Tag Archives: Prayer

Prayers – Emptying ourselves of the spirit of the world

Veni Sancte Spiritus
(Roman Missal translation)

Holy Spirit, Lord of light,
from the clear celestial height
thy pure beaming radiance give.

Come, thou Father of the poor,
come with treasures which endure;
come, thou light of all that live!

Thou, of all consolers best, thou,
the soul’s delighted guest,
dost refreshing peace bestow;

Thou in toil art comfort sweet;
pleasant coolness in the heat;
solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, light divine,
visit thou these hearts of thine,
and our inmost being fill:

If thou take thy grace away,
nothing pure in man will stay;
all his good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
on our dryness pour thy dew;
wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
melt the frozen, warm the chill;
guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on us who evermore
thee confess and thee adore,
with thy sevenfold gifts descend:

Give us comfort when we die;
give us life with thee on high;
give us joys that never end. Amen.

Ave Maris Stella
Hail, bright star of ocean,
God’s own Mother blest,
Ever sinless Virgin,
Gate of heavenly rest.

Taking that sweet Ave
Which from Gabriel came,
Peace confirm within us,
Changing Eva’s name.

Break the captives’ fetters,
Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother;
May the Word Divine,
Born for us thy Infant,
Hear our prayers through thine.

Virgin all excelling,
Mildest of the mild,
Freed from guilt, preserve us,
Pure and undefiled.

Keep our life all spotless,
Make our way secure,
Till we find in Jesus,
Joy forevermore.

Through the highest heaven
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.

Sub Tuum Praesidium
We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.

Radiating Christ
(By Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman)

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.
It will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.

Litany of Penance
(By Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman)

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Incarnate Lord, have mercy on us.
Lover of souls, have mercy on us.
Saviour of sinners, have mercy on us.
Who didst come to seek those that were lost, have mercy on us.
Who didst fast for them forty days and nights, have mercy on us.
By Thy tenderness towards Adam when he fell, have mercy on us.
By Thy faithfulness to Noe in the ark, have mercy on us.
By Thy remembrance of Lot in the midst of sinners, have mercy on us.
By Thy mercy on the Israelites in the desert, have mercy on us.
By Thy forgiveness of David after his confession, have mercy on us.
By Thy patience with wicked Achab on his humiliation, have mercy on us.
By Thy restoration of the penitent Manasses, have mercy on us.
By Thy long suffering towards the Ninevites, when they went in sackcloth and ashes. Have mercy on us.
By Thy blessing on the Maccabees, who fasted before the battle, have mercy on us.
By Thy choice of John to go before Thee as the preacher of penance, have mercy on us.
By Thy testimony to the Publican, who hung his head and smote his breast, have mercy on us.
By Thy welcome given to the returning Prodigal, have mercy on us.
By Thy gentleness with the woman of Samaria, have mercy on us.
By Thy condescension towards Zacchaeus, persuading him to restitution, have mercy on us.
By Thy pity upon the woman taken in adultery, have mercy on us.
By Thy love of Magdalen, who loved much, have mercy on us.
By Thy converting look, at which Peter wept, have mercy on us.
By Thy gracious words to the thief upon the cross, have mercy on us.
We sinners, Beseech Thee, hear us.
That we may judge ourselves, and so escape Thy judgment, We beseech Thee, hear us.
That we may bring forth worthy fruits of penance, We beseech Thee, hear us.
That sin may not reign in our mortal bodies, We beseech Thee, hear us.
That we may work out our salvation with fear and trembling, We beseech Thee, hear us.
Son of God, We beseech Thee, hear us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
O Lord, hear our prayer. And let our cry come unto Thee.

Let us pray:

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to Thy faithful, pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their offenses, and also serve Thee with a quiet mind, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary
Almighty God, Heavenly Father,
who have placed me, by Baptism, in the womb of the Virgin Mary
beneath her Immaculate Heart
to be together with your Son
and ever more conformed to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit,
grant that I may whole-heartedly embrace my dependence on you
as I place all my trust in my Mother Mary.
May I never scorn my weakness which your Son chose to share with me,
but may I always be grateful to be little and helpless,
knowing that without you I can do nothing.
Veiled with her beneath the protective care of Saint Joseph her spouse,
may I find in her a refuge against every danger
and in her womb a hiding place invisible to the ancient foe.
May I know that I am loved perfectly like Jesus by Joseph and Mary,
those parents, who, receiving everything from You,
will always provide for all of my needs.
Through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Marian Consecration Introduction

Saint Louis de Montfort set forth a revolution of spirituality in teaching us about Marian consecration and giving us a 33-day plan to prepare our souls for that big step.

