal of Him who alone now matters, namely the Lord.

It is important to reach recollection, especially when, after the first enthusiasm, interest disappears and the interior disorder appears clearly. Everything depends on recollection. No fatigue we suffer to this end is ever wasted. Even if all the time destined to meditation passed in seeking the Lord, we would use it well, because recollection is substantially already a prayer. In fact “the prayer of recollection” would be good to be satisfied with it in times of trouble, of sickness of weariness. This would restore us to calm by giving us strength and help. He who obtains nothing else except seeing clearly his difficulties in this regard, has already gained a lot. He would have touched already the point behind the distraction”.

 “Do not think of what
The future can bring you.
Try always to be
Interiorly calm and serene,
Because it is not on how
You form your destiny,
Nor on the way you behave
that the happiness of your life depends. 

(Erich Fromm)