PRAYER and cultivating inner peace

(Bryant Creek as it cuts through monastery property) 

PRAYER AS A MEANS TO CULTIVATE INNER PEACE

This following reflection appears in a book called LIFE PRAYERS by Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon published by HarperOne

 

Prayer has always been used as a means of cultivating inner peace.   Without some measure of equanimity, the spiritual journey is impossible.  Prayers offer a skillful means for marrying an inner sense of peace with the outer demands of the world.   They help to quiet and focus the agitated mind.  They use words to carry us beyond words.  As such they are the most primordial language we humans use to align ourselves with the Divine.  By silencing inner noise and distractions, prayer brings us into the presence of the moment.  Its gift is an inner experience of prayerfulness in which the silent center of life's meaning is revealed.

Prayer also gifts us with a deepening of our compassionate caring for the world.  By aligning us with the rest of creation, prayer shows us that the impulse to be of help does not require superior moral fiber or ascetic religious training.  It flows naturally out of being human.  In serving the common good, we learn that we need not become martyrs, sacrificing ourselves in some painful task, but simply become that which we most passionately are.

 

 

 

ST. GERTRUDE AND NUPTIAL MYSTICISM

Today is the feast of St. Gertrude;  in Saint of the Day from St. Anthony Messenger Press, we read about her life and life of prayer:

St. Gertrude, a Benedictine nun in Helfta (Saxony), was one of the great mystics of the thirteenth century.  Together with her friend and teacher, Saint Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism",  that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ.  Her spiritual life was a deep personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart, leading her into the very life of the Trinity.

But this was no individualistic piety.  Gertrude lived the rhythm of the liturgy, where she found Christ.  In the liturgy and Scripture, she found the themes and images to enrich and express her piety.  There was no clash between her personal prayer life and the liturgy.

and a COMMENT that follows speaks of the prayer that is at the heart of the Christian life:

St. Gertrude's life is another reminder that the heart of the Christian life is prayer;   PRIVATE and LITURGICAL,  ORDINARY  or MYSTICAL,  always PERSONAL.

 

PRAYERS ON ELECTION DAY

(friary chapel on election day afternoon)

DAY OF ADORATION ON NOVEMBER 6th 

Our local bishop,  Bishop James Johnston, had encouraged all the parishes in the Springfield/Cape Girardeau diocese to have a day of adoration and prayer throughout election day.   Beginning with Mid-day Prayer, the friars here joined in for an afternoon of adoration and prayer for God to guide and inspire the voters of our nation as we went to the polls on election day.   Adoration ended about 6 pm at the conclusion of Evening Prayer.

 

ANNUAL RETREAT COMPLETED

(Sr. Ingrid Peterson, OSF)

CONTEMPLATION IN A FRANCISCAN KEY

 

October 29th to November 2nd were the dates for the annual retreat here at the Prayer Fraternity.  Sr. Ingrid Peterson, a Rochester, MN Franciscan, was our presenter and spent the five days walking with us and reflecting with us on the contributions to contemplative prayer made by a number of Franciscan greats:  St. Francis,  St. Clare,  St. Bonaventure,  St. Anthony of Padua,  Angela of Foligno and Francisco de Osuna. 

The friars here were joined for the retreat by two friars from the St. John the Baptist Province as well as by Sr. Grace Mary from Nazareth Hermitage.