The Power of Formal Prayer

                                                 "O Holy Spirit, let your finger touch me,
                                                   your finger that drops down wine and oil
                                                   and the choicest myrrh. Let your finger touch me,
                                                   most beloved Lord, and when it has rid me
                                                   of corruption, let it restore my wholeness,
                                                   so that, when you come to dwell in me,                                  
                                                    you may find me not a thoroughfare,
                                                   nor a bag with holes, but a dwelling intact
                                                   and entire, founded on the truth of faith,
                                                   erected in the certainty of hope, and completed
                                                   in the zeal of charity.

                                                  Come, most welcomed guest,
                                                  knock, and enter into my soul.
                                                  Open the door and let no one shut it.
                                                  Enter, and close the door behind you.
                                                  For all the things that you possess are in peace,
                                                  and there is no peace apart from you. You are indeed
                                                  rest for those that toil,
                                                  peace for those that strive,
                                                  bliss for those who grieve,
                                                  comfort for the weary, coolness for the fevered,
                                                  merriment for mourners, light for those in darkness,
                                                  and courage for those who are afraid.
                                                  What  more is there to say?
                                                  You are all good.
                                                  Amen."
                                                  (Prayer to the Holy Spirit, from The Essential Catholic Prayer Book.)

Recently I posted a short essay on ecumenism and the Sign of the Cross entitled In Nomine Patris. In that essay I particularly tried to demonstrate that the Catholic practice of making the Sign of the Cross should not be found offensive to non-Catholics; that it was, in fact, a very good practice; and that it might serve as an example of a practice that could be adopted by Christian of many traditions with the purpose of both personal enrichment, and Christian unity. I also suggested the study of Sacred Scripture as an excellent practice often found in Protestant circles that could and should be more widely adopted by Catholics. Today I would like to continue in a similar vein, on another Catholic practice that I believe could greatly enrich the lives of all Christians, put us back in touch with long-abandoned Tradition, and also be very effective in restoring unity among Christians. I am referring to formal prayer.

Formal prayer is not formal in the sense of "stiff" or "proper". Rather it may be defined as prayer that has a specific form of words, order, or actions, or some combination of those features. It is, therefore, distinct from spontaneous or informal prayer. It implies repetition and structure. It is vocal or mental, but not contemplative, though we are taught that it may well lead to a contemplative state. Examples of formal prayer include the Our Father, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the Glory Be, the Angelus, etc.

There are certain objections that have been raised in recent centuries and decades against formal prayer. I would like to briefly look at these objections before discussing the positive benefits of formal prayer. They are principally three in number.

1. The first objection to formal prayer is that it is involved with, or tends to, a superstitious, un-Christian mindset of fear and works. In other words, the repetition of set prayers can lead to two related but opposite errors: fear ("I haven't said enough prayers today, God will not be pleased with me"), or works  ("I have said twenty Our Father's today, God must be pleased with me"). There are at least three answers to this objection.

First of all, I would like to point out that a fearful, scrupulous mentality is often a pre-existing condition in the subject's mind. In may exhibit itself in formal prayer, or a thousand other ways, but formal prayer is not its cause. In my own experience, I can say that I have indeed struggled with scruples in my prayers, yet I was scrupulous long before I ever became Catholic.

Secondly, this is not a fault specific only to the formal kind of prayer. It is not related only to "how many" prayers one has said. A person could easily become fearful, or prideful, based on "how much" time they had or had not spent in spontaneous, informal prayer. This is an error that may be found anywhere, and it would be incorrect to attach the blame for it to formal prayers.

Lastly, I am reminded of the old Latin legal dictum, abusus non tollit usus: the abuse of a thing does not preclude its proper use. Perhaps some people have fallen into fear, shallowness, or error with formal prayer. Perhaps pride or vain repetitions mark the prayer life of others. These abuses in no way constitute a proof against the valid use of formal prayer. Consider how many really good things can be abused through imbalance or misunderstanding. The greatness and Majesty of God offers us an excellent example. If not tempered with a comprehension of the Love and Mercy of God, the awareness of the Majesty of God can lead to miserable, un-Christian fear. Such fear would not be possible if our conception of God's greatness were less. The more we come to recognize God's Majesty, the greater our possible errors relating to it may become. The Truth is always a dangerous thing, being twisted and misunderstood at every turn. Yet for all these abuses we must not seek to do away with Truth as if it were at fault.

