ARTICLES ON PRAYER

"A Method of Making the General Examen"
from The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola

"The first point is to give thanks to God our Lord for the gifts received."

Ignatius once said that the most abominable sin he could imagine was the sin of ingratitude. He knew that an awareness of God's goodness and generosity is the foundation of our relationship with God. Once we recognize God's goodness, we spontaneously feel gratitude.

In this first point, we express gratitude for the experiences and encounters during the day that have been good or pleasant or meaningful, whether they seem trivial or important. We also express gratitude for the larger gifts we have received: our faith and our salvation, our life, our talents and abilities, significant relationships, whatever comes to mind.

As our spiritual life deepens, we become more and more aware that all we have is gift, given to us far beyond anything we might expect or deserve.

We might sometimes find ourselves in a mood of resentment or depression where a feeling of gratitude is hard to muster. At that time, it is all the more important for us to express thanks to God. Not to pretend to feelings we don't feel, but to acknowledge, at whatever level we can, the truth of God's goodness to us.

"The second point is to ask for the grace to know my sins and to root them out."

Ignatius gives his second point a moralistic tone. The particular grace we are seeking here can be expressed more broadly as the light to see our life the way that God sees it, without the illusions and deceptions that we commonly live by. If we are to ask for this grace wholeheartedly, it is important for us to know how desperately we are in need of it. Psychology has shown that many of our true feelings and motivations are genuinely hidden from us. The unconscious part of ourselves can have a powerful influence on what we feel and how we act. Even apart from this, there is a natural tendency to rationalize our actions and to believe the sort of front we put on for other people. Or we can deny or repress unpleasant or embarrassing things about ourselves. Or we can have attitudes of self-deprecation or contempt that distort our view of ourselves and others.

The possibilities for self-deception are endless. To truly know ourselves is not something that we are able to do alone. We need to ask the Holy Spirit for the light that can reveal us to ourselves.

"The third point is to demand an account of my soul from the moment of rising to that of the present examination, hour by hour or period by period. The thoughts should be examined first, then the words, and finally the actions."

The third point is the heart of the Examen. Our actions, words, thoughts, feelings can come from an internal source of freedom and openness to other people and God. Or they can come from what St. Paul calls the "flesh" or the "law of sin"; that is to say from the self-centredness that inhabits all of us. We examine the events of our day methodically in order to uncover the source and the direction of our life that day.

Ignatius suggests we move from thoughts to words to actions. However, it can be more fruitful to move the other way, to look at words and actions and then reflect on the real motivations, intentions and feelings that underlay them. Actions that are apparently good can be done for bad motives, such as a desire for praise. Such an action might be considered praiseworthy but really springs from self-centredness.

Some people are free from actions that are obviously sinful. But when we go to a deeper level of intention and feeling, we can discover that sin has a larger hold on our life than we suspect, that there are all sorts of subtle ways that we focus on self rather than moving outward, towards others and towards the Other.

The Christian life aims at a purity of intention, where all our actions spring from freedom and grace. At first we achieve this type of freedom only sporadically and often fall short. But we can grow towards it.

The examination of our day is not simply earnest introspection, it is prayer. It is going through our day with God, attentive to the inner feelings and desires which is where we experience God's call in the midst of everyday activity.

"The fourth point is to ask pardon of God our Lord for my faults."

Once we have reviewed our day, we may have come to a sense of the dynamic of sin and grace that has been operating in our life that day. The fourth point is our response to that awareness.

Insofar as we have discovered grace and freedom operative during the day, our response is gratitude and wonder for the work of God in our soul. Genuine freedom always comes as a surprise to us, because it involves a sort of self-transcendence that we know we don't have in ourselves. When we discover that in our day, we need to praise God for it.

Conversely, when we discover sinfulness and self-centredness, our response is remorse and contrition. Contrition does not mean dwelling in guilt and shame and beating ourselves for not being perfect. It means recognizing our distance from God, our moving away from God, and asking for and receiving God's forgiveness. The difference between contrition and shame is that contrition is a feeling that moves us out of ourselves and towards God. Shame simply moves us deeper into ourselves.

Like gratitude in the first point, we may not be able to deeply feel the contrition that is the proper response to recognition of our self-centredness. But it is important then to express it, even if it doesn't seem very deep, by asking for pardon.

"The fifth point is to resolve to amend with the help of God's grace. Close with the Lord's Prayer."

We end the Examen by looking towards tomorrow with the desire and resolve to effect changes in action or attitude that God has called us to today.

Alcoholics Anonymous has a slogan, "One Day at a Time" by which they mean that sobriety is not achieved by big and noble resolutions, but by trying to stay sober for one day.

It can be useful to look at our spiritual life in that way. We deal with it one day at a time. In this fifth point we don't look at changing our whole lives, we simply look at what we want to change tomorrow, and ask God's help for it. Our lives are a drama of sin and grace. But this drama is being played out on the rather humble stage of our day to day life.

Ignatius adds our need for God's grace, an important point. We are not resolving to perfect ourselves by force of our own will. We are resolving to open ourselves to grace through awareness of where we need it.

ANIMA CHRISTI

Soul of Christ, sanctify me

Body of Christ, save me

Blood of Christ, inebriate me

Water from the side of Christ, wash me

Passion of Christ, strengthen me

O Good Jesus, hear me

Within Thy wounds hide me

Permit me not to be separated from thee

From the wicked foe defend me

At the hour of my death call me

And bid me come to thee

That with the Saints I may praise thee

Forever and ever. Amen

Contemplation To Attain Divine Love
from The Spiritual Exercises
of St. Ignatius Loyola

1st Point.
This is to recall to mind the blessings of creation and redemption, and the special favours I have received.

I will ponder with great affection how much God our Lord has done for me, and how much He has given me of what He possesses, and finally, how much, as far as He can, the same Lord desires to give Himself to me according to his divine decrees.

Then I will reflect upon myself, and consider, according to all reason and justice, what I ought to offer the Divine Majesty, that is, all I possess and myself with it. Thus as one would do who is moved by great feeling, I will make this offering of myself: Take, Lord, and Receive...

2nd Point.
This is to reflect how God dwells in creatures: in the elements giving them existencer, in the plants giving them life, in the animals conferring upon them sensation, in human beings, giving understanding. So He dwells in me and gives me being, life, sensation, intelligence; and makes a temple of me, since I am created in the likeness and image of the Divine Majesty.

Then I will reflect upon myself again...

3rd Point.
This is to consider how God works and labours for me in all creatures upon the face of the earth, that is, He conducts Himself as one who labours. Thus in the heavens, the elements, the polants, the fruits, the cattle, etc., He gives being, conserves them, confers life and sensation, etc.

Then I will reflect on myself...

COMMENTARY:

---

Before the actual prayer, Ignatius makes a note to remind us of the true nature of love. He wants to warn the person praying against the easy confusion of love with feeling. Love is expressed in deeds and in giving. Words and sentiments are cheap. He also reminds the person praying that we know God's love by God's actions and self-giving. We know God's love by experience, not by theory, and this prayer seeks to make us conscious of the experience.

The 1st prelude serves to put us in the space and mood for prayer. Here we picture God in his transcendence, as absolutely other, and ourselves before God as dependent creatures. This image of the transcendent God is the traditional image that most people grow up with and internalize. When we praise, petition, and give thanks to God, it is to the God who is outside of and beyond us.

It is always important to be explicit about what we are seeking in prayer. We are often unaware that everything we are and have is a gift. In the 2nd Prelude, we ask for the awareness or "interior knowledge" of this truth.

The body of the prayer, consisting of four points, presents to us different aspects of God's immanence, God as joined to and active in all of creation, including ourselves. This image of the immanent God has often been neglected because of one-sided religious teaching. God is not only a one-time Creator, but sustains, provides and cares for this creation. God is not only a one-time redeemer, but is a living presence making all things holy.

Concepts of the immanence and transcendence of God are only concepts, and God is beyond any concepts we can form. In this prayer, we are not seeking an understanding or concept of God, but an experience of God. We seek an awareness of the experience of God giving, dwelling, labouring and emanating in ourselves and in all creation. These are the four aspects of God's immanence that Ignatius asks us to contemplate.

This experience and interior knowledge of love, shown by the dynamics of God active in the world and in ourselves, leads us to a response of love, which is expressed in an offering of ourselves to God. The beautiful prayer, "Take, Lord, Receive" expresses the totality of this offering. The completeness of God's self-giving we have experienced elicits an equally complete self-offering.

---

Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty, my memory,
my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
You have given all to me.
To You, Lord, I return it.
All is Yours;
do with it what You will.
Give me only Your love and Your grace,
that is enough for me.

A Method of Contemplation
from The Spiritual Exercises
of St. Ignatius Loyola

Contemplation means different things in different schools of spirituality. For St. Ignatius, it meant becoming personally present through the imagination to an event in the life of Christ.

The goal of this type of prayer is to come to know Christ intimately and personally. Besides developing the sense of a real and ongoing relationship with Jesus, this sort of imaginative encounter allows us to appropriate the vision and approach that Jesus has to life and the world, and to increasingly act out of this vision. This sort of contemplative view of life is the work of grace. The intent of the imaginative exercise is to open ourselves to receive this grace.

This is a form of prayer that requires some degree of solitude and silence. As such, many do not find it useful for daily prayer, but use it when they have more time and fewer distractions. The prayer period itself takes more than a few minutes, but should not last more than an hour.

Ignatius teaches this method by asking people to pray on the infancy of Jesus. Therefore the method will be presented here using the text for the contemplation on the nativity. Any gospel scene can be used.

Contemplation on the Nativity

"In the preparatory prayer, I will ask the Lord for the grace that all my thoughts, words and actions amy be directed purely to the praise and service of God."

"First Prelude: This is the history of the mystery..."

Here one reads carefully the text from scripture, in this case Luke 2:1-14.

"Second Prelude: This is a mental representation of the place..."

Here you go back in your imagination to the time and the place and set the scene, using the scraps of information from the scriptural text and supplementing it with your imagination. In this case you see the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the busy town of Bethlehem, the stable where Jesus was born, etc. This prelude is essentially making the mental shift, guided by scripture, into the realm of the imagination.

"Third Prelude: This is to ask for what I desire. Here it will be to ask for a deep interior knowledge of the Lord, who has become human for me, that I may love and follow my Lord ever more closely."

