Prayer

Throughout most of her religious life, Jane was tormented by temptations against the faith. Her prayer was frequently filled with dryness and rarely did she experience warm feelings of closeness to God. In spite of the fact that she hardly ever felt consolation in prayer. The good Lord seems to have guided Jane into the ways of a prayer of great simplicity. Perhaps it was her sufferings that enabled her to turn away from herself and cling to God in more simple ways. Today we call this “Centering Prayer.” Let us hear Jane speak for herself:

Those who are led by this path, she wrote, are obligated to a great purity of heart, humility, submission, and total dependence on God. They must simplify their spirit in every way, by bypassing reflections on the past, the present and the future. Instead of looking to what they are doing or will do. they must look to God, forgetting themselves as much as possible in all things in favor of this continual remembrance, uniting their spirits in his goodness in everything that happens to them.

The essence of prayer is not found in always being on our knees, but in keeping our wills closely united to God’s in all events. The soul which holds itself ready and open to yield itself obediently on any occasion, and which receives these occasions lovingly as sent from God, can do this even while sweeping the floor.

Reflection Questions:

1. Compare and/or contrast “Centering Prayer” with Jane’s prayer, so replete with dryness and the seeming absence of God.

2. What does Jane mean by the need to simplify one’s spirit in order to look to God in prayer?

3. How does keeping our will united to God in all events qualify as prayer?

APPLICATION

Scripture

Go and if he calls, you shall say, “Speak Lord for Thy servant is listening.” (Sam 1,3:9)

Truly God has listened, he has given heed to the words of my prayer. (Psalm 66:19)

Whenever you pray, go into your room, shut the door and pray to your Father in secret. (Matt: 6:6)

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Phil 4:6)

Jane’s Words

Three Methods of Prayer

The first consists in making use of our imagination, by representing the Divine Jesus in his cradle, in the arms of his Holy Mother and of the great Saint Joseph. We must represent the mystery very simply to ourselves.

The second way is to use considerations by representing to ourselves the virtues our Lord practiced, his humility, his patience, his meekness, and his charity towards his enemies. In these considerations, we will feel our will wholly moved in God and will produce strong affections from which we draw resolutions for the day.

The third way is to keep ourselves simply in God’s presence by looking at him with the eyes of faith in each mystery, conversing with him by words full of confidence. Then remain quietly in his presence, neither troubling nor disturbing yourself for any dryness which may befall you.