2. The second objection is that formal prayer tends to empty recitation and meaningless ritual. In other words, because we are not searching our own hearts and minds for prayers and words with which to address God, but are simply adopting the words of Saints who have gone before us, our prayers become empty and robotic. There are several answers to this objection as well.

It would would be good to note that, in reality, all of our words are adopted. We learn our language from our parents, but that does not keep us from making it our own. Our goal in language is seldom ever to invent new words, but to obtain a greater understanding of them, and exhibit greater exactness in our use of them. Even in spontaneous, informal prayer we cannot escape from the adoption of words and phrases. Our prayers will likely be infused with snatches of Scripture, or hymns, or our own developed and often-repeated phrases. These repetitions will have greater or less meaning to us depending upon our attention, and the state of our hearts. Remember, we often repeat our own prayers. If a persons says after each sin, "God, I am sorry", that prayer may have no meaning upon the hundredth occasion it is said, or it may be full of meaning and honest contrition upon the hundred and first occasion.

Also, I remember reading some years ago a comment from Scott Hahn, in which he makes use of the analogy of a man telling his wife of many years, "I love you". No doubt he has repeated those exact words thousands of times, but that does not imply that they have come to mean less with frequent use. Rather, it is to be hoped that they now carry more love and meaning than they did at first.

Again, as noted above in the response to the first objection, the fact that a thing may be abused or misunderstood is no proof at all against its valid use.

3. The third objection against the use of formal prayer is simply that Christ commanded us against vain repetitions. "In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words." (Matt. 6:7) A little examination will reveal that this statement is in no way a commandment against formal prayer. Christ warns us not to pray like the pagans who think that a lot of words will make God hear them. This indicates a works-based approach to prayer that is not in keeping with true Christian thought, and misunderstands the freely given Grace of God. It probably is also indicative of a misunderstanding of God Himself: that we need to pray a lot in order for God to be able to hear us. Jesus continues by stating, "....Your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matt. 6:8) It would also be possible to assume that much praying of informal prayers would cause God to hear us. This would be an equally great mistake.

Furthermore, if Christ was commanding against the use of formal prayer, how strange then that He immediately gives us a set prayer to say! "This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come...." (Matt. 6:9) Repetition and ritual are not foreign to Scripture. Christ Himself prays two times in Gethsemane in the same words. (Matt. 26:39-43; Mk. 14:36-40) Christ commands baptism in the Trinitarian formula that has been repeated from that day to this. The Psalms have many repeated "choruses" or responses that the people were to say. And are not hymns addressed to God simply prayers set to music? And yet we repeat our favorites hundreds of times with no thought that we are babbling, or acting like the pagans.

But so far we have only looked at the negative side of this matter. Perhaps formal prayer is not bad, nor explicitly commanded against, but is there any real value to it? Is there any reason why we should make use of it? Let us look at a few of the positives:

1. As noted above, our words and language are adopted from our parents, and then made our own. Of what great value, then, is the adoption of the words of Sacred Scripture, the prayer given to us by our Divine Savior, and the prayers and devotional practices of the Saints and the Church throughout the centuries? Here we learn from our spiritual fathers and mothers, from holy guides, and from our God Himself. We are put in contact with the devotions and piety of the Saints, our minds are kept in contact with their theological thought, and we find an abundance of suitable words and prayers to lift up our hearts and minds when our own thoughts have failed us. We are given great assistance to help safeguard us from the dangers of inventing our own piety and theology. As we strive to lift up our hearts, we find that the prayers of the holy men and women who have gone before us teach us, and lift us even higher still. And this is not only true of solitary prayers, but also of the devotional practices of the Saints. The virtually incomparable Spiritual Excercises of St. Ignatius, and the powerful Chaplet of Divine Mercy, to name just two, offer us unimaginable assistance in our journeys. Let us then, with humility, come to this great store of treasure, and freely take of its riches. Let us sit at the feet of the sages and learn from them. Let us pray with the countless holy ones who have walked this way before us. Above all, let us not lean upon our own understanding. Here, there is truth unimaginable, beauty unspeakable, and wealth untold. Let us journey a little way and kneel down with monks and nuns, priests and laity, saints, apostles, martyrs and virgins, hermits and missionaries. Here we may find the things that our eyes have hitherto not seen, that our ears have not yet heard, and that have not previously entered into our hearts. This is the path of wisdom.

