The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [76]
Distractions are unavoidable in prayer. Even Ignatius mentions them. (“I was disturbed by someone whistling,” he once wrote, “but not so greatly disquieted.”) The prayer word gently recalls you to the presence of God.
And that’s it. Centering prayer is simple in theory. In practice, it can be difficult for beginners, especially if your life is packed with “content.” The notion that you could meet God without “doing” anything may seem bizarre. But centering prayer is not about producing or doing or achieving. It’s about being. Or rather, being with.
As Margaret Silf says, “In the eye of the storm is a center of perfect peace, where our deepest desire is embraced by God’s own desire for us.” Or to use Father Barry’s analogy of friendship, centering prayer is like a long silent walk with a good friend. While you’re not speaking to one another, there may be a deeper type of communication going on.
THE COLLOQUY
In Chapter Six, we touched on the idea of “speaking” with God by imagining God, or Jesus, in front of you. And I confessed that I’ve always found this a difficult way to pray. But for Ignatius it was an essential part of the Spiritual Exercises: he wanted you to come to know God, and Jesus. Conversation, or what he calls a “colloquy,” was one way of doing this. For many people who travel along the way of Ignatius, this is the most enjoyable way to pray.
At the end of most meditations in the Exercises, Ignatius recommends that we imagine ourselves speaking to Mary, Jesus, and God the Father. At one point during the First Week, Ignatius asks us to speak with Jesus on the cross and ask ourselves, What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ?
Sometimes this prayer has worked wonders for me. On a recent retreat, for example, I imagined standing before Jesus and asked myself, “What am I doing for Christ?” and started to grow angry. That anger was an obvious sign that something was happening deep down. “I’m doing way too much!” I complained to Jesus in prayer, and then listed all the unnecessary projects that I should have declined. And I felt Jesus say to me, “I’m not asking you to do all that”
Most of the colloquies in the Exercises are of a freer form, that is, they are not attached to specific questions like “What am I doing for Christ?” Often in the Second Week, when you are reflecting on the ministries and miracles of Jesus, a retreat director will ask you to imagine speaking to Jesus, or one of the disciples, to review what happened during the prayer. Ignatius recommends that you imagine speaking to God, doing so as “one friend speaks to another.”
Colloquies can be simple. One Catholic sister whom I directed on a retreat spent four days sitting on a bench and imagining Jesus sitting beside her, while she told him what was on her mind. “Jesus and I had a great afternoon!” she said one day.
Again, what you “hear” in prayer needs to harmonize with your religious beliefs, what fits with your understanding of God, and what you know about yourself. In other words, Does this make sense? In time, you will be able to better discern what seems authentically from God.
OTHER FORMS OF PRAYER
This is not an exhaustive book on prayer. “By no means!” as St. Paul would say. But I don’t want to leave you with the idea that those forms of prayer above are the only ways that Jesuits pray, or the only methods in the Ignatian tradition. Or the only methods recommended by other saints, theologians, or spiritual writers. So here are some very brief explanations of a few other ways to pray.
Communal prayer can happen in any group where participants are focused on God. For Catholics that includes the recitation of the Daily Office, as practiced by monastic communities and other groups; communal recitations of the Rosary; and the worship par excellence: the celebration of the Mass, called the “source and summit” of the church’s life.
Other Christian denominations come together for Sunday services in which Scripture readings, songs, and preaching lift the congregation’s hearts and minds to