The interior knowledge being asked for is not the kind of objective detached knowledge that you can get from study. It is more like the knowledge of love. It is given and not achieved, and so you must be explicit about asking for it. The goal of the entire exercise is expressed in this third prelude. If you are not sure that this interior knowledge and discipleship is what you really desire, you should still ask sincerely for it, since the asking can awaken the desire.

To this point, the activity has been preparatory, and essentially your activity. The aim of the preludes as a whole is to dispose you to open your mind and imagination to the influence of grace, that is, to the insights and experiences that God wants to give you. As preparations, they should not take a long time.

"Points: this will consist in seeing the persons..., to consider, observe and contemplate what the persons are saying..., to see and consider what they are doing.... Then I will reflect and draw some spiritual fruit from what I have seen."

This is the main part of the exercise. It is essential that you insert yourself into the scene, Ignatius suggests as a "poor, unworthy, little servant." You are present to the event, not only as a passive observer, but can interact with the characters, in this case, Mary, Joseph and the baby. The interaction can take the form of conversation (which is particularly poignant in later scenes in the gospel when you converse with Jesus). It can involve action, for example, assisting Mary at the birth and holding the child. It can involve simple presence, but it is the presence of being in a room with people you know, rather than looking in the window.

As in all prayer, this exercise requires a letting go. It is a natural inclination to try to control the imagination in order to get the results you would like. The challenge is to allow the imagination to operate spontaneously, so that the images are given. They then possess a quality that is different from daydreams, for example, and you will know when it happens. The presupposition of this entire exercise is that the Holy Spirit will use our imagination, entering into it to speak to our hearts when we surrender control.

Despite its simplicity, many people who underrate their imagination do find this kind of prayer challenging. However, the imagination is a faculty which is as necessary to our functioning as the intellect, and everyone has one. In our dreams the imagination gives us access to a deeper level of ourselves than we are normally conscious of. Similarly, in contemplation the imagination can be a means of God's communicating deeper realities to us.

Ignatius speaks about drawing spiritual fruit. This does not mean drawing out the moral, ideological or factual implications. Rather it is more of a relishing of the experience, allowing it to mold our inner dispositions and attitudes.

"This exercise should be closed with a colloquy..."

A colloquy is simply a conversation. Ignatius specifies that it is made "by speaking exactly as one friend speaks to another." So one can spend a brief time in intimate conversation with Jesus, or Mary, or God the Father. This is an appropriate time to express one's desires, gratitude or needs.

"Conclude with the Lord's Prayer"

SUMMARY

Preparatory Prayer

1st Prelude: reading of the scriptural text

2nd Prelude: composition of place

3rd Prelude: asking for the grace

Points: imaginatively entering the scene and allowing
the Holy Spirit to work in us

Colloquy

Our Father

---

"ETERNAL LORD OF ALL THINGS"

Eternal Lord of all,

And of your glorious mother,

And of all the saints of heaven,

I make this offering of myself

With your grace and help.

It is my fervent desire and deliberate choice,

Provided only that it is for your greater service and praise,

To imitate you in bearing all wrong,

All abuse and all poverty,

Both actual and spiritual,

Should you deign to choose me and admit me

To such a state and way of life.

S I L E N C E

GOSPEL (Matthew 14:22-33)

Immediately after feeding the crowd with the five loaves and two fish, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.

When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning Jesus came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."

Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." Jesus said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Is there any story in the gospels which offers us a more apt description of our times than the one we read today? Is there a more perfect metaphor for our age than the image of the disciples being tossed about on a restless sea? Many of us can relate to the disciples' fear that they have been abandoned by God and left to drift. Oftentimes we have acted like Peter and demanded a sign in order that we might believe. Thus, the question "Why did you doubt?" is one that many of us have pondered.

Fortunately, Jesus provides us with a crucial clue to its answer. We are told that after he dismissed everyone, he "went up the mountain by himself to pray." Indeed, throughout the gospels we are told that Jesus frequently sought out silence in order to pray. Is there a connection between silence, prayer and faith?

Without silence it is difficult to pray, and without prayer true faith is not possible. Those who do not value silence and prayer usually have no faith. And we can only learn about faith from those who regularly seek silence to practise prayer.

So the next time you are feeling sceptical about matters of faith, don't panic. Check first to see if the foundation of a solid commitment to prayer is in place before you let yourself be convinced that Christ is nothing more than a ghost.

John O'Donnell, Halifax, NS
Living With Christ
Volume 20, August 1996
NOVALIS

The following Chapter is from Opening to God
Thomas H. Green, S.J.
Chapter 1, pp. 26-34
1977 Ave Maria Press
ISBN: 0877931356 (cloth)

What Prayer Is

Thomas H. Green, S.J.

For the past several years, I have been a spiritual director in a major seminary. The spiritual director's job is a unique one for which there seems to be no real training except experience. He is a curious mix: an alter ego, or other self, sharing with young people what is most precious and most private to them -- their own inner selves; he is something of a guru, from whom they hope to learn their secret mantra; he is a strong shoulder in their troubled times and a sounding board for their hopes and plans. In all this, it seems to me, the spiritual director is above all a listener. The hardest thing he has to learn is truly to listen, not passively but creatively and responsively.

The importance, and difficulty, of listening were brought home forcefully to me on one occasion. A fine seminarian was beginning a directed retreat. He was somewhat quiet, and I, in my usual style, wanted to put him at ease and draw him out. When we met in the evening to discuss how the first day had gone, I began to ask him about his experience. He cut me short by saying: "Before we start, I'd like to ask one favor." "What is that?" I asked. He said: "Whenever you start talking, I get nervous and forget what I wanted to say. So please don't say anything until I have finished sharing what I want to share." For the next several days I successfully (heroically!) held my tongue -- and since then I have found that, for me, talker that I am, learning to listen well has demanded much personal discipline.

As I reflect on those years of learning to listen, I realize that the very effort to do so has taught me more about prayer than any other aspect of my priestly ministry -- both because the art of listening seems to me to be at the very heart of prayer, and because prayer itself has been the central topic which the seminarians have wanted to talk about. There are many problems which arise: family, studies, vocation, celibacy, community. But the continually recurring theme in our conversations is prayer. The basic question is: Just what is prayer? We can't really talk about how to do it unless we have some definite idea of what it is.

Those of us who are old enough to have been raised on the Baltimore Catechism (and its counterparts) learned early in life to define prayer as a lifting of the mind and heart to God. This was an easy definition to memorize -- clear and brief. It was a good definition in that it taught us that (1) God is far beyond our ordinary experience; (2) prayer entails effort on our part; and (3) prayer involves both the mind and the heart -- the understanding and the feelings and will -- of man. If we explore these three elements of the catechism definition a little further, perhaps we can come to a clearer picture of just what prayer should be.

The last point -- the place of the heart in prayer -- is an important one, and one that has not always been so clear. For many of the desert fathers and theologians of the early Church, perhaps largely under the influence of Greek philosophy, prayer was primarily a matter of the understanding, of knowledge. As such it was very much like theology, which sought to place reason at the service of faith -- to use reason to understand and clarify the divine revelation. The theologian and the pray-er differed not so much in what they did -- both were knowers -- as in the means they used to achieve knowledge. The theologian employed his natural faculties of reason and reflection, while the pray-er, in this early tradition, employed esoteric or secret techniques which were supposed to lead to a privileged, supernatural, "mystical" way of knowing God and understanding ultimate reality.

This view of prayer and spirituality was condemned by the Church as heretical very early in her history. Its major defect, however, was not its stress on the understanding to the relative neglect of the heart.(1) The really fatal flaw in these early theories of prayer pertained more to the second of the three points we noted above, namely that prayer entails effort on our part. It was condemned because of its excessive reliance on man's own efforts. In the partisan terminology of the times, it was found to be "Pelagian" or "semi-Pelagian," i.e., to follow the theologian Pelagius in overestimating man's ability to encounter God by his own efforts and to neglect the absolute primacy of God's grace. There is an infinite chasm between God and man; man, no matter how hard he tries, cannot come to God -- cannot leap across infinity.(2) He cannot even, as the semi-Pelagians maintained, take the first step in coming to God. God must come to man. He alone can leap the infinite gulf between creator and creature; this is what he did in the Incarnation of Jesus and what he does in the life of every pray-er who truly encounters him.

Although it is easy enough to label this idea semi-Pelagian, and thus to relegate it to the dustbin of history, I am afraid the real situation is not as simple as that. As I look at my own years of learning to pray, it seems clear that there was a good bit of the semi-Pelagian in me, too. The structures within which I was formed as a religious tended to reinforce this stress on a "pulling-myself-up-by- my-bootstraps" kind of spirituality. The format of our novitiate times of prayer (about which I will have some positive things to say later) was rigidly prescribed. Point books provided structured meditations; some 60 of us novices meditated in one room; the one acceptable posture was kneeling. If someone was not kneeling during prayer, he could expect a summons from the director of novices and an inquiry whether he was ill. I quaked through a few of these encounters myself; at the time, while I dreaded them, I came to see them as developing manliness and self-discipline. Later I came to resent the regimentation they implied. Later still, when I myself began to direct souls, I realized that these practices were all part of a widespread spirit of an age:(3) asceticism, self-denial, killing one's own will and desires were, in a sense, at the very core of spirituality. It was as if Jesus' mysterious saying "Since John the Baptist came, up to this present time, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are taking it by storm" (Mt 11:12) had been appropriated, alone and out of context, as the basis for a whole spirituality.

The fruit of the semi-Pelagian controversy has been to make us realize that our own effort is utterly secondary to the work of God in our encounter with him. Yet I have felt for some time that this is still a defect in the catechism definition of prayer with which we began this chapter. The idea of raising our minds and hearts to God still seems to imply that prayer is largely a matter of our own efforts -- that God is simply there, while we, in prayer, find ways and means to pull ourselves up to him. Such a view would obviously be semi-Pelagian, and hence unacceptable to the Christian.

Since Christians have recently shown much interest in Yoga and Zen and their derivatives, it is worth noting in this context that such a view (i.e., that prayer is totally, or largely, a matter of our own efforts) does find considerable support in the great Oriental religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. In those Oriental traditions which do not know a personal God, prayer depends totally on the effort of the pray-er -- even if that effort is, paradoxically enough for the Westerner, wholly devoted to emptying the mind, to coming to quiet, to passivity. It is important to note, however, that even in the mainstream Oriental traditions -- and particularly in the classical literature of Hinduism -- there are affirmations of the personality of God and intimations of a doctrine of grace. In The Bhagavad Gita, "the Blessed One" says of his true disciples:

To them, constantly disciplined,
Revering Me with love,
I give that discipline of mind,
Whereby they go unto Me.(4)

There has been some dispute within Hinduism about the literal meaning of texts like these.(5) But for us Christians, there can be no doubt: God is a person (in fact, three Persons!), and prayer is a personal encounter with him. More than that, it is an encounter which depends almost entirely on his grace, since he is God.