What is this consecration? He described this consecration as being a form of “slavery” to Mary. Slavery means that we do nothing without her. We choose not to have a will apart from hers. He even invites us to wear a chain to signify that close bond with her. He elaborated the various consequences of that bond, saying that we share everything with her including our prayers, our intentions, our actions, and our merits. Fundamentally he is saying that we choose to become totally dependent on her: we receive everything through her and share everything with her.

At first this sounds radical and may even sound a little scary or seem like a lot of work. As we come to understand the way the spirit of the world has infected our thinking, however, and as we get in touch with our own woundedness, we come to discover that this is a merciful gift from heaven. It is a sweet path of salvation. In fact, it is better than we could have ever hoped for! What it means is that there is a sweet, loving, perfect mother who actually wants to live in this kind of close relationship with us. It is really what we always wanted. If we accept her invitation, we will find all the healing and happiness we always longed for. To understand this, we have to take a step back and reflect on how we got where we are.

The principal consequence of original sin is a fearful grasping after independence and repeatedly seeking a security that is in our own control. In the beginning it was not so. God made us for relationship—first of all with Himself (“then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” —Gen 2:7) and then also with each other (“It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” —Gen 2:18). These relationships were deeply ruptured by the fall, when man and woman sought to become gods without God (Gen 3:1-7). All efforts to achieve immortality through medicine, science or magic are a consequence of this. The original sin is behind all our efforts to earn love through our accomplishments or to control our lives through our own power. It is the source of all our unhappiness, emptiness, and fear. It is fundamentally a denial of our being—we did not create ourselves and we do not have sole power over our destiny. We simply cannot exist without God and trying to do so is a contradiction that splits us in two.

The problem is that living in relationship requires trust and our trust has been broken over and over, starting from our first infant cry that went unanswered. Our psyches are blistered with broken trust. To whom can we turn for healing?

Fortunately God does not leave us in the wilderness of isolation nor does He merely ask us to try harder or get over it. Further, He does not expect us to find our way home on our own, which would only exacerbate the problem. Rather He reveals Himself as a Father who is trustworthy and He sends us His Son to adopt us into His family and bring us home. This is the adventure of salvation.

Jesus adopts us into His Divine Family so that, in Him, we have God as our Father. But because it is not good for the man to be alone (i.e. without human relationships), Jesus also adopts us into His human family, which means that we have a human father and mother as well. In fact, we have two sets of human fathers and mothers. Rather, we have at least two sets of parents, because God also entrusts to numerous men and women the gift of reflecting fatherhood and motherhood for us.

In this adventure, we must relearn trust and dependence. It is always a risk—we have the scars to prove it. To help us with this, in addition to the imperfect human mother who gave us birth, God also sends us the Blessed Virgin Mary, a perfect human mother, to fill out any gaps left in us by our birth-mother’s limitations. Mary is the first redeemed—from the moment of her conception. She is without sin. That means that she will never fail us nor forget us nor abandon us nor forsake us. She will never break our trust. In this way, she teaches us to trust again and helps to heal our wounds of broken trust.

We also receive a human father in Saint Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse. He is the human father God made for Jesus. He is the human father who perfectly formed the humanity of Jesus, as He matured, i.e. as He “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) For that reason Saint Joseph is also the best human father for us. He builds on all the good things our dads did and he fills out all the holes they left when their limitations prevented them from being the father we needed them to be.

Now we are in a better position to understand Marian consecration. Most fundamentally it is a choice to be a child like Jesus. In other words we are choosing to be a child of Mary and Joseph. This is not a perfect description yet though, because a child can still be willful and wander away. The dependence that we are invited to is more radical: we are invited to be the infant of Mary and Joseph. We can think of His birth in Bethlehem. Jesus did not provide for Himself, but rather He let them feed Him and hold Him and even change His diapers. We can think of the Flight into Egypt and how helpless Jesus was. He did not protect Himself, but rather let Himself be carried to safety by Mary and Joseph who saved Him from Herod’s wrath.

Saint Louis de Montfort invited us to go even one step further. He wrote, “Mary has received from God a special dominion over souls, in order to nourish them and to make them grow up in God. Saint Augustine even says, that all the predestinate are in the womb of Mary, and that they are not born, until the good Mother brings them forth into life eternal. Consequently, as the child draws all its nourishment from its mother, who gives it to it in proportion to its weakness, so in like manner do the predestinate draw all their spiritual nourishment and all their strength from Mary.” (Secret of Mary #8)

Even more helpless than an infant, we are invited to be held in the most perfect embrace of the most loving mother as a child in the womb. This is the radical quality of our trust, our abandonment to the one who always perfectly lives in accord with the will of God. She is the perfect mother who will only nourish the child in her womb with the best of foods and who turns every squirming movement of that tiny child into a beautiful expression of love for God.

