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ANTIOCH WEEKEND LEADERS MANUAL |
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Meditation on Prayer |
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| Introduction
to the Antioch Weekend
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THE INTRODUCTION
Speaker: The Spiritual Director Duration: 15-20 minutes Purpose: To show that our relation to God is personal, that of a son to a father, and that it finds its characteristic expression in prayer. Prayer is easy because the Father is always responsive and we can always call upon Him. Progression: The first part of the meditation should reflect the previous talk on "God's Call". This talk presented God as our creator, our Father, a person who is very much concerned with us and is constantly calling us. If this is so our relationship with God should at least be that of friendship. We will love Him and talk to Him. We will live our whole life for Him and we will receive the help to do this from Him. The second part of the meditation should be very specific in dealing with prayer. If a human being is going to have a friendship with anyone, he must talk with him. The reason for prayer will need to be made clear. Most people do not see the reasons for praying. Often prayer is meaningless for them: it is a set of formulas they were taught not a conversation with God. By the end of this section the feeling should have been communicated (insofar as a talk can do this) that it doesn't make sense not to pray. The third section is, with the second section, the most important part of the meditation. It should show the student what to do when he is face to face with God. Very often people don't pray because they don't know how to start. They should be told that they can just talk to God (some of the kinds of things they can say should be explained) just think things over in his presence (meditation), or just be quiet with him. It is very important to explain to them that they should not give up if it gets hard or if "they are not getting anything out of it. Prayer is for God and just the fact that we are there sharing our time with Him is worship. The last section is meant as a quick survey of the ways of prayer. It stresses the fact that we have to pray as his people. It also stresses the importance of personal prayer. While it is true that for most people personal prayer makes more sense than community prayer, there are a growing number of people who see much sense in community prayer and little in personal prayer. The students need to be made aware of what a need, both personal and religious, talking to God alone fulfills. This will be done, of course, by teaching them how to pray to God in a personal way.
THE OUTLINE: I. WE ARE SONS AND GOD IS OUR FATHER A. To be a father is to be totally for the son; to be a son is to be totally for the father. B. That Father loves us and is very much concerned for us in a unique and personal way. (Luke 12; 6-80) C. This attitude of the Father never changes although our attitude may change. (The Prodigal Son - Luke 15: 11-32) II. PRAYER IS AN EASY AND FAMILIAR CONVERSATION WITH ONE WHOM WE KNOW LOVES US VERY MUCH. A. Hollowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done 1) Because we love God we are concerned about Him that he be known and recognized - hollowed be Thy Name 2) We want to fit completely into His way for us - Thy Will be done 3) We want all men to fit into His way - Thy Kingdom come 4) Is my aim to do always the things that please Him? 5) Praise and Adoration B. Give us this day our daily bread We entrust to Him all our needs with great confidence and without anxiety. (Luke 12:22-31) C. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those... 1) We ask pardon for our sins 2) The gentle forgiveness we experience should be extended to others. (Matt. 18:21) III. HOW TO PRAY A) To pray is to be aware of God's presence B) To pray is to listen as well as to speak C) Prayer should be made with great confidence and persistence (Luke 11:5-14) D) Prayer may be without words, just remaining gently aware of His presence. E) Prayer should be relaxed and informal. IV. WAYS OF PRAYER A. We should pray together as His people, members of His family 1) in the liturgy, especially the Mass, when our prayer is sustained and strengthened by that of others 2) in small groups informally and spontaneously because there the Lord is present in a special way. B. We should pray alone. The meditation should end with a prayer.