This is not the place to attempt to explain to the puzzled Christian what exactly lies at the end of the road of prayer for the Hindu or Buddhist contemplative. My point is simply that Christian prayer is grounded in a very specific conception of God: a personal God who encounters his creatures in love. To return to the catechism definition, the idea of prayer as a raising of our minds and hearts to God seems to me to over stress our own effort and activity in prayer. For some time, I have been suggesting that a better approach would be to define prayer as an opening of the mind and heart to God. This seems better because the idea of opening stresses receptivity, responsiveness to another. To open to another is to act, but it is to act in such a way that the other remains the dominant partner.

Perhaps the clearest example of openness is the art of listening, which we discussed at the beginning of this chapter. Listening is indeed a real art, which some people never learn. We all have experienced people who cannot or do not listen. They hear but do not understand; their bodily ears pick up sound, but their hearts are not attentive to its meaning. You can talk to them, but you can scarcely talk with them. Yahweh uses this image of hearing and yet not hearing to express his frustration with Israel: "Hear this, 0 foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not" (Jer 5:21); and Jesus uses it to the same effect when speaking of his own "hearers" after the multiplication of the loaves: "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?" Mk 8:17-18).

Hearing or listening is a good metaphor for prayer. The good pray-er is above all a good listener. Prayer is dialogue; it is a personal encounter in love. When we communicate with someone we care about, we speak and we listen. But even our speaking is responsive: What we say depends upon what the other person has said to us. Otherwise we don't have real dialogue, but rather two monologues running along side by side.

I believe that our remarks have carried us a good way toward understanding what prayer is. In the past we have catalogued prayer under four headings: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication (or petition) -- easy to remember because the initial letters spell "acts." This is helpful in that it makes clear that there is much more to prayer than merely asking for things (supplication). But we have seen that we need to go deeper than "acts" of our own to get to the real meaning of prayer. Prayer is essentially a dialogic encounter between God and man; and since God is Lord, he alone can initiate the encounter. This is the important implication of the first element of our catechism definition. Hence what man does or says in prayer will depend on what God does or says first. Here, above all, it is true that "You have not chosen me; I have chosen you" (Jn 15:16). God's choice, his call, is fundamental and all-important.

At the same time, prayer is a dialogue, an encounter between two persons. What man does or says is an integral part of prayer, since even God cannot speak with us unless we also speak. Even God cannot dialogue with a man who is interiorly deaf and mute. This was the second element of value in our catechism definition: Prayer does entail effort on the part of man, even though it is always God who reaches across infinity to us, and even though man's effort is itself impossible without the sustaining grace of God.

Moreover, as the third element of the catechism definition made clear, man's response involves both his head and his heart. The understanding plays an important role in prayer, since man cannot love what he does not know. His love is proportioned to his knowledge. At the same time, prayer is not mere reasoning or speculation about God. As Teresa of Avila says in the Interior Castle, "The important thing (in prayer) is not to think much but to love much."(6) The goal of prayer is the encounter with God in love. And love, as Teresa goes on to say "consists, not in the extent of our happiness, but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything." Thus prayer involves the heart and will of man, even more fundamentally than his understanding.

It was St. Augustine, one of the greatest intellects the Church has produced, who said "Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee."(7) For the learned man fulfillment may lie in the mind's coming to rest, but for the pray-er, the lover, it is the heart that matters most.

In this connection, it is important to note that spontaneity is of the very essence of prayer, as it is of all dialogue. Augustine's "heart" is a spontaneous organ, responding to the sacrament of the present moment. Its responses cannot be programmed, because we cannot know in advance the word which God will speak to us at any given moment. When we were novices we were encouraged to plan our conversations for recreation -- presumably so that the topics discussed would be fruitful and uplifting. The result, of course, was some very stifled conversations -- and some very funny, though frustrating, encounters where each participant labored mightily to steer the talk to his own planned area. Since then I have heard the same thing at social events and cocktail parties, with the same ludicrous results. In the novitiate the intention was good, but the loss in spontaneity was disastrous. The same thing will be true m a programmed approach to prayer.

To the beginner, there is still a puzzle and a mystery in listening to God. (To the proficient pray-er it is no longer a puzzle, but it will always be a mystery.) Since we never encounter God in the same way we encounter another human being, how do we know when God talks? How do we interpret what he "says" when he does not speak as men speak? How can I respond meaningfully to someone whose coming is always veiled in the mystery of faith? In short, how do I know I am not just talking to myself when I pray? The central purpose of this book is to help to answer these questions -- not in a way that will eliminate the mystery of faith, but in a way that will encourage the beginner to begin and to continue to discover God speaking in his or her own life.

We have based our explanation of what prayer is on the human experience of dialogue and listening. I think we will see, in the chapters that follow, that our ordinary human experience of love and dialogue -- whether between husband and wife, between director and directee, or between friend and friend -- an help us a great deal to discover and interpret our experience of prayer as a personal encounter in love between God and man.

Footnotes

(1) Almost a thousand years later St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest pray-ers and greatest theologians in the history of the Church, would still be very much in the intellectualist tradition (i.e., emphasizing man's understanding in prayer). And 300 years later still Martin Luther would react against a predominantly intellectualist Catholic view of faith. It is true that a one-sided, exclusive stress on the understanding would be rare after the fifth century. But, despite the Franciscan emphasis on the will and on love, the primacy of man's intellect or understanding had a long history; and it is probably no exaggeration to say that the Catholic tradition of prayer is much indebted to Luther and the great Protestant thinkers who followed him -- as much as to any human agency -- for the emphasis on the heart in recent centuries. Luther, in turn, felt greatly indebted to the spiritual theology of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
(2) This was the first of the three elements we noted in the catechism definition of prayer.
(3) The pendulum has swung very far to the other side in just 20 years, and the catchwords have now become "self-expression," "personal fulfillment," "doing my own thing." Since this extreme is even more harmful to a solid spirituality, we shall have to discuss, in Chapter 5, the positive value of asceticism in any genuine interior life. What we seek, throughout the book, is a balance between God's work and man's -- a dialogue between grace and personal initiative.
(4) The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Franklin Edgerton, Chapter X, stanza 10 (p.51). Harvard University paperback, 1972.
(5) See, for example, K. M. Sen, Hinduism (Pelican paperbacks, 1970), pp.20, 74, 91.
(6) The Fourth Mansions, Chapter One (volume II, p. 233 in the translation by B. Allison Peers of The Complete Works of St. Teresa of Jesus, Sheed and Ward, 1946).
(7) Confessions of St. Augustine, Book I, Chapter 1, trans. Frank Sheed (Sheed and Ward, 1943) p.3.

A PERSONAL RESPONSE
TO GOD'S PRESENCE

Armand M. Nigro, S.J.

We hear a great deal about Religious crisis, don't we? There are crises of authority and obedience, of Community life, of personal identity, of Religious poverty, etc. I am convinced that at the basis of it all is a crisis of faith. But there is no hope for improvement here unless individual persons begin to respond better to God in prayer. This is true, I think, both of lay people and of us religious.

The single, most important conviction I want to share with you is that Prayer is a Personal Response to God's Presence.

May I try to explain this?

Either you and I are more important than God or God is more important than we are. The answer is obvious, isn't it? He is more important than we are. Further, if what God wants and does is more important than what we want or do, then more of our attention should be focused on what God is and does. Again, what God wants to say to us is more important for us than anything we may have to say to Him. And God does want to speak and communicate Himself to us.

When prayer becomes too self-centered, even if it is centered upon noble and holy desires, if the focus of our prayer is I, me, or my, we are going to be in difficulty.

Prayer is a personal response to God's presence. This means that God first makes Himself present to us. Prayer is our awareness and acknowledgement of God's presence. It is what God does to us, rather than anything we do. St. John reminds us that genuine love means first of all not that we love God (which may or may not be true), but that God first loves us. His love for us is more important than our love for Him. He wants and appreciates and is grateful for our love; but since His love for us is more important than our love for Him, His love deserves more of our attention.

It seems to me that there are three aspects of genuine prayer that we should keep in mind. First of all, if prayer is a personal response to God's presence, then, the beginning of prayer is to be aware of that presence, simply to acknowledge it, to be able to admit: "Yes God my Father, You do love life into me. Yes, You love life and being into the things around me and into all that comes into my senses. You love talents and these longings into me. etc." The focus is on God and what God does.

I want to make a distinction. I know that the terms meditation and prayer are used interchangeable and that they are used differently by different authors. By religious meditation I mean thinking about God or what God does or about anything good, holy, or pious; but this is not prayer. When I am thinking about you, you are the focal point of my thoughts, but that is not communication with you. Prayer is a person-to-person communication with God. If I am thinking about God or the life of Christ and what he has done, that is holy, meritorious, good and helpful for prayer, but it is not essentially prayer.

Prayer is when "He" becomes "You", when I say, "Yes, God my Father, You love life into me," When I say to myself, "God loves life into me," that is meditation. Do you see how I am using the words? When there is a You-I relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit, I call this response genuine prayer. If there is a consideration of what He is and does, but not a You-I relationship, it may be helpful, good and holy, but it is not essentially prayer.

The basis or first step in prayer is for me to wake up and to face reality; to realize that He is present to me, that He loves breath and being a share of His own divine life and all my capacities into me, and to be able to say, "Yes, God my Father, You do love all this into me. Yes, Jesus my Brother, You do. Yes, God my Spirit, You do." That is to pray. If in the few minutes that we have during the times of private prayer, we do nothing else but merely make ourselves aware of the God who is already making Himself present to us, that experience in itself is profound prayer; it is fruitful prayer; it is even the beginnings of mystical prayer. This is a genuine opening up to God who communicates Himself to us if we only give him the opportunity.

There is a difference between persons and things. God is present to things; God saturates things with His presence, because He loves life and being into them. But there is no acknowledgement on the part of non-personal things; they are incapable of prayer. You and I, however, because we are persons, can acknowledge that presence; and that is the first step in prayer.

