Young People at Prayer

Pentecost

2007-05-27T02:56:00.000-07:00

Pentecost has arrived at last. Been a lot of hard work but hope things go ok tonight. We start at six please feel to come along!

Next Meeting

2007-03-27T04:11:00.000-07:00

Meeting again at 8.00pm this Wednesday as we prepare for Holy Week

2007-03-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

Things went well last night thanks again to everyone for coming along!

Centering Prayer

2007-03-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

This Wenesday, we'll lok at quite a neat prayer method - centering prayer. We'll see how it goes.

The Method of Centering Prayer
Contemplative Prayer
We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. In the Christian tradition Contemplative Prayer is considered to be the pure gift of God. It is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions. Through grace we open our awareness to God whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing - closer than consciousness itself.
Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer is a method designed to facilitate the development of Contemplative Prayer by preparing our faculties to receive this gift. It is an attempt to present the teaching of earlier times in an updated form. Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer: rather it casts a new light and depth of meaning on them. It is at the same time a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship. This method of prayer is a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.
Theological Background
The source of Centering Prayer, as in all methods leading to Contemplative Prayer, is the indwelling Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. It tends to build communities of faith and bond the members together in mutual friendship and love. “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Listening to the Word of God in Scripture
Listening to the word of God in Scripture (Lectio Divina) is a traditional way of cultivating friendship with Christ. It is a way of listening to the texts of Scripture as if we were in conversation with Christ and He were suggesting the topics of conversation. The daily encounter with Christ and reflection on His word leads beyond mere acquaintanceship to an attitude of friendship, trust, and love. Conversation simplifies and gives way to communing. Gregory the Great (6th century) in summarizing the Christian contemplative tradition expressed it as “resting in God.” This was the classical meaning of Contemplative Prayer in the Christian tradition for the first sixteen centuries.
Wisdom Saying of Jesus
Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
“...But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.” Matthew 6.6 (New American Bible)
It is also inspired by writings of major contributors to the Christian contemplative heritage including John Cassian, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton.
Centering Prayer Guidelines
Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. (cf. Open Mind, Open Heart, chap. 5)
The sacred word expresses our intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
The sacred word is chosen during a brief period of prayer asking the Holy Spirit to inspire us with one that is especially suitable for us.
Examples: God, Jesus, Abba, Father, Mother, Mary, Amen.
Other possibilities: Love, Peace, Mercy, Listen, Let Go, Silence, Stillness, Faith, Trust, Yes.
Instead of a sacred word a simple inward glance toward the Divine Presence or noticing one’s breath may be more suitable for some persons. The same guidelines apply to these symbols as to the sacred word.
The sacred word is sacred not because of its inherent meaning but because of the meaning we give it as the expression of our intention and consent.
Having chosen a sacred word, we do not change it during the prayer period because that would be to start thinking again.
Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
“Sitting comfortably” means relatively comfortably so as not to encourage sleep during the time of prayer.
Whatever sitting position we choose, we keep the back straight.
We close our eyes as a symbol of letting go of what is going on around and within us.
