Hajja Salesjana

his parable of the deaf musician is a good example. 3 He reminds her that she is like a deaf musician who has been hired to play music for the King. The musician takes delight when seeing how the king enjoys her music, but when the king is absent she is required to continue playing although she cannot hear it herself nor see the king’s reactions. This moves the person praying deeper along the journey towards Pure Love. What is required at this point of transition as theperson’s prayingbecomesmorepassive, and God’s action works away in the darkness, is the inculcation of interior attitudes and dispositions of heart that can help us to receive the gift of prayer: namely, faith, trust, fidelity and perseverance. 4 Commenting on the necessity of perseverance, René Voillaume observes that the only recommendation that Jesus makes regarding prayer is ‘perseverance’. 5 Our focus must not be on what we are feeling or not feeling, on our experience during prayer because if so we have stopped praying and become caught up in ourselves. “If we seek our own satisfaction, we will abandon prayer as soon as it becomes too difficult, or when we feel dryness or discontent … we must believe that we shall be heard, but it is only very seldom that we can have evidence of this.” 6 Love profits from feelings as well as dryness, from inspirations as well as aridity, from virtue as well as sin. As St Francis de Sales reminds us, even when we feel nothing and are in a state of aridity we can still exclaim: “Lord, I am no more than a dry log, set me afire.” We often complain that God does not hear us or we may mistakenly believe that we are talking to ourselves! Yet, the truth of the matter is that the problem lies not with God, but with us. “Too often our hearts are set for transmission only, and incoming calls are not received.” 7 Prayer and Life For St Francis, prayer and life are one, much like how breathing out follows on breathing in. We breathe in the love of God through prayer (affective love) and breathe out love in serving our neighbor (effective love). 8 Genuine prayer quite naturally leads to selfless service, igniting a love that is true charity. Just like any human relationship, through prayer, we are transformed and shaped by God whom we are communicating with. “Prayer stretches us beyond our limits of loving, and, in so doing, transforms us ever more into the likeness of Jesus, by uniting us with him.” 9 This explains why prayer is essential on the Salesian spiritual journey of letting ‘Jesus live’ in us. Through prayer we are transformed in God through love, assuming the heart of Christ so that we can respond to life situations with the love and compassion of Christ. In Salesian terminology this ecstatic movement out of ourselves in love of others is called, the ecstasy of action. A Communion of Hearts The call to prayer draws us into the Heart of God in communion with others because God is the ‘great Uniter.’ 10 Writing to his anamchara (soul friend) , Jane de Chantal, he declares, “It is true, my dear daughter, our unity is utterly consecrated to the highest unity and each day I sense more vividly the truth of our sincere connection which will not let me ever forget you even long, long after Photo by Levi Guzman on Unsplash 11 Ottubru - Diċembru 2022 hajja