THE COMMENTARY: The meditation on prayer has a very important place within the structure of the Antioch Weekend. Following closely upon the talk on "God's Call," which confronts the students with God, a friendship with God, as the basis of a Christian's life. It picks up the stress on God as person (and on Christianity as being more than a principle or set of principles), and it focuses Christian life on the relation with God. It should make clear that the relation of trust, worship, prayer, is the foundation of all the rest. The first part of the meditation is structured around the Lord's Prayer for obvious reasons. Evely's book We Dare to Say Our Father and St. Teresa of Avila's commentary on the Our Father in her Autobiography may stimulate reflections. I. God is a person to whom we belong. He is our Father. He loves us. He is constantly concerned for us. He speaks to us, calls us. If this is so and if we consider ourselves Christians, members of God's people, we should responds to Him. Our whole lives should be a constant friendship with Him, a living-out of our sonship. This is the foundation of our lives as Christians. To Him we owe everything. We should, therefore, do everything for Him, live our lives in worship of Him. If our relation to God is so important then it should be de-veloped. We need to talk with Him, to live with Him, that is, to pray to Him. In developing the idea of our sonship it is important to clarify the notion of Father. Some of the students may have had unhappy experience with their father. It should be emphasized that father has no meaning apart from son, that only God is perfect Father because only He is totally for the Son. Similarly, only the Son is perfect son because only He is totally to the Father. One way of clarifying the notion of Father is to ask the students to imagine what kind of fathers they would like to be, how they would love their sons and want never to fail them, how they would want their sons to be able to come to them when they were in trouble without fear, how they would want their sons to love them. Never cease praying: give thanks upon all occasions. This is what God expects of you all in Christ Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:16) Separated from me you have no power to do anything. (Jn. 15:5) II. Since God is a person and we are persons, it is only fitting that we talk to Him. Talk is part of being a person. People do not live together as people if they do not talk to each other, let each other know what they are thinking about. A personal relation does not really exist unless we express it. Talk is not the only way. We can do it by actions - the things we do for other people, the gifts we give them. But talk is the principal way. Even when we do not say anything new, it is important to talk to people. It sets up a relationship with them. That's why we don't walk pass people we know without greeting them. What do we talk about? About our interest, our needs, our hopes. That is why when we begin the Our Father we take up the interests of our Father. A. We should be proud of our Father and want Him known. This is a non-competitive form of our attitudes as youngsters - "My Dad is better than your Dad." Whatever the Father asks of us we will do. Like the Prodigal Son, we have come to realize that what He wants for us is our happiness. The function of prayer is to dispose us for what God wants to give us. We ask that His rule for love may extend to all men that they truly may delight in the Father. We will ask good things for others but what are these if they do not love the Father? Because of the goodness of our Father praise and worship is a natural response. He has done everything for us: he has given us our lives, our friends, our total being. He seeks our happi-ness. The only adequate way to respond to Him is to worship Him totally - to live our lives as a response to Him Who stands before us and is constantly giving us the power to live. We acknowledge this relation to Him by talking to Him, by admitting our dependence on Him, by speaking to Him as sons. B. We have needs: life must be sustained. All that we need this day to sustain His gift of present life and of eternal life we ask for. To worry is to lack trust in the Lord. We pray not simply for ourselves but for all men: our daily bread. C. It is regrettable when a son offends his father. It is tragic and the source of a great barrier of misunderstanding when he fails to ask his father's pardon. There is no sin so great that it cannot be effaced by sorrow, no fall so low that it cannot serve as a spirngboard to greater intimacy. Sorrow is the one way to make capital gains from sin. The greatest barrier to the action of God within us is the barri-er we erect between ourselves and others. "If, while you are offering your gift at the altar, you should remember that your brother has something against you, you must leave your gift there before the altar and go away. Make your peace with your brother first, then come and offer your gift." (Matt. 5:21-25) III. God is present in persons, places and events. He is every-where. Our problem is to become aware of Him. Anything can recall His presence to us and become matter of prayer. See some examples from Quoist's Prayers. It would be most surprising if He who loves us so much did not have some thing to say to us. He speaks to us especially in His word. Use an example from Srcipture to illustrate. Make it personal. Confidence in prayer is most important. If the idea of Father has gotten across confidence will seem a natural consequence. Praying is natural and easy. It is just talking to God. Talk to Him naturally as a real who is present. In fact, it is easier to talk to God than to anyone else. He understands us completely, there is nothing to hide, there is no fear of being misunderstood and He loves us and accepts us completely. He is always willing to pardon, always willing to forget no matter how much we have rejected Him. Don't worry about distractions, about your mind wandering. Sometimes it will be easy to pray, sometimes hard. Don't worry about not having a special emotion. Sometimes that will be present, sometimes not, but God always is. We pray because we love Him and wish to be with Him. IV. The first way of praying to God is in community. We should express our relation to God as a community. If we are His peo-ple, and if our most important relation to Him is a part of His community, as baptized into His body, we should pray together. This is done primarily at Mass, but it is also done in the Of-fice, in group prayers, Bible vigils, informal prayer meetings. It is also important to pray alone. Everything can't be done in community. A son can't always talk to his father with the rest of the family present. We need to talk to God by ourselves, to talk things over with Him. And He is always there for us to turn to. We should do this regularly as well as whenever we feel like it. Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10) Such familiar confidence we have in Him that we believe that He listens to us whenever we make any request of Him in accordance with His will. We are sure He listens to all our requests we make of Him are granted. (1 John 5:14) Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all the saints...(Eph. 6:18) His reputation continued to grow, and large crowds would gather to hear Him and to have their sickness cured, but He would always go off to some place where He could be alone and pray. (Luke 5:16) Rejoice always, pray constantly, and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to do in Christian Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:17) There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it prayer and thansgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6) |
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