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Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)
Give us, O Lord,
steadfast hearts, which no unworthy thought can drag downwards;
unconquered hearts, which no tribulation can wear out,
upright hearts, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside.
Bestow upon us also, O Lord our God,
understanding to know Thee,
diligence to seek Thee,
wisdom to find Thee,
and a faithfulness that may finally embrace Thee.
(1stholistic.com)
Quotes
I have ordained every exercise of vocal and mental prayer to bring souls to perfect love for me and their neighbors, and to keep them in this love.
So they offend me more by abandoning charity for their neighbor. For in charity for their neighbors they find me, but in their own pleasure, where they are seeking me, they will be deprived of me. Why? Because by not helping they are by that very fact diminishing their charity for their neighbors. When their charity for their neighbors is diminished, … so is consolation. So, those who want to gain lose, and those who are willing to lose their own consolation for their neighbors’ welfair [welfare] receive and gain me and their neighbors, if they help and serve them lovingly. And so they enjoy the graciousness of my charity at all times.
(Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, Trans. Suzanne Nofkke)
Story and Comments
Today, I went to visit three persons in a care facility. I did not feel like going, but I was, ironically, enthused to go, for visiting such persons blesses both them and me. I walked into a room. A dear lady, almost always with a smile, regardless of what is happening in her life, was in a bed. She spoke, with a sad look, “I’m sick, and I threw up.” I walked over and asked how I could help. I went to get a nurse. Someone came to assist. Oleda had been struggling with nausea since leaving the hospital two days earlier. The assistant got her some sherbet. I sat beside Oleda while she ate, and this sherbet agreed with her. We talked and smiled, both with each other and Louise, the ninety-five year old who shared the room, and on leaving I enjoyed having prayer with each one separately, holding the hand to be the touch of Christ to them.
After going to the room of the next person and finding out she had gone home, I spoke to her roommate, who initiated conversation. She wanted me to help her write a word. This dear lady was writing to a friend. I bent over and assisted this woman, who seemed not to need any conversation once she got her writing to flow again.
Last, I went into the room of a Presbyterian and aged woman, lying in her bed, slender and alone, with a television kept blaring. However she was oblivious to the television, even sleeping through it. I walked over, touched her and spoke. She opened her eyes. I introduced myself and knelt beside her bed. We had a short conversation, and she gave me her hand for prayer. I prayed for her and left, telling her I would be back in a few days.
I experienced in those visits to the care home the words of St. Catherine of Siena. I had begun the day in prayer, alone, enjoying solitude. Yet prayer is, as she says to us, for the perfection of love to the other and Other. Indeed, in loving my neighbor, I discover the love of God. In failing to love my neighbor, I diminish my love for my neighbor.
Then as St. Catherine remarks, in such diminishing of love for the other, I lose something important: consolation. I cannot enjoy the consoling Grace of God while turning from the other, made in the Image of God. To close my heart to the other, I close my heart to God, I close my heart to the comforts given by God. But if I help and serve them, then, I enjoy consolation; indeed, no anxiety can break through the fortress of such comfort.
But how am I to serve the other, my neighbor. St. Catherine writes to us that we are to serve and assist “lovingly.” The spirit of service is as vital as the service. I am not just to serve the other. I must serve as one in love with the other, and for that love to mature means to serve the other as myself. I must see the other as myself in order to serve the other in such mature love.
However I cannot see the other as myself through myself. Rather Christ becomes as a mirror to me of the other. In Christ, and only in Christ, I can see her as both who she is and as I am, distinct but the same, reflecting the oneness-and-distinctions of the Trinity.
Theologically, the foundation of this oneness-and-distinctions is the outpouring of Love itself as and into Creation. Love differentiates itself in creatures. Yes, “Every created thing has its point of contact with the Godhead; and this point of contact is its idea, reason or logos which is at the same time the end towards which it tends,” writes Vladimir Lossky, in The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. That is, part of the Energy of the Divine inheres in every creature, and that Energy of Divinity, the Word, within each creature tends the creature toward the perfect realization, according to the nature of each creature, of that Energy, or Logos. And this Logos is the preexistent Christ incarnated as Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
So the one called “neighbor” by St. Catherine carries within herself the spark of divinity. That Energy, given through creation, is Grace and is conscious of her. Therefore my awareness of the Christ Within her motivates my serving her. In serving her, I serve Christ. In serving Christ, I serve myself.
But what of the neighbor who refuses your or my love? Friend, no one can refuse your love, that is, no one can keep you from loving her. To love even your enemy in physical absence is to love, still, and to love Christ. In Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, you do not have to be present in time and space to love another. A simple kind thought or prayer for one absent is to love her and to serve her, even if she disdains your presence and resists your kindness.
So do you want to enjoy consolation? Forget about your own consolation. Do not seek privacy in prayer, for prayer is for solitude, not privacy, indeed, in true Prayer you accept that every creature is with you in your own inner cell and outer environment, too. Identify with the need of your neighbor; then, you shall enjoy consolation and deep joy and pristine peace, peace adversity cannot touch.
Those who hug their convictions, morality, dogma, and church, without selflessly serving and helping even their enemy, deny themselves the very consolations they seek. There is no consolation apart from allowing our praying to lead us to help those who are carrying the same Light within and seek the same justness and comfort we all long to enjoy.
Reflection
Have you had a recent experience in helping someone else during a time when you felt in need of consolation and by serving discovered consolation in giving consolation?
Is the direction of the church you attend guided by persons who see the church as for themselves or for those outside? Explain.
Who is the “neighbor”? Explain.
What is your conclusion about “prayer” that does not lead to unselfish service to neighbor?
Where is Christ most working: inside or outside the churches? Explain.
Spiritual Exercise
What kind of “hungry” people do you meet? Lonely? Discouraged? Self-conscious? Reach out to a person in need. Service done in God’s presence is prayer.
(Exercise from Patricia Mary Vinje, Praying with Catherine of Siena)
Go to www.compassion.net to read about sponsoring, in the name of Jesus, children living in poverty, by means of Compassion International. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
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