| Your Anxiety in Prayer Is in Itself Enough to Stop You from Finding What You Seek |
At our Living Jesus Chat Room this Sunday we will be talking about a letter written sometime between 1605 to 1608 by Francis de Sales to “a Lady” (probably Mademoiselle de Soulfour, who later entered the Carmel at the rue Saint-Jacques in Paris), taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Photo by Isabella Fischer on UnsplashSome time ago I received a letter from you which I hold very dear because it shows that you trust in my affection for you, which is indeed and without a doubt wholly yours. I only regret that I hardly know how to reply to what you ask me about your difficulties in prayer. Also, I know that you are in a place and among people where you can lack nothing on this subject; but charity which rejoices in interchange prompts you to ask for my views by giving me yours. So, I shall say something to you.Your anxiety in prayer together with your great eagerness to find some object to content your mind and in which it can rest, is in itself enough to stop you from finding what you seek. Your hand and eye will pass over a thing a hundred times without perceiving it when you are hunting for it too strenuously. The only result of such vain and useless eagerness is weariness of mind, and hence your soul’s coldness and numbness. I do not know what remedies you should apply, but I am inclined to think that if you could prevent this bustling eagerness, you would gain a great deal; for it is one of the greatest traitors encountered by devotion and true virtue. It pretends to kindle us for our profit but all it does is to chill our fervour, only making us run so as to trip us up. That is why we must beware of it at all times but more especially during prayer.And to help you in this, remember that the graces and benefits of prayer are not earthly waters but come from heaven, and that therefore all our efforts cannot acquire them, although it is true that we must dispose ourselves to receive them with great care but humbly and peacefully. We must hold our hearts open towards heaven and wait for the heavenly dew to fall. And never forget to carry this thought with you to your prayer: that in prayer we approach God and put ourselves in his presence for two main reasons. The first is to render to God the honor and homage which we owe him, and this can be done without him speaking to us or ourselves speaking to him; for this duty is absolved in that we acknowledge him to be our God and ourselves his lowly creatures, and in that we stay before him, casting ourselves down before him in our hearts and awaiting his commands.How many courtiers are there who seek the king’s presence over and over again, not to speak to him or to hear him speak, but simply to be seen by him and to signify by this regular attendance that they are his servants? And this aim in presenting ourselves before God, just so as to signify and protest our willingness and gratitude in his service, is very excellent, very holy and very pure, and therefore a thing of great perfection. The second reason for which we present ourselves before God is to speak to him and to hear him speak to us by inspirations and inner stirrings of the heart; and usually this is associated with delight and pleasure, because it is of very great benefit for us to speak to so great a lord, and when he answers he pours out balm and much precious ointment to fill the soul with sweetness.And now my dear daughter (since that is how you wish me to address you), your prayer cannot be without either one or other of these two benefits. If we can talk to Our Lord, let us talk to him, praise him, pray to him, listen to him. If we cannot speak because our voice fails us, let us nevertheless stay in his court-room and bow down before him; he will see us there, he will graciously accept our patience and look favourably upon our silence.Another time we shall be much astonished when he takes us by the hand, talks about one thing and another, and walks up and down with us in the path of his garden of prayer; and even if he never does this, let us be content with the fact that it is our duty to be in his suite and that it is a great grace for us and a still greater honour that he should allow us to be in his presence. In this way we shall not be over-eager to speak to him, because this other way of being near him is no less useful to us; indeed, perhaps more useful, although it may be a little less agreeable to our taste. So when you come before Our Lord, speak to him if you can; if you cannot, stay there, show yourself and do not strive eagerly to do anything else. This is my advice; I do not know if it will work, but I am not worried about it; for, as I said to you, you are in a place where you cannot help getting advice that is far better than mine.As to the fear you have that your father might make you lose your desire to be a Carmelite by making you wait too long before carrying out your wish, just say to God: ‘Thou, Lord, knowest all my longings’ and let him do his will; he will influence your father’s heart and will shape it to his glory and to your profit. In the meanwhile, foster your good desire and see that the spark of it lives on beneath the ashes of humility and resignation to the will of God.You ask for my prayers and you have them, for I could not forget you, especially at holy Mass. I trust in your charity so that I may not be forgotten in your prayers either. Reflections: What can cause us to be led to turn prayer into an anxious pursuit of something?Why do we tend to treat prayer like a wishing well and God like a genie?What is the true purpose of prayer?How can we “let God do his will”? Are we able to stop God from doing his will?When it comes to our prayer time, how much do we value simply bringing ourselves into the presence of God, and on the other hand, speaking to him and expecting him to respond?How can we not be too demanding of God during our time of prayer?How can we better recognize God’s will? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. |