In the many Convents of sisters, He is called "My Beloved." In Friaries and Monasteries, God is the Master and those following Him, the Servants. And, to the rest of us, living in less austere and hallowed ways, He is God, and we are His children, and we love Him most of the time. If we do, we make a sincere effort to sin less, and if we do not, now's the time to repair that relationship.

Prayer is, and always has been, a gift of God. Prayer is an expression of His Love for us. For people who steadfastly tell others that they cannot pray, there is something that blocks the relationship between themselves and God. God only loves, He wishes what is good for us, and He continues to encourage and bring us hope. If there is something wrong in our relationship to God, it is never God's fault. People who really think they cannot pray, go seek advice, go open up to someone, and most of all, just ask God to help you. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Mat. 7:7-8)

Franciscans, and indeed all who pray the daily prayers of the Catholic Church, that is, the Liturgy of the Hours, are really participating in an expression of Love for God. Those Church Orders who are obliged to pray these prayers will do so in the manner prescribed by the rubrics. These are found at the beginning of Volume I of the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours, and in other places. There are slight varieties between convents, monasteries and friaries. The Benedictines, for example, often chant this Liturgy in Latin. And for those using the vernacular, there are usages by tradition that are common to some houses and not to others, but by and large, everyone follows either the 4-volume or the single volume "Christian Prayer". Priests who are not members of religious orders almost always use the 4-volume edition and a good number of lay people do. Lay people, for the most part are not obliged to use these prayers.

Likewise, Secular Franciscans are not obliged to say the Liturgy of the Hours but the Order highly encourages us to do so. And, many differences have crept into the use of the Liturgy between groups of fraternities, and even, individuals. It depends, largely, of who taught whom. Many of us get really bent out of shape when someone enters our fraternity with prior experience with these prayers, and tells us that we are doing it all wrong. Right?

When this happens, it is really, really important to remember why we are praying in the first place. To honor our Lord! Yes, we are praying this wonderful expression of Love, to honor and praise Our Lord Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Having stated that, it really isn't all that important how we pray in the first place, as long as we're all doing it the same way in community. Whatever we do privately, whether we say Psalm-Prayers or not, repeat the Antiphon after the Psalm is over, or not, substitute Psalms (such as from Fr. Tom's Psalm booklet) or not, and so on, the form becomes less important than the intent of the prayer. Let us pray, for sure, but don't argue about form. It's not that important. It is far more important that we love our Lord God and that we love all other people as we do love ourselves.

When we come together to pray, and we are in the middle of prayer, do not begin a discussion about the format of that prayer. Do that before or after the prayer, but not during. Also, when making an Intercessory Prayer for someone, make it short and to the point. For example, "Dear Lord, please heal (name) who is suffering from cancer, let us pray to the Lord" (and we answer, God hear us, or similar). But do not begin to tell the group that this person is in the hospital, and how many kids he or she has, or about that trip she got sick on, etc., etc. - that may be very interesting but is not pertinent to the prayer requests.

Prayer is a conversation between us (i.e. the person praying) and God. We ask God to help us and others, but not before praising Him. That is why the Intercessions are toward the END of the "Hour" of these prayers. The Psalms, and all that follows before the Intercessions is the praise we are giving to God. In a similar way, when praying privately for someone's need, always express your love for God. It is an expression of kindness, of intimacy in prayer between the servant and his or her Master, and our prayers are as those of children to the Father. In addition, let us not forget that Franciscans have a legion of Saints and Blesseds in our big family who have gone before us, beginning with the Queen of the Seraphic Order, the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Let us always ask for her Intercession in our prayer life. Our Holy Father, St. Francis of Assisi, and some of our personally favorite saints, ask them to intercede for us in prayer. And lastly, our many fraternities have one or more people who are deceased, who have gone before us, and we can ask them for a favor once in a while, too. They have completed the good fight, and they are with the Lord. Let us not forget them since they will always be our sisters and brothers in the Fraternity.

May the Lord bless you, and keep you!

 

Fred Schaeffer, SFO
January 13, 2010