2. By committing Scripture and prayers to memory we will find several other benefits. The words of Scripture and the Saints become infused into our minds, the set forms of devotion lead towards the development of discipline and the habit of prayer, and our hearts and minds are kept in contact with Spiritual realities. For example, the Rosary has been described as the Gospel in miniature, because it consists of twenty meditations, eighteen of which are scenes from the life of Christ. Those saintly people who have made a practice of regularly praying the Rosary come to live in the Gospel, breathing its very air, and touching Christ Who is the Rosary's center and focus. 

We also find that we have a store of prayers readily available to us in times of trial and temptation. At moments when we may have neither the time nor the emotional or mental energy to seek out appropriate words, formal prayers are waiting in our memories to assist us. Through regularly recitation of formal prayers, and regular practice of set devotions, a person may come to walk, and live, and breathe in a house of prayer--familiar and patterned, yet beautiful, and ever growing in its depth.

3. The third point brings me to the real focus of this essay. Unity. One of the truly wonderful things about formal prayer is its ability to unite Christians. Formal prayers create a common ground and a common language between  believers. I imagine that there would scarcely be a Catholic in America, who has had at least a moderate formation in his/her faith, that would be unable to join in if someone began an Our Father, a Rosary, the prayer to St. Michael, or Grace before a meal. I am reminded of hearing, years ago, a good Catholic lady describe praying in front of an abortion clinic. Rather than each person praying seperately and spontaneously, all of the Catholics present were gathered on the sidewalk praying the Rosary, a prayer they all knew, and the unity of their voices was like a shout. That is powerful. Unity of voice, unity of mind, unity of heart, unity in Spirit. To be able to pray together with the brother or sister next to you, not only internally, but vocally, in unison, praying the exact same words, is a beautiful thing. There is a great body of prayer known to thousands of souls, and all one has to do at any time is start a few words and others join in, numerous tongues all speaking the same words, proclaiming the same praises, interceding for the same needs. If you pray from the Book of Christian Prayer, you know that thousands of priests, monks, and lay people are praying the same Psalms, reading the same same Scriptures, and interceding for the same intentions on that very day as well. If you pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at three o'clock, you can be certain that countless others are pleading for mercy "on us and on the whole world" at the very same moment, with precisely the same words. How blessed it is to be able to enter into something so marvelously unifying, praying the same prayers with others around the world, and praying the same prayers as those who have gone before us!

I know that this short essay leaves many things unsaid, many questions and answers unaddressed. Yet I hope that it may serve as an introduction and a starting point. I sincerely hope that we will strive to find more common ground with our fellow Christians, and that we will return to the great wealth of prayers that Tradition has to offer us. In my post In Nomine Patris I noted that many Christians have abandoned (or are unfamiliar with) nearly a millennium and a half of Christian Tradition before the Reformation. There is much to be learned and discovered there! We would do well to study the theology of the Fathers, to become acquainted with the powerful devotional practices of the spiritual masters, and to adopt the beautiful and unifying prayers of the Saints and the Church.

As stated in In Nomine Patris I am not asking for anyone to go contrary to their consciences. I am not asking you to request the prayers of St. Jude, nor the assistance of St. Michael. But there are so many good and helpful prayers and devotions to be discovered, like the beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit at the beginning of this post, to which we should find no objection. Perhaps The Book of Christian Prayer with its beautiful pattern of Psalms, Scripture readings, hymns, prayers, intercessions, and canticles may be a powerfully enriching and unifying form of private or communal prayer, that could readily be adopted by Protestants. Except for the optional observance of certain feast days of the Saints, and some equally optional Marian hymns, there is virtually nothing in The Book of Christian Prayer that could be found offensive to any Christian. Or, perhaps, we could simply make a practice of often saying the Our Father. After all, this has been the great prayer of Christians throughout the centuries, and was given to us by Christ Himself. And the opening words remind us that we are not isolated individuals, but one Father makes us all brothers and sisters (even non-Christians). Surely praying "Our Father in heaven...Thy  kingdom come, Thy will be done" will assist us all to grow in unity, and in love of our Christian and human family.

At the very least, I pray that this essay will help some to understand why so many Christians pray formal prayers. I hope that many will come to see that there are thousands of souls across the world who are not repeating empty, meaningless formulas when they recite their prayers. Perhaps some may even come to understand and appreciate those who pray chaplets, say a family Rosary, and walk the Way of Cross.

In closing, I am reminded of another oft-recited prayer to the Holy Spirit, prayed by Pope John XXIII at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a council so deeply ecumenical in its tone and content:

"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth."

Peace to all.