We introduce the sacred word inwardly as gently as laying a feather on a piece of absorbent cotton.
Should we fall asleep upon awakening we continue the prayer.
When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
“Thoughts” is an umbrella term for every perception, including sense perceptions, feelings, images, memories, plans, reflections, concepts, commentaries, and spiritual experiences.
Thoughts are an inevitable, integral and normal part of Centering Prayer.
By “returning ever-so-gently to the sacred word” a minimum of effort is indicated. This is the only activity we initiate during the time of Centering Prayer.
During the course of Centering Prayer, the sacred word may become vague or disappear.
At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
The additional 2 minutes enables us to bring the atmosphere of silence into everyday life.
If this prayer is done in a group, the leader may slowly recite a prayer such as the Lord’s Prayer while the others listen.
The Guidelines
Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
When engaged with your thoughts*, return ever-sogently to the sacred word.
At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
*Thoughts include body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections
Some Practical Points
The minimum time for this prayer is 20 minutes. Two periods are recommended each day, one first thing in the morning and the other in the afternoon or early evening. With practice the time may be extended to 30 minutes or longer.
The end of the prayer period can be indicated by a timer which does not have an audible tick or loud sound when it goes off.
Possible physical symptoms during the prayer:
We may notice slight pains, itches, or twitches in various parts of the body or a generalized sense of restlessness. These are usually due to the untying of emotional knots in the body.
We may notice heaviness or lightness in our extremities. This is usually due to a deep level of spiritual attentiveness.
In all cases we pay no attention and ever- so-gently return to the sacred word.
The principal fruits of the prayer are experienced in daily life and not during the prayer period.
Centering Prayer familiarizes us with God’s first language which is silence.
Points for Further Development
During the prayer period, various kinds of thoughts may arise.
Ordinary wanderings of the imagination or memory.
Thoughts and feelings that give rise to attractions or aversions.
Insights and psychological breakthroughs.
Self-reflections such as, “How am I doing?” or, “This peace is just great!”
Thoughts and feelings that arise from the unloading of the unconscious.
When engaged with any of these thoughts return ever-so-gently to your sacred word.
During this prayer we avoid analyzing our experience, harboring expectations, or aiming at some specific goal such as:
Repeating the sacred word continuously.
Having no thoughts.
Making the mind a blank.
Feeling peaceful or consoled.
Achieving a spiritual experience. (cf. Open Mind, Open Heart, chap. 6-10)
Ways to Deepen Our Relationship with God
Practice two 20-30 minute periods of Centering Prayer daily.
Listen to the Word of God in Scripture and study Open Mind, Open Heart.
Select one or two of the specific practices for everyday life as suggested in Open Mind, Open Heart, chap. 12.
Join a weekly Centering Prayer Group.
It encourages the members of the group to persevere in their individual practices.
It provides an opportunity for further input on a regular basis through tapes, readings, and discussion.
It offers an opportunity to support and share the spiritual journey.
What Centering Prayer Is and Is Not
It is not a technique but a way of cultivating a relationship with God.
It is not a relaxation exercise but it may be refreshing.
It is not a form of self-hypnosis but a way to quiet the mind while maintaining its alertness.
It is not a charismatic gift but a path of transformation.
It is not a para-psychological experience but an exercise of faith, hope and selfless love.
It is not limited to the “felt” presence of God but is rather a deepening of faith in God’s abiding presence.
It is not reflective or spontaneous prayer, but simply resting in God.