The second step, it seems to me, is that once we realize what God is to us, what He does for us and how much He loves us, the only decent, and polite, obvious and spontaneous response is not only to say "Yes, You do," but also "Thank You, God my Father, for loving life, being, and a share of your own nature into me. Thank You, Jesus, God the Son and my brother. Thank You God the Holy Spirit, for living on in me." Gratitude is an obvious, spontaneous outflow of being aware of what God is and is doing for us.

As an analogy, if a person is very good to me and unselfish and financially supports me, but I do not know him or realize this, I cannot respond to his goodness and love. But if I find out that my support is coming from him, that many good things that make my life much better are coming from him, personally, uniquely to me, it is one thing when I begin to realize and acknowledge it: "Yes, he does. Yes, you do; and something more when I say: "Thank You."

Do you notice the focus of this response? It is essential for gratitude that there be an awareness of receiving from another. No one opens a door into a strange and dark room where he sees nothing, and begins to converse into the room just in case there might be somebody there. Rather, we are first conscious of someone; we look into someone's eyes; we are assured that if we talk into this microphone, there is a radio audience waiting on our words; or if we look into that camera there is a T.V. audience present; or if we put our words on tape, somebody will listen to them. We speak and respond only to some kind of personal presence.

Prayer is like that. Sometimes in our good and holy desires to communicate with God we "junk-up" our prayer. We begin immediately to make acts of faith, hope or love, of contrition or sorrow; we ask for things or just say something, because, after all, we can't just sit there and let nothing happen; so we do something, we say something! I call this "junking-up" prayer. If we do that before we are really conscious of God being present to us, it is like opening up a dark room and talking because there might be somebody there who might just possibly be listening. It is important that we take time peacefully and quietly (even if we have only a few minutes to pray) first to make ourselves aware of the loving, creative, sustaining, divinizing presence of God, because prayer is a personal response to God's presence.

The first step then, is to acknowledge God's presence; the second is to thank Him. The third is a loving response. A person responds to love freely given by saying, "I love you, too." When we say this to God it implies that we first become aware that He first loves us. To say, "God my Father, Christ my Brother, God my Holy Spirit, I love You, too," is our response at its best.

With regard to asking God for favors, I hope we don't misunderstand it as imperfect prayer. When we beg God for sunny weather, or pray that our bursitis will go away, or pray for something more holy or important such as international peace and justice we pay a great compliment to God. This is an expression of "becoming as little children" which Jesus recommended, and honored. A child who comes to his parents and asks for things is paying them a big compliment. What is the child saying but, "You are good and can fill my needs. Please, may I have a candy bar?"

When we approach God with this sense of our absolute dependence, and need, we are conscious of being precious and important, but without Him of being nothing, because all that we have is loved into us by God. In this consciousness, we are profoundly acknowledging what He is and what we are. Did not Jesus Himself say "When you pray, face God and say Abba, (Hebrew baby talk for Papa or Daddy) give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our offenses, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil."Notice how much of the "Our Father"is petition. Our Lord teaches us to pray this way. If the prayer of petition is made correctly, it says "God, you are everything: Creator, Sustainer, Divinizer, Forgiver, Merciful Lord of the Universe, Provident God of all, and I belong completely to You."When we pray for any favor we mean, of course, "Thy will be done." We are not trying to blackmail or fool God into giving us something by groveling in His presence. No, we presuppose "Thy will be done" ...but we still would like to have a sunny day tomorrow, etc.

To return to an earlier point: what God does is more important than what we do. And God longs to communicate Himself to us. The tragedy is that so few of us permit God to communicate Himself to us in prayer. One reason for this failure is faulty teaching or education in prayer. A second is a lack of trust or faith that He really wants to and is going to communicate Himself personally and uniquely to us. Since we feel uncertain about this, we do most or all of the talking or meditating, or we fill in the time with spiritual reading or something "profitable"; but we are reluctant to empty ourselves and abandon ourselves to His presence and movements so that in silence He can communicate Himself to us the way he prefers.

A third reason is that we afraid of failing, afraid of trying this kind of prayer and finding out that it doesn't work for us. It will always work, if we remove obstacles and give God a chance, because God longs to communicate Himself to each of us personally. He wants to make our prayer more and more mystical. And this is not in any dangerous, quietistic, way-out, extraordinary sense. God wants us to be normal, ordinary, everyday healthy mystics. By mystic, I mean the sort of person who opens up to God's presence, who lets God fill his consciousness with His presence. The older we grow in our prayer life, the more aware, sensitive, attuned, docile, responsive to God's presence we become; because all genuine prayer is a personal response to that presence.

We have developed or been given two different kinds of capacities or facilities with which to respond or act socially or otherwise. One set of habits we call virtues. These are active capacities; they enable us to do things, and through our activity we perfect these habits. They are acquired by activity; sometimes the beginnings of them are infused, but at least they can be perfected and made stronger by exercise and they render our virtuous activity easier. They are the "can-do" of our operating capacities, and are very important. But there are also capacities loved into us by God which enable us to be receptive. A radio station not only has a transmitter, but it also has a receiver; they are both important. These receptive capacities become more and more important in our prayer life. They are called gifts of the Holy Spirit. They make us aware, and receptive, attuned, sensitive, responsive, docile to God's communicating presence; and He wants us to pray more and more that way.

All growth in prayer, then, is rooted in our conviction that God is present to us, that His presence is personal, loving and provident, uniquely saturating us; that God is and wants more and more to be our Father and that like every good father, God wants to speak and communicate with us. He keeps trying to speak to us through all the experiences of our life, through his Church, through His living word in Holy Scripture, through His Eternal Word Jesus Christ, in whose Holy Spirit we are invited to be sons and daughters. God, I repeat, longs to communicate Himself to us and He invites us to listen and to receive. But He will not force this on us.

Now, may I make some practical suggestions? I said that some of us are afraid to give God a chance, because we fear it may not work. But it will work (that's a guarantee) if we give Him a chance. In practice, what can we do in order to enable God to communicate Himself more fully and freely to us?

Try to be faithful to at least 15 to 30 minutes daily of being alone with God. Try to make room for this at a regular time each day. God wants time to be alone with each of us and communicate with us; and what God wants from us God deserves.

Can You Remember 5 "P's" Of Prayer?

1. Passage from Holy Scripture (choose one): Before beginning your prayer period choose a short passage of 5 to 10 verses from the bible. This is very important. Never omit this before your prayer period, either the evening before or in the first few minutes before you begin to pray. Choose a passage that you want especially to listen to, to taste and savor and relish. It may be a favorite psalms or parable or miracle story or section of one Our Lord's sermons. It should fit your mood and your need. Put a marker in the page and keep it ready. You may or may not come back to it before your prayer period ends.

2. Place: Find a private spot where you can be alone with God. This is important. Sometimes it is good to be in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament but if people are in the chapel with you and you feel like stretching out your arms, if you feel like throwing back your head or looking up, if you feel like sighing or complaining or crying or dancing or singing, you will not do it. But you can do this when you are alone; you should feel free to do this. Otherwise you are inhibiting yourself. You must not be inhibited when you respond to God's presence. So, pick a quiet place where you are alone and can uninhibitedly speak and react to God's presence without drawing attention from others.

3. Posture: At the beginning of private prayer, take time to settle yourself peacefully. You do not pray as an angel or disembodied spirit or as an intellect; but you pray as a man or a woman. Men and women have bodies and bodily posture is important in prayer. Do you pray better when kneeling? Then kneel. Do you feel more receptive and open to God's presence when sitting? Then sit. Our founder, St. Ignatius, was a mystic who seemed to prefer lying down during his prayer and he recommends that we try it, too.

   Experiment with various postures till you find one most conducive for responding to God's presence. This may vary from day to day and within the same prayer period. Try, for example, lying on the bed or sitting in a comfortable chair with feet propped on a stool and arms resting on the arm rests or on your lap with palms up; or sitting in a hardbacked chair with palms facing up or down on your lap, with head back and jaw relaxed; or standing (perhaps leaning against something) with head comfortably back; or sitting at a table or desk with arms resting on it; or kneeling with arms resting on a support or outstretched, etc. Different postures fit our different moods and needs.

4. Presence of God: Respond to God's presence. Peacefully remind yourself how present He is to you. Feel, e.g. the cloth of your clothes or the desk in front of you and admit to God, "Yes, You love feeling into me and texture into it. You love sight into me and color into it. You love hearing into me and sound into it. You love life into me, You are in me. Thank you for living in me, for loving goodness and sonship/daughterhood into me." This takes a little time, but it should always be done and never rushed. You should not hurry that part of your prayer, even if it takes up the whole time. You may feel like saying,"Thank You, I love You, too." In these moments God's special communication may come with that deep personal sense of His presence. Sometimes He makes His presence felt (experienced) by us. And when He does, let it continue; let this experience hold or carry you, just as water holds up a floating body. Stay with it until it fades. Do not move away from it or change or rush the experience or overreact with too many unnecessary words. We tend to "junk-up" our prayer with too many words. Perhaps a simple repetition of "My Lord and My God," or "Abba, Father" will do. If it fades, continue the reminders that you have of His presence.

5. Passage from scripture (return to it and listen to it): There may be no time left to read the Scripture passage you selected. If so fine. But when you try to respond to God's presence in a grateful, and loving and adoring way, if nothing seems to happen, if you feel dry and desolate, do not be discouraged or judge this as a sign of failure. Rather, the dryness may be God inviting you to listen to Him as He speaks to you in Holy Scripture. Always have the Scriptures available when you are at prayer; never be without them. When nothing seems to happen after trying patiently and peacefully to respond to God's presence, when you feel He is not communicating Himself, turn to the place you selected in Scripture and give Him a chance to communicate Himself to you. Listen while He talks, because Scripture is the living Word of the living God; it is living now because God is alive now and He hasn't changed His mind in what He said through the inspired writers. It is more important to listen this way to God than to speak.

Very slowly with attention whisper or read aloud (not silently) God's words. Pause between the phrases so that the echo and meaning of the words can sink into you slowly like soft rain into thirsty soil. You may want to keep repeating a word or phrase. If you finish the selected passage, go back and slowly repeat it (just as we repeat the chorus of a song).

Why whisper or speak aloud the words of Scripture? Because this engages our attention more fully through eyes, ears and voice. Often when I read something in silence, my eyes focus on the words while my imagination and attention wander far away.

Praying with Scripture this way is an experience of listening to God. Do not try to make application or search for profound meanings or implications or conclusions or resolutions. These usually "junk-up" our prayer. Be content to listen simply and openly as a child who climbs into it's Papa's lap and listens to a story.

