Here's A Typical Day of Sidewalk Counseling
By Fr. Alex Ezechukwu, OCD
Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I become better at prayer?”
When we think about prayer, three ideas might come to mind:
Yet, all three of these concepts fall short of all that prayer really is.
One of my Discalced Carmelite confrers, Fr. Liam Finnerty, provides a rich approach to understanding this topic that compares prayer to a fire that burns and consumes wood. He bases his theme on texts of the 16th century Carmelite mystic, St. John of the Cross. Drawing from the saint’s book, Dark Night of the Soul, and his poem Living Flame of Love, Fr. Liam uses the saint’s analogy of fire in understanding prayer’s transforming effect upon the soul.
Fr. Liam, an expert in Carmelite spirituality, is a lecturer who is featured in our Wisdom Lectures series. This series is sponsored by DecorCarmeli Media, a service of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites in the United Kingdom. The Wisdom Lectures series features more than one hundred videos that are available on a subscription basis.
Father’s gray hair and respect for the divine reveal a man who no doubt has spent many years of his life in contemplation and prayer. His Irish brogue and his enthusiasm are refreshing.
“I want to take John’s concept of fire as transformative,” Fr. Liam explains as he begins his lecture. “Transformative, deep within the spirit and within the soul, and from that anchored place, the sightly [pleasing to the eye], our emotions, our general living equilibrium, is calibrated, is blessed and controlled, when the soul and the spirit are right. That is the fundamental doctrine of John and Teresa.”
St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila approach this in different ways, he says, but each of them is working within the very same school of dynamics. In this way the spirit of God works within us.
Fr. Liam reads the first line of St. John’s poem, Living Flame of Love: “Oh, living flame of love that tenderly wounds my soul at its deepest center.” He also asks his audience to look upon the video image on the wall of a lively fire in a fireplace. But, he counters, the fire is really right here, gesturing with his hand towards his audience.
Here are several aspects of a fire that shed light on the transformative effect of prayer on our souls, according to Fr. Liam:
Other reflections from his talk:
Finally, Carmelite spirituality is a gift to the Church, to the body of the Church. Fr. Liam says,
“It is in no sense an exclusive club. It is like a chrysalis. It broke itself open long ago. Each generation must break out of the chrysalis and create something for everybody.”
There are many more helpful points to discover in Fr. Liam’s lectures. In fact, he has nine lectures as part of the Wisdom Lectures series, including "Letting Go and Letting God," "Forgiveness and Healing in Relationships," and "Praying through the Storm: The Experience of St. Teresa."
In all, you’ll find more than one hundred videos available in the Wisdom Lectures series from DecorCarmeli Media. We produce these videos so that people can have access to authentic teachings on the spiritual life so they can benefit from the insights from the Carmelite tradition – a tradition that has produced many saints and doctors of the Church.
Monthly and annual subscriptions to the video platform will be available soon. We will let you know – simply sign up for our mailing list: DecorCarmeli Media.