2007-03-07T01:22:00.000-08:00

The prayer group meets again tonight at 8pm. Hopefully see you there!

First Meeting

2007-03-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

The first meeting of our group seemed to go well. Roll on Wednesday!!!!!

2007-02-25T03:33:00.000-08:00

One sows, another reaps.....John 4:34

2007-02-21T11:32:00.000-08:00

The soul of prayer is solitude.........................

2007-02-20T04:47:00.000-08:00

If you think you're to small to make a difference, you've obviously never been in a room with a mosquito......................

2007-02-15T01:19:00.000-08:00

Prayer is taking to take shape. People seem keen to get involved, there's a real hunger out there.........keep us in your prayers

Prayer Group

2007-02-14T02:35:00.000-08:00

Young People at Prayer (YPAP): Faith gone a bit wobbly? Need a spiritual boost? Want to find out more about the basics of Catholic prayer and spirituality? Here’s your chance. In St.Patrick’s over the course of Lent and hopefully beyond, we’ll be looking at these areas. YPAP is aimed at young adults between 17 and 35 and our first meeting will be on Wednesday 28th February at 8pm here in St.Patrick’s. For more information please see Father John asap!

2007-01-22T03:35:00.000-08:00

Recently I was lucky enough to get away for a few days holiday to Rome, the seat of our Holy Father. One of the intriguing things about getting abroad is that you’re able to catch a lead a brief glimpse of life in another Church. You can how they handle, in their particular way, the challenges of the modern world. By looking at where they are, where they have been, where they are going you can learn so, so much.
The Church in Southern Europe is somewhat different from our own. They never really experienced the trauma of the reformation and the division of Christianity, they never really suffered the scourge of sectarianism. But what they have faced, what they have dealt with is rampant, pernicious secularism. They have experience in dealing with governments who have no time for organised religion, they’ve been through all the anti-clericalism, all the civil strife. Time and time they’ve dealt with authorities who have little interest in Christianity of any variety. They’ve been there, done it and bought the t-shirt.
I suspect we, on the other hand, are just getting there. In days gone past Catholics were suspect because of our supposed divided loyalties, now we arouse suspicions simply because, like all true Christians, we proclaim, we adhere to values, principles, standards which are alien to our culture. We don’t fit in, we’re awkward, we’re too troublesome, we ask too many hard questions. We ask why we shouldn’t be allowed to wear the symbols of our faith? We ask why should every social ill should be blamed on faith schools? We ask why the Scottish parliament is so obsessed with things like civil partnerships, quickie divorces but never acts to support marriage and the family. We ask why our government wants to spend billions building more weapons of mass destruction yet invades other countries because they might have them.
Our battle with the forces of secularism, the forces of “supposed” political correctness is well and truly underway. But its not just a fight for the Bishops and the clergy, it’s a battle that everyone has to engage in. Its you’re battle, its you’re struggle, its your fight.
The experience of the Church in Europe has shown that. We can’t carry any passengers, we don’t need any bystanders. The strength, the hope of the Catholic church, isn’t our institutions or customs or whatever its you, the people of God, the living, breathing, pulsating body of Christ. As Paul asserts, as he states we’re all part of the one body and every part of that body but every part of that organism has to be living, breathing, functioning, contributing. You people out there, have so many talents, so many gifts, so many skills its truly staggering. You can change our society, transform our culture. Its not all hopeless, its not all a waste of time. If we shout loud enough people will hear, people will take notice.
The spirit of the Lord has been given to us, for he has anointed us.
He has sent us to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord's year of favour
Now its up to us, to fulfil that text, to complete our mission.

2007-01-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

Scripture and Tradition in the Catholic Church

In the first years of the seventeenth century, my fellow Scot, John Colville (1542-1605) attempted to somewhat colourfully elucidate and elaborate the Catholic understanding of the relationship between Scripture and the Church: “It cannot be denied that the Church is to Scripture as the pilot to the rudder, the mason to the line, the magistrate to the laws…..Even so, the rudder and compass, the line and square of Holy Scripture and laws contained therein, except they have the Church to be their steerman, mason and judge, they of themselves ever pacify parties contending in faith and religion, more nor the compass alone guide the ship, or the line build the house”[1].

Underlying Colville’s rather creative use of analogy was a profound appreciation of the mutual interdependence and co-penetration of Scripture and the Church. For Colvile, Scripture and Tradition, far from being two sections of the deposit of revelation, constitute one single whole, which is the Church’s expression and handing down of the Gospel. Scripture cannot be understood apart from Tradition, for it embodies the Tradition of the Apostolic Church, and its reading needs to be guided by the Holy Spirit in the Church, as manifested in the ecclesiastical documents of the post – apostolic tradition. Somewhat lamentably, Colville’s succinct and eminently sensible approach to he problem of the relationship between Scripture was not shared by the theological heavy weights of counter reformation theology. Following an erroneous yet practically normative interpretation of the Tridentine teaching on the connection between Scripture and Tradition, theologians such as Perez de Ayala, Pete Canisius and Robert Bellarmine asserted that the saving gospel is contained partly in the Scriptures and partly in oral traditions. While this postulation of two quasi-independent sources of revelation was undoubtedly undertaken, as Beumer rightly notes, to counteract Protestantism’s radical emphasis on the centrality of Scripture it did, nevertheless, serve to create something of a dichotomy, some semblance of disjunction at the very kernel of God’s revelatory activity.