In this way we have reframed Total Consecration to Mary, without losing anything, no longer as a scary slavery, but now as the perfect embrace and safe protection provided by a mother for an infant in her womb.

In the following pages we embark on a 33-day preparation for Marian consecration after the model given to us by Saint Louis de Montfort. We spend the first twelve days emptying ourselves of the spirit of the world. We follow that with a week focused on self-knowledge then a week focused on knowledge of Mary and finally a week focused on knowledge of Jesus. After 33 days of preparation we are ready to make a consecration on the 34th day. We recommend spending at least 10 minutes every day on this preparation for Consecration. That will include time to read the teaching provided and to reflect on it as well as reciting some prayers to ask God’s grace for this process. Whether you are making this journey for the first time or renewing your consecration, it can be a process of profound conversion if you open your heart to that.

We conclude with an encouraging word from Saint Louis de Montfort, reminding us that the paradise of Mary’s womb is a place of wonders and especially fashioned according to each one’s weakness where we are only expected to be a little child. This preparation opens up to us the Secret of Mary, in whom we draw closest to our loving God. There is a place for everyone there in the bosom of our loving mother:

Happy, and a thousand times happy, is the soul here below to which the Holy Ghost reveals, and makes known, the Secret of Mary; to which He opens this «garden enclosed,» by permitting it to enter it; to which He gives access to this «fountain sealed up,» by suffering it to draw from it, and to drink deep draughts of the living waters of grace! Such a soul will find God Alone without any creature, in this most sweet creature; but God at the same time infinitely holy and exalted, infinitely condescending and proportioned to its weakness. Since God is everywhere, He may be found everywhere, even in hell; but there is no place in which the creature can find Him nearer to itself, and more proportioned to its weakness, than in Mary, for it was for this end that He came down into her bosom. Everywhere else He is the Bread of the Strong, the Bread of Angels, but in Mary He is the Bread of children.

Blessed Emperor Karl von Habsburg

October 21 is the memorial of Blessed Karl von Habsburg, the last Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Blessed Karl is not merely an historical figure of minimal importance or a curiosity of a past age. To the contrary, he remains exemplary in his marriage and fatherhood, in his tireless pursuit of peace in the midst of war, and in the socially responsible way that he governed his people. These are three key themes of the magisterium of Pope Francis and so we can look to Blessed Karl for an example of how to live out what the Pope is teaching us today.

I have explored these connections at greater length in the three-part blog post on the Emperor Karl website.

  1. A man of the family
  2. A man of peace
  3. A socially responsible civil leader

One of the keys to Blessed Karl’s holiness was all the prayer and sacrificed he received from those who dedicated themselves in a special way to this purpose through the Emperor Karl League of Prayer. The League of Prayer still exists today, both as an organ for promotion of the Cause of his Canonization of Blessed Karl but also as an organization dedicated to pray and live as he lived. Perhaps our civil authorities today would be more like Blessed Karl if we dedicated more attention to praying and suffering for them.

Blessed Karl von Habsburg, pray for us!

New Book on Spiritual Direction

”The lost (or forgotten) art of spiritual direction goes back to the first centuries of Christianity, to the Fathers of the Desert. We could also say this art goes back to Christ Himself.” (Bishop Gregory Mansour from the Foreword) There are many who are discovering the value of spiritual direction, but there are too few spiritual directors to meet the need. Our hope is that this book can provide foundational guidance and build up in confidence to those who are already sufficiently formed in the spiritual life and could help to serve in some capacity as spiritual directors. It also provides a valuable opportunity for spiritual directors to reflect on their own ministry and grow in the service they are offering.

“The demand for sound spiritual directors far outpaces the supply, leaving so many who could be helped toward sanctity stumbling on the journey…. That’s why Fathers Acklin and Hicks have done the whole Church, present and future directors, and the directees they will guide an enormous service in fusing the Church’s spiritual wisdom and their extensive experience into a superb, systematic primer.” —Fr. Roger J. Landry, National Chaplain, CatholicVoices USA, CatholicPreaching.com

“Together with concrete guidelines and numerous examples from personal experience, this book refers extensively to Sacred Scripture as the foundation for spiritual direction. Furthermore, since the practice of spiritual direction goes back to the first centuries of the Church, the authors turn for guidance to the Doctors of the Church, the writings of the saints, and papal magisterium in developing and supporting their insights.” (From the back cover)

“In Spiritual Direction: A Guide for Sharing the Father’s Love, the authors have written a superb guide to giving spiritual direction, and receiving it as well, worthy of the masters. I highly recommend it.” —Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Archbishop of Philadelphia

“Fr. Thomas Acklin, OSB And Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB have written a classic. This work will be seen as one of the best references for spiritual direction.” —Bishop Gregory Mansour, Maronite Bishop of the Eparchy of St. Maron (Brooklyn)

For Whom is This Book Intended?

