Prayer and Silence

In the Dominican Tradition there is an understanding that we are contemplatives. We are pray-ers who will wait patiently to listen to our God. This is no easy challenge. Finding time for silence in my daily life can be a struggle, but when I do and when I am faithful to this practice, God speaks to me. God shares his life with me and his plan for me. However vague and ambivalent my feelings might be after prayer, it is not only a valuable tool, but a necessary one in the Christian and Religious life.

Prayer for me has become an understanding that any time my heart moves towards God, and anytime I am aware enough to know God's heart is moving towards me that I am praying. And this can happen in the car, at the grocery store, or even (dun dun dun, dramatic pause) in Church. A couple years ago I was driving back from a camping trip and I saw a giant billboard that said "JESUS" and nothing else. Even a few years previous (and sometimes still) I look at these billboards with cynicism. But this time when I looked at the board I thought to myself, "I love Jesus." It was a casual thought, but in reflection I realized that my life had moved significantly towards prayer. That being open to my love for God and God's love for me brought me a sense of peace and a sense of contentment. Prayer was becoming a two-way thing. For so much of my life, prayer had felt like I was a crazy man on a one-way radio wondering if God ever had time to listen in. Now I knew God had not only listened, but that he was speaking back, even through something as silly as a billboard. "I love Jesus," I said, "And I love you," said Jesus. It was a wonderful moment.

In the Dominican life contemplation does not belong just to the friar praying. Sure, his prayer is private and what God reveals to him is his to reveal. Yet, St. Thomas Aquinas, a wonderful Dominican, pushes us further when he writes, "contemplare et contemplata allis tradere," we are to contemplate and share what we contemplated. Discernment even of personal prayer life should be done within the context of community. Our prayer then, is not just for us, it is our responsibility to one another. (Sometimes I begin writing as though I'm already a Dominican, hee hee) And to share that prayer, that contemplation brings us to a sense of service, of preaching with our very lives. Preaching and contemplation lie within one another, they rest in each other. Another wonderful Dominican, who I am going to quote at length, adds to Thomas' understanding of contemplation:

Meister Eckhart

"St. Thomas says that active life is better than the contemplative, in so far as in action one pours out for love that which one has gained in contemplation. It is actually the same thing, for we take only from the same ground of contemplation and make it fruitful in works, and thus the object of contemplation is achieved. Thus too, in this activity, we remain in a state of contemplation in God. The one rests in the other and perfects the other. For God's purpose in the union of contemplation is fruitfulness in works: for in contemplation you serve yourself alone, but in works of charity you serve the many," (Sermon 3, Walshe Translation).

So I guess, I need to go pray. And share that with the world. This should be my life-long goal, no matter what I do, whether or not the Order accepts me.

Shalom,
Joe