Hajja Salesjana April-June 2022

Lisieux expresses it, “prayer is not primarily an activity but a way of being with God. Prayer has to do with where our heart is at every moment of our life, the trials as well as the joys.” 19 In short, prayer is allowing ourselves to be possessed by the love of God who wants to enter into a deep mutual friendship with us. As well as the time we set aside for praying St Francis de Sales advises that we make short spontaneous prayers throughout the day. In this way, in the midst of our busyness, we withdraw to God already present in our heart. In The Introduction , he advises us to imitate the halcyon birds that “make their nests like the closed palm of the hand and leave only a small opening from the top. They put them on the seashore and yet they remain so strong and impenetrable that, even when washed by the waves, water never enters them. Thus always floating, they remain in the midst of the sea, on the sea and masters of the sea. Your heart, Philothea, is to be like that, open only to heaven, impenetrable to riches and perishable things.” 20 We must learn to return to our hearts in the midst of daily occupations, just as “birds have nests in the trees where they can seek refuge” or “deers hide, seek shelter and find the coolness of the shade in summer in thickets and bushes. Similarly, Philothea, our hearts must find and choose some place each day, to be near him. There we must seek refuge at every opportunity.” 21 In short, St Francis is encouraging us to become more aware of, and practice living in, the presence of God. (to be continued in the next issue) 1. Letter to Jane Frances de Chantal, 3May 1604, OEA XII: 263-64. 2. ‘Inspirations are … all those interior attractions, motions, acts of self- reproach and remorse, lights and conceptions that God works in us and predisposes our hearts by his blessings, fatherly care, and love in order to awaken, stimulate, urge, and attract us to holy virtues, heavenly love, and good resolutions, in short, to everything that sends us on our way to our everlasting welfare.’ OEA III:108. 3. OEA IV:130. 4. OEA IV:132. 5. OEA IV:126-27. 6. OEA V:90. This allusion to inspiration as ‘breathing upon’ is derived from its etymological Latin source :in-spirare means to breath upon, indicating that it doesn’t come from within us but from God. 7. André Brix, Initiation à la lecture du Traité de L’Amour de Dieu , Texte établi d’après l’enregistrement des conférences données au cours de plusieurs weekends en 1980–1981 à Ellezelles (Belgique), 287. 8. OEA III:15. 9. OEA III:6. 10. François Corrignan, La Spiritualité de François de Sales: Un Chemin de Vie . (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1989), 143. 11. OEA IV:121. 12. OEA V:30. 13. OEA IV:52. A Single Our Father said with feeling has greater value than many said quickly and hurriedly, OEA III:72. 14. OEA IV:310. 15. OEA IV:324. 16. OEA IV:332-3. 17. OEA III:340. 18. OEA IV:164. For further insight into this relationship of prayer as “Heart to heart,” see E. Mc Donnell, God Desires You (Stella Niagara N.Y.:Desales Resource Center, 2008), 45-55. 19. Aloysius Rego, Holiness for all: Themes from St Thérèse of Lisieux (Oxford: Teresian Press, 2009), 100. 20. OEA III:185. 21. OEA III:192. Photo by Pablo Heimplatz - www.unsplash.com 13 April - Ġunju 2022 hajja