For several reasons, I recently began to re-read sections of Father Ron Rolheiser’s spiritual classic, “Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity.”
Probably the main reason I began to re-read some of Rolheiser’s beautiful comments on prayer was that I did not wish to allow my experience of praying to become a thoughtless routine. Perhaps many of us have to work against that happening to our prayers.
Rolheiser stresses the difference between what is often referred to as liturgical and what is called private prayer.
Liturgical prayer is Christ praying and us participating in Christ’s prayer. So the Eucharist and the Divine Office would be examples of Christ praying and us praying with Christ. The point to be stressed is that liturgical prayer is primarily Christ praying. Even a moment’s reflection on us praying with Christ can strike us how special, and indeed awesome, it is that we can pray with Christ.
This is one of the marvelous blessings that are ours because we are members of the mystical body of Christ. I love Rolheiser’s comment on private prayer, which he calls affective prayer. He offers as examples many forms of meditation, rosaries, centering prayer, and all sorts of devotional prayers.
In conclusion, he writes the following: “All private and devotional prayer can be defined in this way: It is prayer that tries, in myriad ways, to open us or our loved ones up in such a way that we can hear God say to us: ‘I love you!’ ”
I think that is a really beautiful idea. We want to hear God tell us that He loves us!
The thoughts that Rolheiser offers on our relationship with loved ones who have died, I came to believe several years ago. Rolheiser writes the following: “We pray for the dead because we believe in the communion of saints, an essential Christian doctrine that asks us to believe that a vital flow of life continues to exist between ourselves and our loved ones, even beyond death. Love, presence, and communion reach through death. We pray for the dead to remain in communication with them. Just as we can hold someone’s hand as he or she is dying, and this can be an immense comfort to both of us, so too we can hold another’s hand beyond death.
“Indeed, since death washes many things clean, in our prayers for our loved ones who have died, often more so than our conversations with them when they were alive, the connection is purer, the forgiveness is deeper, the perspective is wider, and the distance between us is less. Communication with our loved ones after death is privileged, undercutting much of what kept us apart in this life.
“Praying for the dead, our faith assures us, not only consoles us, but also offers real strength and encouragement to the loved one who has died” (p. 191).
I may have decided to re-read sections of Rolheiser’s classic because I wanted to avoid the danger of allowing my daily prayer becoming routine. That may have been my intention, but I received much more than I expected, infinitely more. I was treated to a crash course in the beautiful mysteries of Catholicism.
As I read Rolheiser’s extremely attractive insights into the view of prayer and death that Catholicism presents, I could not help thinking of all the negative views of Catholicism that I have heard over the years. Now I think that those who hold and present those views are profoundly in need of hearing the good news.
I am more determined than ever to present in my writing, teaching, and preaching the almost unbelievable, deeply positive, and attractive view of reality, prayer, death, and the meaning of God and the human person. What merely human mind could have invented the religion of Catholicism? I do not believe any human mind could have. Catholicism is God’s idea.
With my students at St. John’s University, I frequently encourage them to read great books, including classics. We need to be constantly nourished. I try to persuade my students not just to read the texts assigned but to look for other books that will help them grow.
So much in our society works against Christian faith that we have to be aggressive in being educated. Not just those of us who work in an academic atmosphere, but all of us. As I am writing this column, I am thinking of friends whom I might tell about Rolheiser’s classic.
Perhaps on special occasions or holidays, I can start giving books as gifts. I think re-reading sections of Rolheiser’s classic will help me avoid routine in my prayer. I suspect re-reading Rolheiser will also help me in many other ways.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. His new book, “The Cosmic Love Story: God and Us,” is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.