When the time is up, thank God for speaking to you. Realize that Father, Son and Spirit live on in you as you move away to continue the rest of your day.

These are my suggestions for permitting God to communicate Himself to us. Even if we have lived long years of half- distracted, half-tepid, half-hearted attempts at praying, it is never too late - even if we are 107 years old. Try it. Taste and see for yourself. I promise that within a very short time, God will make a real mystic out of you if you give Him this opportunity and remain faithful to it. By mystic I mean a very normal, healthy, ordinary, everyday sort mystic graced with the kind of prayer that God longs to communicate to us.

Perhaps I should clarify the word mystic. By mystic I mean any conscious union of God with humans, initiated and sustained by God; it is an experience which we cannot make, earn, or be responsible for. You cannot initiate or sustain it yourself. Sometimes even when we do not put very much effort into prayer, God seems very present. He fills us with His consolation. It's a wonderful experience. We feel loving and more loved ourselves. And the next day we may put in more effort than before, but nothing happens; ashes seem to fill our heart; there is no taste for prayer, even though we hunger for it. God seems a thousand miles away. It may not be that we do anything wrong. Rather, God is teaching us. He is teaching us that we cannot make, earn, deserve, or force this sort of experience. It is freely given: a mystical experience.

There are many words to describe this experience: consolation, peace, joy, and a feeling of greater faith, and hope, of being more loving. It is initiated by God. He is anxious to communicated in this way. Then, why doesn't He do it more often, if He is so anxious? One reason is, God cannot abide with or reward error or falsehood. Before He can console and communicate Himself to us, we have to remove obstacles and make it possible for Him to come into our lives. He will not force His friendship on us. One of the prerequisites is that we be convinced, not merely intellectually, but deep down in our inner selves that this is something we cannot make, steal, earn, deserve. This is totally and freely given. We can only dispose ourselves to receive it. We can prepare ourselves for it and be deeply grateful when it comes. When it comes we can humbly say, "Why me? I don't deserve this: but I am grateful for it." That is mystical experience. And it is not always as estatic as it might sound; most often it is very quiet, peaceful, a simple inward assurance that God is with me and I am loved by Him. It is really not very definable at all.

Mysticism par excellence is the Incarnation, that union of the human and Divine, initiated by the Divine, in Jesus the Man-God. All other mysticism is but a participation more or less in the reality of the Incarnation. It is a sharing in it, and that is what God wants. He became a man in order to share His Divinity with us.

The kind of person God wants you to be, the kind of grace and prayer he is offering to you and desires so much to give you, is to enable you to be a profoundly prayerful person, a genuine contemplative all day long, no less in manual work or in suffering than during the Divine Office or at the Sacrifice of the Mass. Private prayer is essential to this. My effort in private prayer does not earn the grace; that is, if I set aside time for it, that isn't going to guarantee it automatically. We don't put in a nickel's worth of human effort and get back a nickel's worth of mystical experience. But we should faithfully give time every day to private prayer, and this in turn enables us to find God in all other things. It makes our liturgical and community prayer better. It makes our work and social involvements more of an experience with God. Our work, in turn, which is an experience with God, feeds our desire for prayerful union with God and enables us to pray better when we do have ten or fifteen minutes or half an hour of private prayer to spend with Him alone. The two feed on and nourish each other.

All of us can be prayerful in this way. God wants us to be and is longing to make us prayerful. If we respond to Him, each of us will become prayerful in a very unique way. Each of us is unique, our response is unique; God's love and presence to us is also unique.

A SUGGESTION FOR FAMILY OR GROUP PRAYER

1. After dinner, before dishes are cleared away (or any preferable time), select a short passage from the bible, e.g. Mark's gospel, 4:35-40. Usually Dad is reader; others can be.

2. Dad first invites those present to listen carefully to God's Word and reminds them of Jesus' assurances: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there, too." He begins with a short prayer such as "Speak to us, Lord. Help us listen carefully to Your word."

3. Then he reads the passage aloud very slowly, distinctly, with pauses, so that each phrase can sink into the listeners.

4. After the reading each in turn shares what it said to him personally; "I felt this..." "I heard this..." "This struck me..." "To me it said or meant..." Keep contributions very short, personal (say "I" not "we"), honest, simple, not preach, not applying lessons to others. Be careful not to make this a discussion. That will kill the prayer experience. Peacefully, humbly, sensitively listen to God's Word and simply share what it said and meant to you personally.

   Do not feel uneasy during silent gaps between readings or comments. These silent moments are golden and afford rare opportunities of letting God's message resonate and slowly deepen in us. Relax. Savor His words during the silences.

5. After the first round of sharing, Dad again reads the same passage slowly. It is richer listening experience this time, because the remarks each one shared have enriched the passage for the others. God speaks to all through each other too.

6. A second round of sharing, usually richer than the first, follows the second reading.

7. The same passage is read slowly a third and last time.

8. After the third reading, only spontaneous prayers are spoken directly to God the Father or to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit or to the Blessed Mother, e.g. "Thank you, Jesus, for speaking to us. Help me be more aware of your presence in me and in others."

9. After each has spontaneously prayed, a favorite hymn can be sung and the clean-up in the kitchen begins (or whatever else follows.) It is hard to limit it to half-an-hour because minutes fly by.God's presence becomes very real, especially during the prayers. while one prays aloud, the others are not mere listeners, but join in spirit and make that prayer their own.

This group sharing and praying with Scripture is excellent for other groups...clubs, classrooms, Sodality and C.C.D.., married couples' groups, ecumenical or other Christian meetings. It works best with 10 or less. When more are present, it may be wiser to break into smaller groups. Discuss it afterwards to improve it.

We call this a "Collatio" (pronounced Coh-lah'-tsee-oh), a Latin word for a shared meal, to which everyone contributes and in which we all share.

Try it. Treat your family or group to a real prayer experience. I've seen the collatio transform the religious life of families and groups, even of Religious communities.

PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE

Armand M. Nigro, S.J.

GOD SPEAKS TO US FIRST

This fundamental truth makes it possible for us to pray to God. He has been concerned for each of us long before we became concerned for ourselves.

He desires communication with us. He speaks to us continually, revealing Himself to us by various modes:

through Jesus Christ, His Word:

through the Church, the extension of Christ in the world (because we are joined together in Christ, God speaks to us through other people.);

through visible creation around us, which forms the physical context of our lives. (Creation took place in His Son, and it is another form of God's self-revelation.);

through the events of our lives;

through Holy Scripture, a real form of His presence. This is the mode of communication we are most concerned with in prayer.

HE INVITES US TO LISTEN

Our response to God's initial move is to listen to what He is saying. This is the basic attitude of prayer.

HOW TO GO ABOUT LISTENING

What you do immediately before prayer is very important. Normally, it is something you do not rush into. Spend a few moments quieting yourself and relaxing, settling yourself into a prayerful and comfortable position.

In listening to anyone, you try to tune out everything except what the person is saying to you.

In prayer this can be done best in silence and solitude. Select a favorite passage from Holy Scripture, 5 to 10 verses. Put a marker in the page. Try to find a quiet place where you can be alone and uninhibited in your response to God's presence. *Try to quiet yourself interiorly. Jesus would often go up to the mountain by Himself to pray with His Father.

*In an age of noise, activity, and tensions like our own, it is not always easy or necessary to forget our cares and commitments, the noise and excitement of our environment. Never feel constrained to blot out all distractions. Anxiety in this regard could get between ourselves and God.

Rather, realize that the Word did become flesh -- that He speaks to us in the noise and confusion of our day. Sometimes in preparing for prayer, relax and listen to the sounds around you. God's presence is as real as they are.

Be conscious of your sensations and living experiences of feeling, thinking, hoping, loving, of wondering, desiring, etc. Then, conscious of God's unselfish, loving presence in you, address Him simply and admit: "Yes, you do love life and feeling into me. You do love a share of your personal life into me. You are present to me. You live in me. Yes, You do."

God is present as a person, in you through His Spirit, who speaks to you now in Scripture, and who prays in you and for you.

Ask God the grace to listen to what He says. Begin reading Scripture slowly and attentively. Do not hurry to cover much material.

If it recounts an event of Christ's life, be there in the mystery of it. Share with the persons involved, e.g. a blind man being cured. Share their attitude. Respond to what Jesus is saying.

Some words or phrases carry special meaning for you. Savor those words, turning them over in your heart. You may want to speak or recite a Psalm or other prayer from Scripture. Really mean what you are saying.

When something strikes you, e.g.,

You feel a new way of being with Christ. He becomes for you in a new way (e.g., you sense what it means to be healed by Christ.)

you experience God's love,

you feel lifted in spirit,

you are moved to do something good,

you are peaceful,

You are happy and content just to be in God's presence,

This is the time to ---- PAUSE.

This is God speaking directly to you in the words of Scripture. Do not hurry to move on. Wait until you are no longer moved by the experience.

Don't get discouraged if nothing seems to be happening. Sometimes God lets us feel dry and empty in order to let us realize it is not in our power to communicate with Him or to experience consolation. God is sometimes very close to us in His seeming absence (Ps.139:7-8.) He is for us entirely in a selfless way. He accepts us as we are, with all our limitations -- even with our seeming inability to pray. A humble attitude of listening is a sign of love for Him, and a real prayer from the heart.

At these times remember the words of Paul:

"The Spirit, too, comes to help us in our weakness, for when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words." (Rom. 8:26-27.)

Relax in prayer. Remember, God will speak to you in God's own way.

"Yes, as the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do." (Isaiah 55:10-11.)

Spend time in your prayer just being conscious of God's presence in and around you. If you want to, speak with Him about the things you are interested in or wish to thank Him for, your joys, sorrows, aspirations, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE 5 "P'S"

Passage from Scripture. Pick one and have it marked and ready.

Place. Where you are alone and uninhibited in your response to God's presence.

Posture. Relaxed and peaceful. A harmony of body with spirit.

Presence of God. Be aware of it and acknowledge and respond to it. If nothing happens turn to the

Passage from Scripture. Read it very slowly aloud and listen carefully and peacefully to it.

Read aloud or whisper in a rhythm with your breathing -- a phrase at a time -- with pauses and repetitions when and where you feel like it.

Don't be anxious, don't try to look for implication or lessons or profound thoughts or conclusions or resolutions, etc. Be content to be like a child who climbs into its father's lap and listens to his words and his story. When you finish, remind yourself that God continues to live in you during the rest of the day.

SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
FOR RETREATS

Introductory and Principle and Foundation Themes

OPENNESS TO PRAYER

Luke 11:1-13 ========== Lord, Teach us to pray

• Psalm 13: 9:1-18 ========== Lord, you examine me and know me
• Romans 9: 26-35 ========== The Spirit gives us words to pray
• Isaiah 55 ========== Come, you who are thirsty -- listen

Matthew 6:7-13 ========== Lord, teach us to pray

• Deut 1: 31 ========== Yahweh is in front of you
• Deut 7: 7-10 ========== God's election and favour
• Deut 8: 5-6 ========== God is training you

Romans 8: 26-35 ========== The Spirit comes to help us

• Hosea 11:1- 4 ========== God's love for Israel
• Isaiah 43:1-7 ========== Liberation of Israel
• Isaiah 49:14-16 ========== I will never forget you

GOD'S LOVE

Isaiah 43:1-7 ========== You are precious in my eyes

• Isaiah 43 ========== Liberation of Israel
• Psalm 131 ========== Childlike trust in God
• John 14:15-28 ========== I will never forget you

John 14:14-28 ========== God's presence

• Genesis 2:15-17 ========== Tree of knowledge of good and evil
• Exodus 3:1-6 ========== Moses and the burning bush
• Daniel 3:51-90 ========== Song of the three young men
• Isaiah 6:1-9 ========== The call of Isaiah
• Isaiah 54:5-10 ========== The love of God
• Job 39:1-30 ========== Yahweh's response to Job
• Psalm 40 ========== Song of praise and prayer for help
• Psalm 62 ========== Hope in God alone
• Psalm 103 ========== God is love
• Psalm 104 ========== Glories of creation
• Psalm 139 ========== Lord, you examine me and know me
• Psalm 145 ========== Hymn of praise to Yahweh the king
• John 3 :22-36 ========== John bears witness to Jesus

Romans 8: 31-39 ========== With God on our side who can be against us

• Psalm 23 ========== The Lord is my shepherd
• Psalm 91 ========== God's protection
• Deut 1: 29-32 ========== God goes in front of you,don't fear

Psalm 103 ========== No less than the heights of heaven

• Deut 32:10-11 ==========Song of Moses
• Psalm 40 ========== Song of praise, prayer for help
• John 1:1-18 ========== Prologue to John

Deut 1:29-32 ========== Do not take fright...

• Isaih 49:14-16 ========== I will never forget you
• Matthew 11:25-30 ========== Good news revealed to little ones
• Psalm 63 ========== Desire for God

Hosea 11:1-9 ========== When Israel was a child

• Hosea 2:14-20 ========== Yahweh and his wife
• Deut 7:7-10 ========== God's election and favour
• Ephesians 1:3-14 ========== God's plan of salvation
• Psalm 145 ========== The Lord is kind and compassionate

Luke 12:22-32 ========== Lilies of the fields

• Psalm 33 ========== Hymn to Providence
• Psalm 33 ========== Hymn to Providence
• Psalm 63 ========== Desire for God
• Matthew 6:25-33 ========== Lilies of the field
• Psalm 8 ========== How great is Your Name

Genesis 1-2 ========== Accounts of creation

• Genesis 12:1-20 ========== Call of Abraham
• Genesis 17:1-22 ========== Covenant and circumcision
• Genesis 22:1-18 ========== Sacrifice of Isaac

Deut 28:10-22 ========== Creaturehood

• Psalm 19 ========== God's glory in the heavens
• Isaiah 2 ========== Peace, the coming of Yahweh
• Isaiah 6:1-13 ========== Call of Isaiah
• Isaiah 35:1-10 ========== Judgment of God, coming to save
• Isaiah 40 ========== Calling of the Prophet
• Isaiah 43:1-7 ========== Liberation of Israel
• Isaiah 55 ========== Listen, listen to me

Ezekiel 1-3:27 ========== Visions

Samuel 3:1-21 ========== Call of Samuel

Cor 1:3-11 ========== Blessing of Paul

AWE

Exodus 3:16 ========== Moses before the burning bush

• Psalm 19 ========== Heavens tell the glory of God
• Psalm 33 ========== Hymn to Providence
• Psalm 40 ========== Song of praise, prayer for help
• Psalm 104 ========== The glories of Creation
• Daniel 3:51-90 ========== Hymn of the three young men
• Luke 9:28-36 ========== Transfiguration
• John 14:15-28 ========== God's presence

DEPENDENCE

Psalm 139 ========== O God you know me

• Psalm 62 ========== Hope in God alone
• Job 1:21 ========== Naked I came, naked I shall return
• Job 38 ========== Where were you... the foundation
• Isaiah 35:1-10 ========== Judgment of God, come to save

SERVICE AND CALL

1 Samuel 3:1-21 ========== Call of Samuel

• Deut 7:7-10 ========== God's election and favour
• Isaiah 6:1-13 ========== Call of Isaiah
• Genesis 12:1-20 ========== Call of Abraham
• Luke 1:26ff ========== Annunciation
• Luke 6:12-16 ========== Call of the Apostle
• John 3:22-36 ========== John bears witness...last time

TRUST

Deut 1:29-32 ========== Yahweh is in front of you

• Deut 7:7-10 ========== God's election and favour
• Deut 8:5-6 ========== God is training you
• Psalm 23 ========== The Lord is my shepherd
• Psalm 131 ========== Childlike trust in God
• Isaiah 49:14-16 ========== I will never forget you
• Matthew 11:25-30 ========== The good news revealed
• Mark 10:17-27 ========== Jesus and the rich young man
• Luke 12:22ff ========== Do not be anxious -trust in Providence
• Ephesians 4 ========== A call to unity, new life in Christ
• Luke 11:13 ========== Father will give what you ask

USE OF CREATURES

Genesis 1-2 ========== Story of creation

• Jeremiah 10:1-17 ========== Idolatry
• Isaiah 40 ========== Idolatry
• Genesis 2:15-17 ========== Tree of good and evil
• Daniel 3:51-90 ========== Song of the young men
• Jonah ========== Call, using what comes to you

CREATUREHOOD

Job 1:21 ========== Naked I was born, naked I shall return

• Job 38:1-40 ========== Bowing to the creator's wisdom
• Job 14:1-22 ========== On human misery
• Deut 33:9-22 ========== Covenant, promise, and curse
• Exodus 3:1-6 ========== Moses and the burning bush
• Wisdom 11:21-27 ========== God's forbearance
• Isaiah 6:1-9 ========== Call of Isaiah
• Psalm 19 ========== The heavens declare the glory of God
• Psalm 104 ========== The Lord my God, how great you are
• Colossians 1:15-20 ========== Christ, head of all creation

HOLY INDIFFERENCE

Genesis 22:1-18 ========== Abraham and Isaac

• Isaiah 45:9-13 ========== Supreme power of Yahweh
• Jeremiah 18:1-12 ========== Clay in the potter's hands
• Matthew 11:25 ========== Revelation to little ones
• Hebrews 11:17-19 ========== Abraham and Isaac
• Phil 3:7-11 ========== Advantage of knowing Christ
• Phil 1:21-26 ========== Living vs. dying
• Phil 4:11-13 ========== Know how to be with Christ
• 1 Cor 9:19-23 ========== Making self all for all

THE NEARNESS AND CARE OF GOD

Isaiah 6:1-9 ========== Call of Isaiah

• Isaiah 43 ========== You are precious in my eyes
• Isaiah 54:5-10 ========== Yahweh is like a good husband
• Hosea 11:1-9 ========== When Israel was a tot, I loved him
• Hosea 2:14-20 ========== Yahweh and his unfaithful wife
• Psalm 145 ========== God only acts out of love
• Romans 8:31-39 ========== God's call to share his glory
• Ephesians 1:3-14 ========== God's plan of salvation
• Revelation 21:1-17 ========== Behold the dwelling of God

MAGIS

1 Samuel 3:1-14 ========== Call of Samuel

• Wisdom 9:1-12 ========== Prayer for wisdom
• Ephesians 3:14-21 ========== Paul's prayer
• John 3:22-32 ========== John The Baptist bears witness for the last time
• Luke 1:26-38 ========== Annunciation and Mary's response

SINNER IN EXILE

Luke 15:11-32 ========== The Prodigal Son

• Luke 15 ========== Parables on mercy of God
• Isaiah 63:7-19 ========== Psalm of reconciliation
• Psalm 36 ========== Wickedness -- goodness of God
• Psalm 51 ========== Have mercy on me, O God in your goodness
• Psalm 90 ========== The human condition
• Psalm 104 ========== The glories of creation
• Baruch 1:15--3:18 ========== Confession of sins
• Psalm 8 ========== What is man, that you are mindful
• Luke 8:26-39 ========== Unclean spirits -- Gerasene demoniac
• Romans 1:18-32 ========== God gave us up to our own blindness
• 2 Cor 4-5 ========== Mercy of God

THE SIN OF THE ANGELS

2 Peter 2:1-22 ========== God did not spare the angels

• Jude 6 ========== Sinfulness
• Mark 8:31-33 ========== First prophecy of the passion
• John 8:44 ========== The devil was a murderer
• 1 John 3:3-9 ========== He who commits sin is of the devil

THE SIN OF ADAM

Genesis 3:1-13 ========== Sin of Adam and Eve

• Genesis 1:26-27 ========== People are made in the image of God
• 2 Peter 2:1-22 ========== False teachers and punishment
• Romans 1:18-32 ========== God's anger against the pagans
• Romans 7:14-25 ========== The inward struggle
• Romans 5:12-21 ========== Sin entered the world through on
• Genesis 3:1-4--:11 ========== Sin of Adam and Eve and Cain
• Wisdom 14:22-31 ========== Consequences of Idolatry
• Sirach 40:1-11 ========== The wretchedness of humans

THE SIN OF ONE PERSON

Ezekiel 36:25-29 ========== I shall pour clean water over you

• Psalm 139 ========== Lord, you examine me and know me
• Matthew 5:21-30 ========== The new standard
• Matthew 7:1-5 ========== Do not judge

Genesis 4:1-16 ========== Sin of Cain

• Genesis 6:5-22--7:ff ========== The story of the flood
• James 1:13-18 ========== Everyone tempted

Mark 7:14-23 ========== Clean and unclean

• John 8:1-11 ========== Woman caught in adultery
• 2 Peter 1:3-11 ========== Call to Christian living
• Sirach 15:11-20 ========== Man is free

