{"id":5835,"date":"2015-01-19T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T06:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=5835"},"modified":"2015-01-09T10:17:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T09:17:18","slug":"praying-with-christ-and-his-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2015\/01\/praying-with-christ-and-his-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying with Christ and His Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Medieval<\/a>Father, Would You Pray for Me?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every day, without exception, people ask me to pray for them, sometimes with a quiet word, sometimes by ringing the monastery, sometimes in an email.\u00a0 “Father, would you pray for me?”\u00a0 The intentions are varied; the vast majority of them have to do with illnesses of mind or body, but there are others as well . . . a priest in distress, a marriage in crisis, issues of alcoholism, addiction, unemployment, and the return to the faith of dear children and grandchildren. With so many intentions entrusted to my prayer, how do I go about bringing them before Our Lord?<\/p>\n

The Divine Office<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years I have discovered that the Divine Office gives expression to every need, seeks healing for every infirmity, and beseeches God for the graces needed in all circumstances. For example, I pray daily for one dear friend who struggles with unrelenting sufferings of body, mind, and soul. “The Lord will guard thee from all evil; the Lord will protect thee in danger; the Lord will protect thy journeying and thy home-coming, henceforth and for ever.\u00a0 I do this at the Hour of Tierce when we chant Psalm 120.\u00a0 Every verse of this psalm relates to my friend and becomes my heartfelt supplication for him.<\/p>\n

Thy Journeying and Thy Home-coming
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\u00a0I lift up my eyes to the hills, to find deliverance;
\n2\u00a0from the Lord deliverance comes to me,
\nthe Lord who made heaven and earth.
\n3\u00a0Never will he who guards thee allow thy foot to stumble;
\nnever fall asleep at his post!
\n4\u00a0Such a guardian has Israel,
\none who is never weary, never sleeps;
\n5\u00a0it is the Lord that guards thee,
\nthe Lord that stands at thy right hand to give thee shelter.
\n6\u00a0The sun\u2019s rays by day, the moon\u2019s by night,
\nshall have no power to hurt thee.
\n7\u00a0The Lord will guard thee from all evil;
\nthe Lord will protect thee in danger;
\n8\u00a0the Lord will protect thy journeying and thy home-coming,
\nhenceforth and for ever. (Psalm 120:1\u20138)<\/p>\n

This morning at Matins, as we chanted psalm after psalm, I was struck by the number of verses that applied very directly to the circumstances of souls who had asked me to pray for them:<\/p>\n

Thou Wilt Shew Me the Way of Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

7\u00a0Blessed be the Lord, who schools me;
\nlate into the night my inmost thoughts chasten me.
\n8\u00a0Always I can keep the Lord within sight;
\nalways he is at my right hand, to make me stand firm.
\n9\u00a0Glad and merry am I, heart and soul of me;
\nmy body, too, shall rest in confidence
\n10\u00a0that thou wilt not leave my soul in the place of death,
\nor allow thy faithful servant to see corruption.
\n11\u00a0Thou wilt shew me the way of life, make me full of gladness in thy presence;
\nat thy right hand are delights that will endure for ever.<\/p>\n

I Claim Thy Pity<\/strong><\/p>\n

15 On the Lord I fix my eyes continually,
\ntrusting him to save my feet from the snare.
\n16 Pity me, Lord,
\nas thou seest me friendless and forlorn.
\n17\u00a0Quit my heart of its burden,
\ndeliver me from my distress.
\n18\u00a0Restless and forlorn,
\nI claim thy pity, to my sins be merciful.
\n19\u00a0See how many are my foes,
\nand how bitter is the grudge they bear me.
\n20\u00a0Take my soul into thy keeping;
\ncome to my rescue, do not let me be disappointed of my trust in thee.
\n21\u00a0Uprightness and purity be my shield,
\nas I wait patiently, Lord, for thy help. (Psalm 24:15\u201321)<\/p>\n

Prayer from the Lips of the Son<\/strong><\/p>\n

One who prays the Divine Office, be he a monk, a priest, or a layman, is certain of interceding for the persons and intentions confided to him in utterances inspired by the Holy Ghost, in words that the Father receives from the lips of the Son, the Head of Mystical Body and High Priest of His Church. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary, committed himself to the daily recitation of the Divine Office, and never missed it.<\/p>\n

\"Short<\/a>My First Breviary<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was fifty years ago that my Dad bought me my first breviary.\u00a0 It was the excellent Short Breviary<\/em> then edited by The Liturgical Press. The introduction, commentaries, and notes were by Dom Pius Parsch. The Austrian Canon Regular of Klosterneuburg brought the Christological content of the psalms to life for me.\u00a0 Pius Parsch taught me how to apply the antiphons and psalms to the life of the Church, to the suffering members of Christ, and to the pressing needs of priests labouring in the vineyard. The psalms became my daily bread and, since that time, I have been unable to live without the sustenance they provide. (Let it be said, in passing, that the Collegeville Short Breviary<\/em> surpassed by far all later attempts at making the Divine Office accessible to layfolk.)<\/p>\n

I Do Pray for You<\/strong><\/p>\n

Know, then, that when you ask me to pray for you, I do just that.\u00a0 I pray for you in the words that Mother Church places in my heart and on my lips. The Father, hearing the psalms composed for His Word and fulfilled in His Word, is moved to pity at the pleas that, in this way, rise before Him like incense.<\/p>\n

I Will Sing of Thy Praise<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\u00a0My heart\u2019s thanks, Lord,
\nfor listening to the prayer I uttered;
\nangels for my witnesses, I will sing of thy praise.
\n2\u00a0I bow down in adoration towards thy sanctuary,
\npraising thy name for thy mercy and faithfulness;
\nthy own honour and thy pledged word
\nthou hast vindicated for all the world to see.
\n3\u00a0To thee I appealed, and thou didst listen to me,
\ndidst fill my heart with courage. (Psalm 137:1\u20133)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father, Would You Pray for Me? Every day, without exception, people ask me to pray for them, sometimes with a quiet word, sometimes by ringing the monastery, sometimes in an email.\u00a0 “Father, would you pray for me?”\u00a0 The intentions are varied; the vast majority of them have to do with illnesses of mind or body, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalmody"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-1w7","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5835"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9024,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions\/9024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}