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I fully understand the sentiment that prompted you to write to me, “My daily contemplative prayer seems insignificant to me. I cannot imagine that this stammering prayer of a tiny creature could be of interest to the perfect and infinite God.<\/i>” You possess a keen awareness of the creature\u2019s lowliness and of God\u2019s Majesty\u2014a precious and essential perspective of faith; grace certainly plays a part in this. Yet there is another perspective of faith I would like you to grasp, so that you might hold your daily contemplative prayer in high regard, however wretched it may seem to you.<\/p>\n
Let us first step back a moment, if you will. Before speaking of your contemplative prayer, let us speak of Christ’s contemplative prayer. In a passage I greatly admire, B\u00e9rulle celebrates the unique nature of Jesus Christ\u2019s prayer, “Throughout all eternity, there was indeed an infinitely adorable God, yet there was not yet an infinite worshipper; there was indeed a God worthy of infinite love and service, yet there was no man\u2014no infinite servant\u2014capable of rendering infinite service and love. You are now, O Jesus, that worshipper, that man, that infinite servant\u2014infinite in power, quality, and dignity\u2014able to fully discharge this duty and offer this divine homage. You are that man who loves, worships, and serves the supreme Majesty just as He is worthy to be loved, served, and honoured<\/i>.”<\/p>\n
This text brings to mind Jesus withdrawing into the solitude of the mountains at night to pray. And, above all, it calls to mind Calvary, where the perfect worshipper offered perfect worship to the Father.<\/p>\n
One might ask: Did the perfect worship of the Son\u2014this prayer of Jesus\u2014render human prayer futile, supplanting it once and for all? We can answer at once that this prayer of Christ\u2014far from casting aside human prayers (all those faltering prayers uttered since the dawn of humanity, all those sacrifices from every religion and every age)\u2014draws them to itself, incorporates them, offers them to God, and enables them to find, within and through it, a wondrous meaning and effectiveness.<\/p>\n
Yet there is an even more marvellous answer. Christ wants His prayer to resound throughout the universe\u2014from the equatorial bush to the polar ice, from the Far East to the Far West. He wants the humblest Christian at prayer to have something far better to offer than hesitant words and clumsy sentiments; He wants that such a person should have at their disposal the Son of God’s very own prayer. He wants that all people may lay hold of His prayer, make it their own, and present it to God.<\/p>\n
But that is not all. Jesus Christ does not merely want His prayer to be ours\u2014like a possession in our hands to use as we please; He wants it implanted and deeply embedded within our very depths, at the root of our being, as the soul of our soul. He wants us to be able to repeat, in all truth, the words of Saint Paul, “I live, yet it is no longer I..<\/i>.”\u2014I pray, yet it is no longer I who pray, but Christ who prays within me. It is the Spirit of the Son\u2014the Holy Spirit\u2014who causes the cry of filial love to resound within me, Abba<\/i>, Father! Thus, Christ\u2019s prayer, far from supplanting human prayer, wondrously ennobles it.<\/p>\n
Just as on Easter night, in the darkened church, the flame of the Paschal candle is gradually passed to the multitude of small candles held by the faithful, so too does Christ, through baptism, reach out to people one by one across the world, awakening His own filial prayer within their souls\u2014drawing it forth from their very souls.<\/p>\n
In all baptised people, it is His Son whom the Father recognises; in their prayer\u2014however insignificant it may appear\u2014it is the prayer of His Son that the Father hears.<\/p>\n
It is Christ who prays within me<\/b><\/p>\n
At the very beginning of your contemplative prayer, make an act of faith in the mysterious presence of Christ within you\u2014a presence Scripture confirms, “You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.<\/i>” (Jn 14:20); “Christ dwells in your hearts through faith.<\/i>” (Eph 3:17)<\/p>\n
If Christ is alive within you, He is praying there. Because to live, for Christ, is to pray. Join Him; grasp and make His prayer your own. Or rather\u2014since the terms I have just used place too much emphasis on your own activity\u2014let this prayer seize you, fill you, lift you up, and draw you toward the Father. I do not promise that you will perceive it; I ask only that you believe in it and, during contemplative prayer, give it\u2014and renew\u2014your full assent. Make way for it; give it all the room it needs. Let it take hold of every fibre of your being, just as fire penetrates wood and makes it glow.<\/p>\n
To pray is to answer the request Christ makes of us, “Lend me your mind, your heart, your whole being\u2014everything in man capable of becoming prayer\u2014so that I may bring forth from you the great praise of the Father. Did I come for any other reason than to kindle a fire on earth\u2014a fire that spreads from one to another, transforming every tree in the forest into a living torch? This fire is my prayer. Consent to the fire<\/i>.”<\/p>\n
Christ is present in the newly baptized child just as He is in the great mystic. Yet the life of Christ in each is at a different stage of development. While the prayer of Christ already vibrates within the soul of the newly baptized child, it exists there only as a seed\u2014a seed of fire. It is throughout our entire lives\u2014in direct proportion to our cooperation\u2014that this prayer intensifies and gradually takes possession of our whole being.<\/p>\n
Our cooperation consists, first of all, in embracing the prayer of Christ within us with the deepest part of our will. But take careful note of the powerful meaning I attach to the word “embrace”: it does not signify a lukewarm agreement or mere lip service, but a total self-giving\u2014like a log surrendering itself to the flame to become fire in its turn. Our cooperation also involves seeking to understand, with all our intelligence, the makeup of Christ\u2019s prayer within us\u2014its major components: praise, thanksgiving, offering, intercession\u2014so that we may more perfectly make them our own. \u2014 You asked me for subjects for meditation; I know of none better.<\/p>\n
For a long time, the person devoted to prayer does not perceive this prayer of Christ within him\u2014even though his faith guarantees its existence and his meditation allows him to know it better. Yet a day comes\u2014not necessarily during the time of formal prayer\u2014when he discovers it in his soul. He falls silent then, fearing he might startle it away, just as one fears frightening a bird that has landed on the windowsill… Then, suddenly, he realises it has vanished\u2014he knows not how; perhaps during a split second of inattention. He feels sad. It had been wonderful to find this prayer deep within himself; he had hoped to find it there again\u2014present the moment he woke up, and there during the day whenever he paused during his work. Let him not despair: the prayer of Christ is always there, even when we do not perceive it. We must return to it through faith, and above all, we must not concern ourselves\u2014while at prayer\u2014with trying to experience it all over again. It is a failure to render the honour due to God to approach prayer seeking God\u2019s gifts rather than God Himself. The Lord\u2014true to His promise (Jn 14:21)\u2014would reveal Himself to us far more often were we not more avid for His gifts than for Him. Undoubtedly, the grace of perceiving Christ\u2019s prayer will be renewed. Perhaps, once tamed, this prayer will no longer elude us\u2014but not until we have given up trying to lay hands on that timid bird.<\/p>\n
When the soul is utterly stripped bare and dead to self, it will experience what Saint Ignatius of Antioch expressed in unforgettable words in his letter to the Romans\u2014written at the close of his long apostolic life, aboard the ship taking him to martyrdom, “My passions have been crucified, and within me there is no longer any craving for earthly things. Instead, a living water murmurs within me, saying, ‘Come to the Father.<\/i>‘”<\/p>\n
Henri Caffarel, Cahiers sur l\u2019oraison<\/i>, Initiation Series VI<\/cite>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “My daily contemplative prayer seems insignificant to me. I cannot imagine that this stammering prayer of a tiny creature could be of interest to the perfect and infinite God.”<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemplative-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235003"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235008,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235003\/revisions\/235008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henri-caffarel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}