One of the more beautiful and profound passages in the new letter “Scrutate” written to religious by the Congregation for Religious Life, is the section on intercessory prayer.
To be in synchronicity with our Church at this time and in agreement with this form of prayer, a great advantage is to be living in a Monastery where prayer, if not perpetual, is very nearly so, and especially intercessory prayer, both in private and within the Liturgy of the Hours as chanted by Visitandine Nuns.
If you want to experience this more fully, contact one of our Visitation Monasteries for a retreat.
In the meantime, you may profit by the extraordinary beauty of this chapter of the letter, Scrutate, translated from Italian by this blogger.
“The horizon is open and we are invited to watch with prayerful intercession for the world. We continue to see little signs heralding abundant, life-giving rain on our dryness, light whispers of a faithful presence.
The way to go to follow the cloud is not always easy; discernment requires sometimes long and tiring waits ; the sweet and easy yoke (cf. Mt 11:30) can become heavy. The desert is a place of solitude and emptiness. A place missing what is essential for life: water, vegetation, the company of others, the warmth of a friend, even life itself. Everyone in the desert touches in silence and solitude its truest image: measuring itself against the infinite, its fragility as a grain of sand, and the strength of the rock, the mystery of God.
The Israelites remained encamped until the cloud came upon the tabernacle; then they resumed the journey, when the cloud was taken up from the house. Stopping and starting , a life guided, controlled, marked by the cloud of the Spirit. One life to live in watchful vigil ..
Elijah, curled up on himself, crushed by grief and the infidelity of the people, he carries on his back and in his heart the suffering. He himself becomes a prayer, supplicating prayer, an interceding womb. Next to him, and for him the companion scans the sky to see if the sea is the sign of response to God’s promise.
It is the paradigm of the spiritual journey of each of us, by which man converts to be really a friend of God, the instrument of his divine plan of salvation.
He becomes aware of his vocation and mission for the benefit of all the weak of the earth.
The consecrated life in the present time is called to live with particular intensity, this intercession. We are aware of our limitations, and our spirit through the desert and consolation is to search for God and the signs of his grace, darkness and light. This stand of praying gives a voice to the passion for humanity. Fullness and emptiness – how deep perception of the mystery of God, the world and the human – are experiences we go through along the way with the same intensity.
Pope Francis challenges us: “Do you fight with the Lord for the people, like Abraham struggled (cf. Gen 18.22 to 33)? That is courageous prayer of intercession. We speak with frankness, apostolic courage , pastoral plans and we think this is fine, but the same frankness is also needed in prayer “.
Intercession becomes the voice of human poverty,: preparation for the response of grace, the fecundity of the dry land, the mystical encounter in the sign of the little things.
The ability to sit in the choir of men and women religious is not to be as lonely prophets, but men and women of communion, listening together to the Word, able to work together on new meanings and signs, designed, constructed also in a time of persecution and martyrdom. It is a journey towards the communion of differences: a sign of the Spirit blowing in our hearts a passion that they all may be one (Jn 17, 21). This highlights a Church which, sitting at the table after a journey of doubt, sadness and hopelessness, recognizes their Lord in the breaking of bread (Luke 24: 13-35), expressed by the essentialness of the Gospel.
Source: Scrutate, In coro nella statio orante