As Fisichella correctly asserts[2], Pius XII’s definition of the dogma of the Assumption compelled theologians to begin to ask these basic questions again: How are Scripture and Tradition related? What is their function and role in the community of believers?
What is the distinctive content of each in terms of revelation? Is the content the same, different or complementary? Various solutions were proposed to these questions. In a series of articles in Gregorianum, H.Lennerz vigorously defended the theory espoused by de Ayala, Canisius and Bellarmine that there is a certain duality at the very epicentre of the gospel. Theologians, equally erudite proposed that divine revelation was contained entirely in tradition and entirely in the Scriptures. Their position was given historical support in the study of Geiselmannof Tubinngen, Dei Heilige Schrift und dei Tradition (Freiburg-Basel-Wien, 1962). He and a host of German theologians contended that the whole revealed deposit is contained in the scriptures. Far from being a rather veiled adoption of sola scrittura, their argument for the material sufficiency of Scripture simply means that all truths pertaining to divine revelatory activity are at least implicit or find some basis in Scripture. A third theological theory, intermediate between the previous two, asserts that is essential that Scripture and tradition be harmonized and unified without mutual detriment. Drawing on the works of Mohler and Scheeben, Beumer attempted to develop and formulate the theory that Scripture is relatively sufficient as a mode of transmission other than tradition. For Beumer, Scripture transmits in a written form not a part but the substance of revealed truth, so that all revealed truths are somehow traceable to its content. According to this theory, Scripture and tradition link, as it were, into concentric circles, tradition encompassing all that Scripture holds substantially. Tradition interprets Scripture and is likewise a more complete expression of the life and teaching of the Church.

The reason for their correlation is that whenever the Church confronts the the Biblical text, she finds true and unequivocable understanding of it only in light of her tradition and the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. Without a living tradition, the Bible lends itself to a variety of interpretations, not a few of which appear contradictory. Tradition is a helpmate to Scripture: in its interpretive role it help to determine the contents of the contents of the apostolic deposit: Irenaeus, Cyprian and Origen are empathetic iin their teaching that Scripture should be read in the Church and that ecclesial tradition is the exposition of the Scriptures.

Aware of Fisichella’s somewhat axiomatic assertion that that these three theories were all clearly present in the composition of the first draft and successive redactions of Dei Verbum[3], it is perhaps incumbent upon the humble student of Fundamental Theologyto see if this is indeed the case. The somewhat notorious De Fontibus is certainly exemplifies what might be termed the theory of Scriptural insufficiency. With its stipulation of two sources of revelation each containing fragments of revealed truth, one finds here perhaps the zenith of the erroneous position expounded by de Ayala, Canisius and Bellarmine. Moreover, in De Fontibus one hear echoes of the Holy Office votum with its somewhat strange notion of additive tradition.

One encounters in the texts of the Secreteriat for Christian Unity, De Verbo Dei and De Traditione et Sacra Scrittura, an evident endorsement of the theory of the material sufficiency of Scripture. The main argument in both the De Verbo Dei and De Traditione et Sacra Scrittura was that the question of the material sufficiency of the Scriptures was still a subject of legitimate debate among Catholic theologians and the Council should not say anything that would prematurely settle the issue.

The preference of the Secreteriat for Christian Unity for the theory of the material sufficiency was shared, somewhat unsurprisingly by the Pontifical Biblical Institute. In its votum the Institute had suggested that any exploration of the relationship between Scripture and Tradition should recognise the fact that we encounter the Apostolic tradition, most directly in Sacred Scripture than in the posterior ecclesial traditions.The draft prepared by Rahner and Ratzinger, De Revelatione Dei et hominis in Jesu Christo facta appears to adopt the theory of relative sufficiency. Their emphasis on the need of Scripture to be taught and explained by the Scripture seems to proximate towards the position formulated and developed by Beumer. This would also appear to be position adopted by Congar. The Textus Prior although consciously avoiding such formulations seems at times to proximate towards a position of material sufficiency. Dei Verbum did not remain totally silent on this question. Rather it provided a new imposition of the problem. In its understanding the problem is not the Scripture – Tradition relationship but rather how Scripture relates to the Church’s living tradition.

[1] G.H Tavard,, “Scripture and Tradition among Seventeenth Century Recusants”, Theological Studies 1964, p.345.
[2] R. Fisichella, “Dei Verbum Audiens et Proclamamams: On Scripture and Tradition as Source of the Word of God”, Communio 2001, p.87.
[3] Ibid.

2007-01-15T08:25:00.000-08:00