The Two Inseparable Facets of Prayer
Beloved Friends,
Prayer is a reality that defines and shapes our being. And, given the necessity of prayer, it is right to say that it is almost impossible to live without it. For if God’s face would cease shedding its light upon us, or if God would stop knowing us and loving us into existence, we would most certainly cease to be. The necessity of prayer is based on the fact that God knows us and loves us, and that we, in turn, ought to know and love God in order to continue to exist and receive life and grace from God. In Romans 8:26, St Paul lays out what is so common to all of us which, I believe, is due to our fallen nature. He says, “we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.” Now, there are various definitions of prayer from the Church Fathers, some of them included in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. St. John Damascene says, “prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.” But, as Psalm 103:1 reminds us, it is “a humble and contrite heart that prays.” This humility is born out of an awareness of the fact that one is in the presence of Omnipotence. And from this humility comes the acknowledgement of a need and a dependence on God.
St. Augustin rightly declares that “Man is a beggar before God”- St. Augustine, Sermo 56,6,9:PL 38,381. Even with just these two authorities on prayer, it is obvious, at this point, that prayer is not one sided as if to say that it is purely intellectual or purely sensational. It is Rather both soul and body, mind, and heart, intellectual and sensible. It is the whole person that prays. It is therefore my prayer that this little reflection on the two-fold nature of prayer be a turning point in the approach to devotional and effective prayer. And I hope that no one will read this little insight into prayer without a thought of reconsidering what one is actually doing before God.
The point I want to stress is the complementarity of the interior and exterior dispositions of prayer. At the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which, according to Pope Benedict XVI, “is the greatest and highest act of prayer, and constitutes the center and the source from which even the other forms receive ‘nourishment’” (see homily of his holiness on May 3rd, 2009), this complementarity comes out so powerfully as we are assembled as a community of faith at prayer. And at the very beginning of holy Mass, we have the acknowledgement of our unworthiness to be in the presence of the One who dwells in unapproachable light, the Omnipotent God who is solus Sactus, solus Dominus, solus Altissimus, the One who reserves the right and the power to forgive sins. This privilege of coming before the supreme Majesty in holy fear and much trembling incites a great humility but also a deep gratitude. And the soul being so overcome by this Divine presence that eventually envelops her, she is naturally inclined to bend her knees in profound prayer of adoration, paying her homage of love and gratitude to the fountain of life. At this point, the soul is raised into contemplative prayer which is the “raising of one’s mind and heart to God.” A good example of this is during the prayer of consecration of bread and wine on the Altar. After the priest elevates the Body and Blood of Christ before an assembly bent down on their knees in humble adoration, the priest himself falls to his knees to pay homage to Omnipotence. And as he rises, overwhelmed by the Mystery in his hands, he cries out in a gentle voice, “Mysterium Fidei,” after which he goes mute. Then the people come to his aid with a powerful proclamation “mortem tuam annuntiamus Domine et tuam resurrectionem confitemur, donec venias.” Here we see the whole person, mind and heart, body, and soul, in prayer. The exterior expressions complement the interior movements. The greater the awareness of how much we have received from God, the more we give generously back to God and to our neighbor. So beautifully did Cardinal Robert Sarah put it, “The greatness and nobility of man, as well as the highest expression of his love for his Creator, consist in kneeling before God.” We have heard of the servant who had no way of paying the huge debt that he owed his Master, “he fell to his knees and begged that the Master be patient. Moved with compassion, the Master forgave the servant the whole debt. But when that servant saw his brother who owed him a much smaller amount, he refused to be patient,” Matthew 18:21-35. If he did this, it is because he lacked the spirit of gratitude and generosity. Another great example of gratitude is that one of Mary Magdalene who anointed our Lord’s feet at Bethany. She ‘wasted’ her expensive perfume and poured it all on his feet and dried them with her hair. She did this with a spirit of profound gratitude for what he had done for her. This is the two-fold nature of prayer. It involves the whole person. A soul that is filled with gratitude is left only with one choice, burst into a song of praise. Thus, we have the sweetest song ever sung by a soul so deeply grateful: “Magnificat anima mea Dominum…” Whenever the encounter between God and man reaches its height, the result is the prayer of adoration and praise. Let us always recall our unworthiness before God, and the great gifts we have received from Him, in order to offer fitting praise to God and generous kindness towards our neighbor.
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