“This book is primarily intended to support individuals who are being drawn into the ministry of spiritual direction. …

“This book can also serve those who are not yet being sought out by would-be directees but could be in the future. For example, various people in the helping professions (nurses, hospital chaplains, hospice volunteers, teachers, coaches, etc.) are in a position to listen to and support individuals whom they are serving and with whom they develop one-on-one relationships. For a spiritually-minded person, this listening and support can start to take on the shape of spiritual direction.

“This book can also be helpful for individuals who are striving to grow in their own spiritual lives. In it we consider how various aspects of the spiritual life emerge from and are fostered by a one-on-one relationship with a spiritual director. By reading about and reflecting on these aspects of the spiritual life, we believe it will help the recipients of spiritual direction and anyone who is seeking to grow closer to the Lord to better understand spiritual development and growth in the Holy Spirit.” (pp. xxvi-xxvii)

Overview: Chapter Headings

Part I – Foundations of Spiritual Direction

Chapter 1 – One on one

Chapter 2 – Interiority

Chapter 3 – Vulnerability

Chapter 4 – Listening

Chapter 5 – Communicating

Part II – Particular Aspects of Spiritual Direction

Chapter 6 – Guidance for Prayer

Chapter 7 – Passages in Prayer and the Spiritual Life

Chapter 8 – Psychological Models and Healing

Chapter 9 – The Spiritual Director

Appendix – Saints for Spiritual Directors

Order online

The text can be ordered directly from Emmaus Road Publishing: Purchase Book Online

Introduction to Lectio Divina

Contemplating the Word

Contemplating the Word

Lectio Divina (Sacred Reading)

“…I would like in particular to recall and recommend the ancient tradition of Lectio divina: the diligent reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer brings about that intimate dialogue in which the person reading hears God who is speaking, and in praying, responds to him with trusting openness of heart (cf. Dei Verbum, n. 25). If it is effectively promoted, this practice will bring to the Church – I am convinced of it – a new spiritual springtime. As a strong point of biblical ministry, Lectio divina should therefore be increasingly encouraged…” (Pope Benedict XVI, Address on the 40th Anniversary of Dei Verbum)

Lectio divina is an ancient practice of praying with Sacred Scripture. It has been especially preserved and practiced by monks throughout the ages, but in recent decades has been promoted for the whole Church by Pope St John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. It is not difficult to practice, it does not require large amounts of time nor special knowledge or education. It is simply a way of allowing God to speak to us personally through His Holy Word, as written in the Bible.

That brings us to the first important point: God really wants to speak to us, each one of us, and no one is excluded. It does not matter what we have done. Furthermore, God wants to reveal His love for us, each one of us, and no one is excluded. It does not matter what we have done. Before we even existed, God loved us. He created us out of love, He redeemed us out of love and by His love, He continues to call us back to Himself. Like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), no matter how far we have wandered, there is a celebration and warm welcome awaiting us in the Father’s house, our true home. That is the “tone of voice” we can expect from God when we pray with Sacred Scripture through lectio divina. We can always ask the question, “How is God revealing His love to me through this passage of Scripture?”

Step 1: Reading

When practicing lectio divina, we start by opening our Bible to a page of Scripture and reading (the first step of lectio divina). There are many ways to choose what Scripture we begin with. I generally recommend the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, because it is easiest to encounter God through the Gospels. For those who are aware of the daily cycle of Gospel readings selected for Mass, I find that to be an easy starting place. We do not need to read a large amount of Scripture. The purpose of lectio is different than a bible study. With lectio, we are not trying to become Scripture scholars, we are simply trying to draw close to God and hear His voice speaking to us personally. So, a paragraph of Scripture from the Gospels is more than enough to start with.