Luke 16:19-31 ========== Rich man and Lazarus

• Luke 19:41-44 ========== Lament for Jerusalem
• Matthew 13:36-43 ========== Parable of the good seed
• Matthew 13:47-50 ========== Parable of the dragnet
• 1 John 2:8-11 ========== Love your brother
• John 17:12 ========== I kept those given to me
• Revelation 3:14-20 ========== I will vomit out the lukewarm
• Revelation 14:6-13 ========== Announcing the day of judgment
• Revelation 20:1-15 ========== The reign of a thousand years
• Hebrews 10:26-31 ========== The danger of apostasy

Luke 18:9-14 ========== Pharisee and the Publican

• 1 John 1:5-10 ========== If we say we have not sinned
• Romans 5:6-10 ========== Christ died for the sinful
• James 3:2-4, 17 ========== Uncontrolled language
• 2 Peter 3:1-18 ========== The day of the Lord
• Sirach 18:1-14 ========== The greatness of the Lord

Ezekiel 16:1-63 ========== Allegorical history of Israel

• Psalm 51 ========== Miserere
• Psalm 6 ========== Prayer in ordeal
• Psalm 32 ========== Candid admission of sin
• Psalm 36 ========== Wickedness of sinner, God's goodness
• Psalm 38 ========== Prayer in distress
• Psalm 90 ========== The human condition
• Psalm 102 ========== Prayer in misfortune
• Psalm 130 ========== Lord, listen to my cry for help
• Psalm 143 ========== Lord, listen to my pleading
• Wisdom 1:1-4 ========== Wisdom never makes way... soul
• Wisdom 7:6-30 ========== Pray and get understanding
• Wisdom 9:ff ========== Prayer for wisdom
• Proverbs 3:1-12 ========== How to acquire wisdom
• Matthew 5:43-48 ========== Love of enemies
• 1 Cor 13:1-13 ========== Love is the greatest

2 Samuel 11:1-12 ========== Sin of David

• Ezekiel 23:1-19 ========== Idolatry
• Ephesians 4:17-24 ========== New life in Christ
• Mark 14:10-11, 17-21 ========== Judas betray Jesus
• 2 Samuel 12:1-15 ========== Nathan accuses David of adultery
• Hebrews 10:26-31 ========== He insults who insults the spirit of grace will be condemned
• 2 Cor 5:17-21 ========== New creation in Christ

Romans 7:14-25 ========== Instead of the good, I sin

• John 8:1-11 ========== Woman in adultery
• Luke 10:25-37 ========== The greatest commandment
• Galatians 4:3-7 ========== Proof of the sons of God

1 John 2:12-17 ========== Detachment from the world

• 2 Samuel 11:1-12 ========== Sin of David
• Ezekiel 35 ========== The end of Edom
• Matthew 16:13-23 ========== Peter's profession of faith
• Colossians 2:16-23 ========== False asceticism
• 1 John 5:14-17 ========== Prayer for sinners
• Mark 7:1-23 ========== Jesus rebukes Pharisees
• 1 John 1:5-1 ========== Not a sinner, then a liar

THE NATURE OF SIN

Romans 8:6ff ========== Enmity with God

• Ezekiel 28:2-20 ========== Wishing to be as God
• Jeremiah 18:13ff ========== Forgetting God
• Isaiah 30:8ff ========== Not wanting to hear God
• Isaiah 42:18-25 ========== Not wanting to hear God
• Isaiah 5:20ff ========== Calling evil good and good evil
• Jeremiah 7:21-28 ========== Not wanting to hear God
• Jonah ========== Flight from the presence of God
• Jeremiah 32:33ff ========== Turning back on God
• Baruch 1:15ff ========== Obstinate with God
• Micah 6:1-5 ========== The Lord puts His people on trial

HELL AND JUDGMENT

Matthew 25:31-46 ========== Parable of the Last Judgment

• Revelation 3:14-22 ========== Neither hot nor cold
• Revelation 14:6-13 ========== Wind of God's fury
• Matthew 25:14-30 ========== Parable of the talents
• Ezekiel 16:1-63 ========== As for your birth

Matthew 21:33-46 ========== Wicked husbandmen

• Ezekiel 18 ========== Individual responsibility
• Isaiah 5:1-7 ========== Love song of the vineyard
• John 12:31-36 ========== Prince of this world overthrown
• Luke 16:19ff ========== Rich man and Lazarus

Luke 12:16-21 ========== Rich young man and barns

• Matthew 25:31-46 ========== Wicked husbandmen
• 1 Peter 4:1-6 ========== Conversion
• Sirach 41:1-15 ========== Death and the damned
• Job 1:21 ========== God gives, and God takes

Luke 7:36-50 ========== Woman who washes the feet of Jesus

• Psalm 143 ========== A humble entreaty
• Matthew 22:1-14 ========== Parable of the wedding feast
• John 8:1-11 ========== Woman in adultery
• Luke 6:27-35 ========== Love of enemies
• Isaiah 49; 55:6-9 ========== Nearness and remoteness of God
• 2 Kings 5:1-14 ========== Naaman healed

Psalm 51 ========== Miserere

• Exodus 19:1-8 ========== Covenant at Sinai
• John 6:32-58 ========== Bread of life
• Romans 9:14-18 ========== God is not unjust

Ephesians 2:1-10 ========== Generous love of God

• Ephesians 3 ========== Paul, servant of the mystery
• Hebrews 4:12-16 ========== The word of God and the priest
• Psalm 136 ========== Litany of thanksgiving
• Psalm 103 ========== God is love
• Luke 15 ========== Three Parables of God's mercy

Wisdom 17 ========== Hell

• Matthew 21:33-46 ========== Parable of wicked husbandmen
• Matthew 22:1-14 ========== Parable of the wedding feast
• Matthew 25:1-13 ========== Parable of the ten bridesmaids
• Matthew 25:24-30 ========== Parable of the talents

THE KINGDOM

John 10:1-18 ========== Jesus the good shepherd

• John 1:29-34 ========== John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus
• Luke 8:1-3 ========== The women accompanying Jesus
• Luke 9:23-26 ========== The condition of following Jesus
• Matthew 4:18-22 ========== The call of the first four disciples

Philippians 3:7-16 ========== All I want to know is Christ Jesus

• 2 Cor 11:23-12:10 ========== I boast of my own weakness
• 2 Cor 12:7-13 ========== For the sake of Christ I am content with insults
• 2 Cor 5:15-20 ========== The apostolate in action
• Matthew 16:24-27 ========== Condition of following Christ

Luke 5:1-11 ========== Call of the apostles

• John 4:1-42 ========== The woman at the well
• Luke 12:22-32 ========== Trust
• Luke 12:51-53 ========== I have not come to bring peace but the sword
• Luke 14:25-35 ========== Renouncing all that one holds dear
• Colossians 1:15-29 ========== Christ is the head of all creation
• Philippians 3:7-16 ========== Count everything lost
• 1 Cor 4:9-13 ========== Fools for the sake of Christ
• John 12:44-50 ========== I am the light of the world

EXERCISES OF THE SECOND WEEK

Incarnation -- Nativity -- Early Hidden Life

John 1:1-5, 9-14 ========== In the beginning was the Word

• Isaiah 52:7-10 ========== The awakening of Yahweh and of Jerusalem
• Ephesians 1:3-14 ========== God's plan of salvation
• Titus 3:4-7 ========== His compassion saves us

Luke 2:1-7 ========== The Nativity

Luke 1:46-55 ========== Magnificate of Our Lady

• Psalm 40 ========== Song of praise, prayer for help
• Hebrews 10:1-10 ========== Old sacrifices ineffective
• John 1:1-8 ========== Prologue to Gospel
• Philippians 2:5-9 ========== Prayer, Jesus state was divine...
• Isaiah 43:1-5 ========== Liberation of Israel

Luke 2:8-20 ========== Visit of the Shepherds

• Deut 32 ========== Song of Moses
• Hebrews 1:1-13 ========== The greatness of the incarnate Son of God
• Luke 1:68-79 ========== Benedictus
• Romans 16:25-27 ========== Doxology
• 2 Chron. 5:1-10 ========== The ark is brought to the temple

Wisdom 18:14-15 ========== Down from heaven leapt your word

• 1 John 1:1-4 ========== The incarnate word

Luke 2:22-39 ========== Presentation in the temple

• Psalm 71 ========== An old man's prayer
• Psalm 84 ========== Pilgrimage song
• Psalm 128 ========== Blessing for the devout

Luke 1:68-79 ========== The benedictus

• Romans 16:25-27 ========== Doxology
• Ezra 3:7-13 ========== The resumption of worship
• Psalm 72 ========== The promised King
• Psalm 73 ========== Triumph of justice
• Romans 8:1-17 ========== The life of the spirit

Matthew 2:13-18 ========== Flight to Egypt -- Innocents

• Exodus 19:3-8 ========== Yahweh promises a covenant
• Psalm 54: ========== An appeal to the God of justice
• Psalm 55: ========== Prayer in time of persecution
• Hosea 11:1-4 ========== God's love despised, his vengeance
• Jeremiah 31 ========== God loved you
• Hebrews 11 ========== On faith

Matthew 2:1-12 ========== Visit of the Magi

• Psalm 23 ========== The Lord is my shepherd
• Psalm 72 ========== The promised king

Matthew 2:19-23 ========== Return from Egypt

• Genesis 22 ========== The sacrifice of Isaac
• Psalm 127 ========== Trust in providence
• Matthew 6:25-34 ========== God and money, trust in providence

Luke 2:51-52 ========== Obedience of Jesus

• Sirach 3 ========== Duties toward parents
• Phil 4:10-20 ========== Paul's thanksgiving prayer
• Colossians 3:12-17 ========== You are God's chosen race
• Hebrews 2:9-18 ========== Jesus is crowned with glory

Luke 2:41-50 ========== Finding in the temple

• Matthew 12:46-50 ========== True kinsmen of Jesus
• Matthew 19:10-12 ========== Continence
• 1 Timothy 6:11-16 ========== Timothy's vocation recalled

Matthew 2:23 ========== He will be called a Nazarene

• Deut 11:18-21 ========== Keep my words with you
• Exodus 6:20-25 ========== Genealogy to David

Colossians 3:1-4 ========== Hidden in Jesus

• Romans 12:ff-15:ff ========== Paul's exhortation
• 2 Timothy 1:6-11 ========== The gifts Timothy has received

