INCARNATE HOPE
Prayer in The Modern World
Photo by Tim Cooper on Unsplash
PRAYER IN THE MODERN WORLD
In the early seventies I was working on an M.A in English at the University of Windsor. We were having supper in the cafeteria in one of the residences. The conversation at a huge circular table turned to a current, movie The Exorcist. Around the table floated a question: would you go to see this controversial movie? The responses were sure, maybe until they came to me. I answered, I would pray over the decision. A cloak of silence fell over the table as my silenced friends stared at me. This situation was but a glimmer into the modern world’s attitude to prayer.
In this article we shall delineate the current modern world and then offer the redemptive side of prayer.
Why then is the modern world so devoid of prayer? For example, why do some dignitaries express a prayerless condolence: “He or she was a fine family man never to be forgotten.” The pragmatic would remark our society has become pluralistic, freedom to choose a faith. True enough. But pluralism is sometimes used to defend a godless world.
Prayer became a casualty of the world view, modernity, a godless world and culture. This situation did not develop overnight; from the theocentric world view of the Middle Ages down through the discovery of science to the secular modern world of today, prayer has slipped off its societal moorings.
How do we restore the dignity of prayer around us? Our good parents and Sunday school teachers have taught us the fundamental prayers: the Our Father, the Hail May, the Glory to the Father and the Creed. But only the Holy Spirit can effect a prayerful encounter with the Lord through the Charismatic Renewal or any more recent apostolates like Marriage Encounter or the ministry to Catholics on secular campuses.
Prayer is essentially a relationship of intimacy with the Lord manifested in trust that the Lord is our Savior, and we are his children. But this encounter for most develops in the modern world.
The Church has always been prudently aware of the meaning of “the modern world,” especially since the papacy of Pius the X at the beginning of the 20th century. Influenced by the rise of social science and medicine (psychiatry), the Modernists advocated the latter replace faith and doctrine. The Pope in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Feeding the Flock) addressed strongly this attack.
The perceptive reader may wonder how the above history is related to our topic, Prayer in the Modern World.
The answer is the Holy Spirit takes us through all demanding circumstances. He inspired in the pre-Vatican II years scholars like Father Joseph Nuttin in Psychoanalysis and Personality (1953) to write a Catholic critique of Freud. Unlike the Modernists, Catholic writers like Henri Nouwen and Eugene Kennedy have given remarkable insight into the human person, all within the Magisterium. Prayer is a beacon to these and other Vatican II writers.
Next, we must be faithful to the Magisterium. This resolve may seem obvious but is really the voice of discernment to counteract apostasy like Matthew Fox affirming original grace despite the sin of the world.
Though contemplative prayer is proper, prayer should be active also. It is not enough to pray the mentally ill be protected from Maid. We must promote the sanctity of life through letters to MPs. The contemplative and the active sit together.
Finally, we need to practice methods of prayer. Vatican II affirms the Liturgy of the Hours for the laity. The Council has also upheld respect for the prayer of other religions; we are not to restrict the action of the Holy Spirit. Witness how contemplative monk Thomas Merton before his tragic death reached out to Buddhist monks of Thailand.
As German theologian Bernard Haring has written, prayer is like the very air we breathe. Rooted in the Holy Spirit, prayer enkindles in us the very life of the Lord to overcome the world’s obstacles on our path to the lord.
Pope Francis felt the above. Before his first blessing on the motley crowd
on St. Peter’s Square, he first asked for silence for the Holy Spirit is the divine companion of silence. The Holy Father was opening the door of prayer to all.
In sum, despite encroaching modernity, prayer is still our path to the Lord who through the Holy Spirit sanctifies us even in the secular world.
REFERENCES:
Flannery, Austin, O.P. Vatican Council II “Sacred Liturgy,” 100.
Haring, Bernard Rev. Prayer: The Integration of Faith and Life. Notre Dame: Fides. 1975
Pius the X. Pascendi Dominici (Feeding the Flock) The Holy See, 1907
Bernard Callaghan
bandscall@eastlink.ca
About the Author
With a B..A and an M. A, in English, Bernard, a retired teacher has been publishing short stories and religious articles since the early nineties in magazines and online. He favors articles on prayer and scripture.
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