After we have selected a passage of Scripture, we begin to read slowly. Let me emphasize: slowly. For prayer, it is very important to slow ourselves down, to quiet our minds and hearts, and to become more gentle in our approach to God. We know that God is almighty, but when He speaks, He does not try to dominate us or overwhelm us. This is because He really respects and reverences our freedom. He wants to be sure that we really really want to hear what He has to say. By becoming very quiet and very gentle inside ourselves, we show Him that we are really interested in listening to Him. It is as if He were a shy child and He clams up if we are loud and rough. One of the ways we can transition from the noisy harshness of the world to the gentle quiet needed for listening to God is by taking a phrase of Scripture and gently repeating it. As we read through the passage, we look for a phrase of Scripture that seems to stand out to us, that catches our attention. It is not magical and really any phrase will do, but if there is one that seems particularly attractive, we should take that one and begin to repeat it gently inside ourselves.

Step 2: Meditation

As we begin to repeat the phrase of Scripture, we have begun our meditation (the second step of lectio divina). At first it is just a gentle repetition. This repetition helps to slow down our interior and to make us more sensitive to God’s Presence. It is like a pebble that has been tossed into a rapidly moving river–the pebble heads down towards the riverbed, but then it gets tossed up by a current, moved about by the flow, but each time the phrase is repeated, it is like applying gravity to the pebble and it takes it closer and closer to the bottom where it can rest. That is how our interior becomes more settled and calm and open to the Presence of God. Though we might get distracted and have various unrelated thoughts, by just returning to the phrase we can refocus ourselves and become more settled and calm and open up again to the Lord’s Presence.

At the same time, as we are gently repeating the phrase, we are reflecting on its meaning. To take an example, perhaps as we read the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we are struck by the phrase in Luke 15:20, “So he got up and went back to his father.” As we reflect on the meaning of this phrase, we might notice the courage of the son to get up and go back. We might feel his fear of rejection. We might begin to think about our own sins and remember an experience of being rejected by our own father. We might feel despair and wonder what the point of returning is. But we repeat, “So he got up and went back to his father.” We know that the son was not rejected, that he was received with love and rejoicing. We might ask ourselves, “What is keeping me from getting up and returning to God, my Father? Am I afraid? Am I despairing?” We can reflect on the loving way that our Father receives us, on the open arms He extends to us. And again we repeat the phrase, “So he got back up and went back to his father.”

Step 3: Prayer

At this point, we enter into the third movement of lectio divina which is prayer. In our meditation we asked ourselves, “What is God saying to me in this passage?” In prayer, we respond to God. We might begin to pray with something such as, “Thank you Father for always receiving me when I get up and return to you. Please forgive me for wandering away from you. Please help me never to wander from you again. Why do I continually fall back into sin? Please help me to be faithful. Please help me always to get up and return to you when I fall. Please help all those who fall into sin to get up and return to you.”  The important thing in prayer is that we speak from our hearts.  God loves to listen to us and He wants to hear what is in our hearts–our feelings, our fears, our hopes, all the people we love and care for, whatever is in our hearts.

Step 4: Contemplation

Through our meditation and prayer, our hearts are slowed down, quieted and gradually separated from the world. As we become aware of the loving Presence of God we can let go and rest in the fourth movement of lectio, which is contemplation. Contemplation is a loving awareness of God’s Presence. When we feel that God is close to us, words become pointless and we do better just to rest and enjoy His Presence, speaking and listening to Him in a simple, silent way, beyond words. This may last for a few moments or for a few minutes. Gradually, we move back to the Scripture and take up our phrase again, or perhaps we move on to another phrase.

Pope Francis on Lectio Divina

Let us conclude by reflecting on Pope Francis’s teaching on this form of prayer:

“There is one particular way of listening to what the Lord wishes to tell us in his word and of letting ourselves be transformed by the Spirit. It is what we call lectio divina. It consists of reading God’s word in a moment of prayer and allowing it to enlighten and renew us. …

“In the presence of God, during a recollected reading of the text, it is good to ask, for example: ‘Lord, what does this text say to me? What is it about my life that you want to change by this text? What troubles me about this text? Why am I not interested in this? Or perhaps: What do I find pleasant in this text? What is it about this word that moves me? What attracts me? Why does it attract me?’ When we make an effort to listen to the Lord, temptations usually arise. One of them is simply to feel troubled or burdened, and to turn away. Another common temptation is to think about what the text means for other people, and so avoid applying it to our own life. It can also happen that we look for excuses to water down the clear meaning of the text. Or we can wonder if God is demanding too much of us, asking for a decision which we are not yet prepared to make. This leads many people to stop taking pleasure in the encounter with God’s word; but this would mean forgetting that no one is more patient than God our Father, that no one is more understanding and willing to wait. He always invites us to take a step forward, but does not demand a full response if we are not yet ready. He simply asks that we sincerely look at our life and present ourselves honestly before him, and that we be willing to continue to grow, asking from him what we ourselves cannot as yet achieve.” (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel #153-154)