TWO STANDARDS

John 8:31-51 ========== Pharisees, the devil is your father

• Galatians 5:16-25 ========== Fruits of the flesh vs. fruits of the Spirit
• Ephesians 6:10-20 ========== The spiritual war
• James 3:1-12 ========== Uncontrolled language--sin

Revelation 12:1-6 ========== Dragon making war on.... offering

• Mark 4:1-20 ========== Parable of the sower
• 2 Thess. 2:4-12 ========== Mystery of iniquity at work
• Matthew 13:24-30 ========== Weeds and wheat parable
• 1 Peter 5:6-11 ========== Devil goes about as a roaring lion

1 Timothy 6:3-10 ========== Self conceit, love of money

• Luke 6:17-26 ========== Beatitudes
• Philippians 2:1-18 ========== Preserve unity in humility
• Matthew 8:18-22 ========== Hardships of the Apostolic calling
• Mark 10:35-45 ========== Sons of Zebedee make their request

1 Peter 2:18-3 --3:17 ========== Slaves be obedient to your masters

• Philippians 3:7-16 ========== Because of Christ we consider all worthless
• 1 John 4:1-6 ========== Enemies of Christ
• 1 Peter 4:12--5:11 ========== Recapitulation
• Romans 8:38-39 ========== What will separate us from Christ

Matthew 5:10-12 ========== Blessed are you when men reject you

• Matthew 18:1-5 ========== Who is the greatest
• Mark 6:30-44 ========== Christ feeds the 5,000

THREE CLASSES OF PEOPLE

Luke 18:18-30 ========== The rich young man

• Luke 9:57-62 ========== Apostolic hardships
• Luke 12:13-21 ========== The parable of the rich fool
• Luke 16:19-31 ========== The rich young man and Lazarus
• Matthew 6:24-34 ========== God and money
• 2 Cor 6:1-10:12 ========== Fellow workers for Christ
• Matthew 25:14-30 =========The parable of the talents

PUBLIC LIFE OF JESUS

Luke 3:1-20 ========== The preaching of John the Baptist

• Luke 7:18-20 ========== John the Baptist's question
• Isaiah 50:4-11 ========== Third song of the servant of Yahweh
• Romans 8:18-39 ========== Glory as our destiny

Matthew 3:13ff ========== Jesus leaves home

• Psalm 42 ========== Lament of a Levite in exile
• Psalm 63 ========== Desire for God
• Mark 3:31-35 ========== Who are my mother and brothers?
• Luke 14:25-33 ========== Renouncing all that one holds dear

Matthew 3:13-17 ========== Baptism at the Jordan

• Matthew 3:1-12 ========== The preaching of John the Baptist
• Acts 10:34-38 ========== The good news brought by Christ

Romans 6:1-14 ========== We were baptized into his death

• Luke 3:21-38 ========== Jesus is baptized--his genealogy

Matthew 4:1-11 ========== Jesus is tempted in the desert

• Hebrews 4:14-5:10 ========== The word of God; Christ the priest
• Hebrews 10:1-18 ========== The old sacrifices are ineffective
• Romans 5:18-21 ========== Adam; Jesus Christ
• Luke 4:1-13 ========== Jesus is tempted
• Jeremiah 31;31-34 ========== The new covenant

Hebrews 2:14-18 ========== Essential he should be like his brothers

• Psalms 91 ========== God's protection
• Psalm 94 ========== The justice of God
• Mark 8:31-33 ========== The first prophecy of the passion

Luke 4:16-30 ========== Jesus at Nazareth

• Isaiah 41 ========== Calling of Cyrus
• Isaiah 61 ========== The mission of the prophet
• Matthew 13:10-17 ========== Why Jesus speaks in parables
• Luke 4:16-30 ========== Jesus at Nazareth
• Luke 4:31-44 ========== Jesus begins his ministry by curing of a demoniac
• Isaiah 42:1-4 ========== First song of the servant of Yahweh
• Ephesians 5:6-21 ========== Against loose living
• James 1:1-18 ========== Trials a privilege

CALL OF THE APOSTLES

Luke 5:1-11 ========== I will make you fishers of men

• Matthew 4:18-22 ========== I will make you fishers of men
• Matthew 9:9-17 ========== The call of Matthew, joy of the call
• Matthew 10 ========== The apostolic discourse
• Luke 16:13 ========== Serve only one master
• Matthew 19 ========== The aspects of the call
• Matthew 10:17-23 ========== On the persecution of missionaries
• 2 Cor 1:19-20 ========== He is our Yes

John 1:35-51 ========== The call of John, Andrew, Peter

• Matthew 23:8-12 ========== All brothers, only one master, Christ
• Luke 22:24-30 ========== Who is the greatest
• John 15:9-17 ========== Keep my commandments
• John 4:1-42 ========== The woman at the well

OLD TESTAMENT CALLS

Exodus 3 =======The call of Moses

• Genesis 12 ========== The call of Abraham
• 1 Samue l 3 ========== The call of Samuel
• Isaiah 6:1-9 ========== The call of Isaiah
• Jeremiah 1:1-3 ========== The call of Jeremiah
• Ezekiel 1-3 ========== The call of Ezekiel

THREE DEGREES OF HUMILITY

Luke 6: 20-23 ========= Beatitudes

• Acts 5: 40-42 ========== The flogging of the apostles
• 1 Peter 4:12-16 ========== Recapitulation--insults for Christ

2 Cor 6: 4-10 ========== Servants -- fortitude in suffering

• 1 Cor 1: 21-32 ========== Foolishness of God is wiser than men
• 2 Cor 4: 4-7 ========== Preach Jesus as Lord
• James 2 ========== Works and service go with faith

PUBLIC LIFE CONTINUED

John 2: 1-12 ========== The miracle at Cana

• Matthew 15:21-28 ========== Daughter of the Canaanite woman
• Matthew 13:44-46 ========== The parable of the treasure and the pearl
• Luke 14:15-24 ========== Invited guest who made excuses

John 4:1-42 ========== The woman at the well

Luke 11:1-13 ========== Jesus at prayer

• Luke 11:1-4 ========== Our Father
• Luke 11:5-11 ========== Friend to friend
• Luke 11:12-13 ========== Father to child
• Luke 18:1-8 ========== Persistence
• Luke 9:18-21 ========== Peter's profession of faith
• Luke 5:15-16 ========== Going to be alone and pray
• Luke 6:12-16 ========== Prayer before the choice of the twelve
• Luke 18:9-14 ========== The Pharisee and the Publican
• Matthew 14:13-21 ========== First miracle of the loaves
• Isaiah 63:7-19 ========== Psalm of reconciliation
• Galatians 4:6-7 ========== Spirit cries, Abba Father
• Romans 8:14-17 ========== Children of God

Luke 19:47-48 ========== Jesus preaching

• John 2:13-25 ========== The cleansing of the temple
• Matthew 6:1-6 ========== Almsgiving in secret
• Psalms 119:137-152 ========== Zeal for your Father's house
• Luke 10:29-37 ========== The parable of the good Samaritan
• Luke 21:1-4 ========== The parable of the widows mite
• Matthew 25:14-30 ========== The parable of the talents

Luke 6:17-49 ========== The sermon on the mount

• Isaiah 58 ========== Inward religion must be observances
• Matthew 5,6,7, ========== The sermon on the mount
• John 6:1-15 ========== The multiplication of the loaves
• John 6:22-71 ========== The bread of life discourse

Matthew 14:22-33 ========== Jesus walks on the water

• Psalm 91 ========== God's protection
• Psalm 107 ========== God our refuge in all dangers
• Matthew 8:23-27 ========== Jesus calms the storm

John 10:1-18 ========== Jesus, the door to the sheepfold

• Psalm 23 ========== The Lord is my shepherd
• Ezekiel 34 ========== Search for my sheep

Luke 10:38-42 ========== Jesus with Martha and Mary

• Luke 4:1-3 ========== The temptation in the wilderness
• Luke 18:15-17 ========== Jesus with the children
• Luke 19:41-44 ========== Lament for Jerusalem
• John 12:1-11 ========== The anointing at Bethany
• Matthew 26:6-10 ========== The anointing at Bethany

John 11:1-44 ========== The raising of Lazarus

• Psalm 130 ========== From the depths I call to you
• Ezekiel 37:1-14 ========== Dry bones
• John 6:22-71 ========== The bread of life discourse
• Luke 18:35-43 ========== The healing of the blind man

Luke 8:4-15 ========== The parable of the sower

• Ephesians 6:19ff ========== Speak the Gospel of Jesus without fear
• Revelations 12:1-17 ========== The vision of the woman and the dragon

Luke 10:29-37 ========== The Good Samaritan--love

• Ezekiel 34 ========== Search for my sheep
• Luke 10:38-42 ========== Martha and Mary

Luke 16:1-13 ========== The Crafty Stewart

• Isaiah 9;1-7 ========== Ephiphany
• John 3:16-21 ========== Live in the light

Luke 9:28-36 ========== Transfiguration

Point One

Psalm 104 ========== The glories of creation

1 John 4:7--5:4 ========== Love and faith

Psalm 136 ========== Litany of thanksgiving

1 Cor 4:7-13 ========== Servants of Christ

Ephesians 4:10 ========== Christ fills all things

Point Two

Psalm 139 ========== The praise of God's omniscience

Hosea 11:1-4 ========== When Israel was a child

Isaiah 54:5-10 ========== The love of Yahweh

Point Three

Psalm 136 ========== Litany of thanksgiving

John 3:16-17 ========== God loved the world so much He sent His Son

Hebrews 1:1-7 ========== Greeting, new heart

Romans 8:14-39 ========== Children of God

Point Four

Ephesians 1:3-14 ========== God's plan of salvation

1 John 1:1-4 ========== The incarnate word

Background

Exodus 15:1-18 ========== Song of victory

Deut 11:1-32 ========== Canticle of Moses

Job 38:1--42:1-6 ========== Injunctions to Israel

Colossians 1:9-23 ========== Reach full knowledge

Colossians 3:1-4 ========== Life-giving union with Christ

Colossians 3:12-17 ========== You are God's chosen race

1 John 3:1-3 ========== Live as God's children

1 John 5:1-21 ========== Love God's children

Ephesians 3:4-21 ========== Know the love of Christ

Revelations 21:1-8 ========== New heaven, new earth

Revelations 22:1-21 ========== Spirit and the Bride say come