LIVING IN THE LIGHT
Spirituality for the Lay Person
A Message from
Someone I Know
Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway
A
s I was mulling over what to write about for this edition of the
Mosaic, a priest whom I see for spiritual direction sent me an
article on contemplative prayer entitled, “Sit Down and Be Quiet.”
Coincidental? An inspiration from the Holy Spirit?
I chose to believe the latter, for there is door to a relationship with Jesus is prayer.
The author of the article, Fr. William
no effective evangelization without it being
centered in our relationship with God. A Meninger, suggests that many Catholics
passage from the Gospel of John provides have been taught three steps of prayer:
a template for such an encounter and is in- reading, meditation, and affective prayer,
but many have not been taught the fourth
structive for the ministry of evangelization.
step: contemplation—
John the Baptist is
Psalm 46: “Be still and
standing with two of
“It has been my experience that
know that I am God.”
his disciples when Je-
if a person has not encountered
He describes a form of
sus passes by. Hearing
Jesus personally, the call to
contemplative prayer
John’s exclamation,
evangelize falls on deaf ears.
that he learned from
“Look, there is the lamb
There is no motivation; no
the 14th century clas-
of God,” the two disci-
compelling reason to proclaim
sic, The Cloud of Un-
ples followed Jesus.
the good news of the gospel if
knowing:
Jesus turns around
one hasn’t met Jesus.”
and asks, “What do you
“This is what you are to do. Lift your heart
want?” They answered, “Rabbi, where do
up to the Lord with a gentle stirring of
you live?” “Come and See,” Jesus replied.
love, desiring him for his own sake and
So, they went and saw where he lived
not for his gifts.” Here one is simply lov-
and stayed with him for the rest of the day.
ing God because God is worthy of love.
All Jesus’ disciples spent time with him, lis-
One’s posture is listening, receptive, qui-
tening to his words, watching his actions,
et, a turning within, a simple “being there
internalizing his values. Only after they be-
with God in the center of one’s being.”
came his companions did Jesus send them
out two by two to proclaim what they had
The author of The Cloud of Unknowing
seen and heard.
It has been my experience that if a person further suggests that if it is helpful, one can
has not encountered Jesus personally, the choose a word that expresses one’s love
call to evangelize falls on deaf ears. There for God, “Father” “Jesus” “Beloved” and
is no motivation; no compelling reason to let that be the expression of your love by
proclaim the Good News of the gospel if slowly repeating the word as a way of cen-
one hasn’t met Jesus. How do we encoun- tering oneself in God and keeping distract-
ter him? Teresa of Avila tells us that the ing thoughts at bay.
Such prayer is personal but not private.
One cannot enter into contemplation and
willingly, deliberately hold on to hatred or
unforgiveness of anyone.
In his book, Into the Silent Land, Fr. Mar-
tin Laird writes, “We are built for contem-
plation.” He shares the story of a young
prisoner who cuts himself with a sharp
knife to dull emotional pain.
“As long as I can remember,” he says,” I
have this hurt inside; I can’t get away from it,
and sometimes I cut or burn myself so that
the pain will be in a different place and on
the outside.” After learning how to pray the
Jesus prayer, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy
on me,”and practicing it twice a day for sev-
eral weeks, the young prisoner speaks mov-
ingly of what he has learned. “I just want
you to know that after only four weeks of
praying half an hour in the morning and
at night, the pain is not so bad, and for the
first time in my life, I can see a tiny spark
of something within myself that I can like.”
Fr. Laird points out that the spiritual lib-
eration of which this prisoner speaks is not
something he acquired but discovered—the
“sacred within.” Encountering the “sacred
within” is the sine qua non of evangeliza-
tion for it means, “I have a message from
someone I know.”
Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway is professor of spir-
ituality and systematic theology at Sacred Heart.
shms.edu
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