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We need to converse with God
Ferdinando Cancelli
The primacy of prayer over action
“Of maximum usefulness in the Church of Jesus are not the so-called practical men nor even the pure proponents of theories, but the true contemplatives,” wrote Josemaria Escriva’s first successor, Monsignor Alvaro del Portillo , in the pages of the L’Osservatore Romano on June 23, 1985, for the tenth anniversary of the founder’s death. The theme of contemplation – of that “conversation” with God which according to St. Josemaria brings one “to know him and to know oneself,” – was also the central theme in a homily by Bishop Javier Echevarria, third prelate of Opus Dei, given a few days ago in the Basilica of St. Eugenio in Rome, on the occasion of the ordination to the diaconate of 35 future priests.
To speak with God, but about what?
There is a picture which is very dear to me which shows the three priests together in front of the little church of St. Dunstan in Canterbury in the summer of 1958: the intense gaze of Monsignor Escriva, in the middle, which expresses his character so well, and Don Alvaro and Don Javier who look us straight in the eyes; together they already seem to be telling us what, in close union with Benedict XVI, they say to us today with one voice: we need to speak with God. “But about what?” asked Josemaria Escriva, quoted by Bishop Echevarria in his homily to the deacons. “About what? About Him, about yourself: joy, sadness, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses!”
Those who experience how, in prayer, God “is present and acts in the world and in our lives,” in the words of Benedict XVI, will marvel at its effects. “We are,” said Bishop Echevarria, “calmer and happier, we are more attentive to serving others,” and “we carry out our work better.” This last aspect, that of “improving the professional quality of the work itself,” which derives from “the presence of God in the working environment,” as already stated by Bishop del Portillo in 1985, seems in urgent need of re-discovery today, even among those who call themselves believers.
To transform our work
The three priests seem to be telling us that we need to try and create a virtuous circle: working always in the presence of God helps us to banish “any inaccuracy, any superficiality, any carelessness or amateurishness,” and to transform our work into a “living and definite service to the living Body of Christ,” something that we can contemplate in order to return, purified, to God and our brothers and sisters. “Contemplation,” continued Monsignor del Portillo, “corrects our work any time that what we do does not measure up to our human dignity, or our still higher dignity as children of God;” and makes it perfect, whether it involves repetitive manual labor or hard intellectual concentration. In fact, “we are only useful as instruments, however humble, if we are properly adapted to the work in hand.”
A hidden motor
It would be a grave mistake to ignore this teaching, especially at this moment in time. Faced with frenzied and inhuman activism that is far from God, the true Christian way has always been counter-cultural: giving primacy to prayer over action.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta offers us the key for a better understanding of this primacy: everything that she did, “right in the middle of the street,” as St. Josemaria would say, had a hidden motor, refuelled silently in the heart of the night: prayer in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Who knows if even our nights, spent in this way, would not bring the dawn of a truly new and perhaps unexpected day.
FERDINANDO CANCELLI
“Of maximum usefulness in the Church of Jesus are not the so-called practical men nor even the pure proponents of theories, but the true contemplatives,” wrote Josemaria Escriva’s first successor, Monsignor Alvaro del Portillo , in the pages of the L’Osservatore Romano on June 23, 1985, for the tenth anniversary of the founder’s death. The theme of contemplation – of that “conversation” with God which according to St. Josemaria brings one “to know him and to know oneself,” – was also the central theme in a homily by Bishop Javier Echevarria, third prelate of Opus Dei, given a few days ago in the Basilica of St. Eugenio in Rome, on the occasion of the ordination to the diaconate of 35 future priests.
To speak with God, but about what?
There is a picture which is very dear to me which shows the three priests together in front of the little church of St. Dunstan in Canterbury in the summer of 1958: the intense gaze of Monsignor Escriva, in the middle, which expresses his character so well, and Don Alvaro and Don Javier who look us straight in the eyes; together they already seem to be telling us what, in close union with Benedict XVI, they say to us today with one voice: we need to speak with God. “But about what?” asked Josemaria Escriva, quoted by Bishop Echevarria in his homily to the deacons. “About what? About Him, about yourself: joy, sadness, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses!”
"There is a picture which is very dear to me which shows the three priests together in front of the little church of St. Dunstan in Canterbury in the summer of 1958. "
Those who experience how, in prayer, God “is present and acts in the world and in our lives,” in the words of Benedict XVI, will marvel at its effects. “We are,” said Bishop Echevarria, “calmer and happier, we are more attentive to serving others,” and “we carry out our work better.” This last aspect, that of “improving the professional quality of the work itself,” which derives from “the presence of God in the working environment,” as already stated by Bishop del Portillo in 1985, seems in urgent need of re-discovery today, even among those who call themselves believers.
To transform our work
The three priests seem to be telling us that we need to try and create a virtuous circle: working always in the presence of God helps us to banish “any inaccuracy, any superficiality, any carelessness or amateurishness,” and to transform our work into a “living and definite service to the living Body of Christ,” something that we can contemplate in order to return, purified, to God and our brothers and sisters. “Contemplation,” continued Monsignor del Portillo, “corrects our work any time that what we do does not measure up to our human dignity, or our still higher dignity as children of God;” and makes it perfect, whether it involves repetitive manual labor or hard intellectual concentration. In fact, “we are only useful as instruments, however humble, if we are properly adapted to the work in hand.”
"The intense gaze of Monsignor Escriva, in the middle, which expresses his character so well, and Don Alvaro and Don Javier who look us straight in the eyes; together they already seem to be telling us: we need to speak with God."
It would be a grave mistake to ignore this teaching, especially at this moment in time. Faced with frenzied and inhuman activism that is far from God, the true Christian way has always been counter-cultural: giving primacy to prayer over action.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta offers us the key for a better understanding of this primacy: everything that she did, “right in the middle of the street,” as St. Josemaria would say, had a hidden motor, refuelled silently in the heart of the night: prayer in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Who knows if even our nights, spent in this way, would not bring the dawn of a truly new and perhaps unexpected day.
FERDINANDO CANCELLI
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