Hajja Salesjana

our understanding of prayer as follows: ‘To sum up, the pleasure we take in anything is a precursor that places in the lover’s heart the qualities of the thing that pleases. Hence holy complacence transforms us into God, whom we love, and the greater the complacence, the more perfect the transformation. Thus having great love, the saints are very quickly and perfectly transformed, since love transports and translates the manners and dispositions of one heart into another.” 17 The idea of transformation into Christ, therefore, while being uniquely personal18 is also radically communitarian. St Francis highlights this communitarian dimension for since each person is made in the image and likeness of God, “together we represent one same portrait which is God.” 19 Here, we enter into what Lajeunie describes as Salesian ‘cosmic Christocentrism.’ 20 The summit of creation, therefore, is the communion of all persons in love with one another and with God. The Kiss of God Prayer, understood as heart to heart, is at the epicentre of this work of transfiguration because our true life is hidden in the Son who returns our hearts to the Father. It is the fulfilment of the great priestly prayer of Christ that all may be one. 21 This is only made possible because in Christ the divine and human heart unite. This union of hearts, between God and humanity, is consistently symbolized throughout the Treatise by the image of a kiss. 22 It is through this kiss that God draws us to himself and this union will be fully consummated in heaven. We can, however, receive pre-sentiments of this ‘nuptial kiss’ in the present world, because God has invited us to participate in his divine friendship. 23 The union of our hearts with God in prayer 24 is, thus, expressed through meditation where we seek to ‘warm our hearts with heavenly love,’ 25 and through prayers of aspirations that unite us to God in the midst of our activities. 26 However, it is through contemplation that we enjoy the presence of God in the depths of our heart. 27 And yet, ‘the devout heart has no less love when it turns to external duties than when it prays.’ 28 Such a perspective, drawn from the Song of Songs , can only express the story between God’s heart and the human heart as a ‘love story.’ 29 I t is the story of God’s seeking out His lost love, ‘the highest possible romance.’ 30 We cannot understand prayer without understanding love and romance. It is God who is seeking us, and prayer is our response to being courted by God. 1 OEA IV: 336. 2 OEA V:142. 3 OEA V:137-38. 4 Blessed are those who, with a noble and generous heart, take the word of God to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’ Lk.8:15; ‘Patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, and this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.’ Rms.5:5. 5 René Voillaume, Brothers of Men (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1966), 94-5. 6 Jacques Philippe, Time For God (London: St Paul’s, 2005), 21. 7 Eugene Mc Caffrey, Patterns Of Prayer (N.Y.Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2003), 29. 8 OEA IV:301-02. 9 Rego, Holiness for all , 100. 10 Letter to Jane Frances de Chantal, 25December 1613, OEA XVI:121. 11 OEA XIII:295. 12 Sa Vie et ses oeuvres , Tome II, Entretiens , 478, cited in,W.M. Wright, Bond of Perfection: Jeanne de Chantal and François de Sales (New York, Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1985), 140-41. 13 Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco : Ignatius Press, 1979), 81. 14 Philippe, Time for God , 27. 15 Alexander T. Pocetto, ‘Compassionate love and Salesian Spirituality’, at www.franz- von-sales.de/icss_de /artikel/english/ pocetto01.pdf. accessed 12/12/2016. 16 Ecclesia De Eucharistia, n . 22. 17 OEA V:61. 18 In the Treatise , bk.2, chap.7, St Francis indicates that as a personal intimate relationship with God, grace is unique. Each person receives a personal individual grace. Grace has such a unique quality that no two persons are alike. 19 OEA X:270. 20 Lajeunie, St Francis de Sales , Vol. 2, 159. 21 ‘I pray that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’Jn.17: 21. 22 OEA IV:51–52; 188–9; OEA V:293. 23 OEA V:293. 24 OEA V:5; 8; 9; 10. 25 OEA IV:307; OEA IV:308; 311; OEA IV:313; OEA IV:314; 327. 26 OEA V:19; 336; 274; OEA IX:70–71; 469; OEA XIV:78; OEA XV:269. 27 OEA IV:327; 329; OEA V:9; 42; 78. 28 OEA V:328. 29 Deus Caritas Est , n.10. 30 ‘The Future of Love: A reading of Pope Benedict’s Deus Caritas Est’ in, John Milbank, The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theolo gy (USA: Cascade Books, 2009), 366. Photo by Khadeeja Yasser on Unsplash 13 Ottubru - Diċembru 2022 hajja