{"id":24699,"date":"2009-05-29T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/05\/daily-rule-of-prayer-mass-ador\/"},"modified":"2014-07-17T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T14:10:09","slug":"daily-rule-of-prayer-mass-ador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/05\/daily-rule-of-prayer-mass-ador\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Rule of Prayer: Mass, adoration, lectio divina…"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, the time for priestly and diaconal\u00a0ordinations have come and gone. Where I am for the summer, a newly ordained\u00a0priest is due to arrive in a few days. Having heard plenty of ordination\u00a0homilies over the years none are as insightful as<\/em><\/span> Benedict XVI’s especially when he proposes a plan to be spiritually fit. Of course, all what is said is not restricted to priests<\/span> but<\/strong> applicable to the laity as well. All of us\u00a0reading this post are familiar with all the points made about developing a\u00a0prayer life and seeing them together constitutes a serious plan. Father Mark\u00a0draws our attention to one item that is near-and-dear to many of us: lectio divina<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0I am re-posting a portion of my friend Father Mark’s recent May blog entry because I think it’s\u00a0helpful.<\/p>\n

What is Father Everypriest’s daily Rule of Prayer according to Pope Benedict XVI? Let’s consider the elements of the Rule in the order in\u00a0which the Holy Father presents them.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0Daily Holy Mass<\/strong>. Daily. Not 6 days week, not 5, or 4 days a week, but daily. The liturgical cycle in its hourly, daily, weekly, and\u00a0yearly rhythms is given us precisely to facilitate our “abiding” in\u00a0Christ hour by hour, day by day, week by week, and year after year. Integral to\u00a0the liturgical cycle is daily Holy Mass. The Eucharistic Sacrifice sends the\u00a0divine lifeblood coursing through one’s spiritual organism. Without daily Mass,\u00a0the priest will succumb to spiritual anemia.<\/p>\n

\"detail<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0The Liturgy of the Hours<\/strong>. The Hours give rhythm and grace to daily life. They are a school of discipline (discipleship), a supernatural system of irrigation channeling grace into every moment of the day, a privileged way of offering thanks in communion with all who, “in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,” confess the Name of Jesus and bend the knee before Him. A priest who loves the Divine Office will enjoy an interior life that is sane, and sound, and wholly ecclesial. Fidelity to the Divine Office refines the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, sharpens one’s discernment, and imparts to everything the priest does a certain Eucharistic and doxological quality.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0Eucharistic Adoration<\/strong>. Are you surprised? Eucharistic adoration has known a kind of springtime since The Year of the Eucharist (2004-2005) that was also the year of the death of Pope John Paul II and of the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Two Americans known for loving their brother priests and ministering to them tirelessly –Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Father Gerald Fitzgerald of the Holy Spirit– insisted on a daily hour before the Blessed Sacrament as a sine qua non of priestly spirituality. The priest who adores the Blessed Sacrament exposes his weaknesses and wounds to the healing radiance of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus. Moreover, he abides before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus as the representative of his people: of the sick, the poor, the bereaved, and of those locked in spiritual combat. The priest who looks to the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, and draws near to His Open Heart in the Sacrament of the Altar, will, just as the psalm says, be radiant, and he will not be put to shame.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0Lectio Divina<\/strong>. Again — a monastic thing? No, a Catholic thing. The quality of a priest’s preaching is directly proportionate to his commitment to lectio divina.\u00a0Neglect of lectio divina leads to mediocre preaching. Opening the Scriptures is like opening the tabernacle: therein the priest finds the “hidden manna” his soul craves. The four steps of lectio divina can be accommodated to any length of time: 1) lectio, i.e. the Word heard; 2) meditatio, i.e. the Word repeated; 3) oratio, i.e. the Word prayed;<\/p>\n

4) Contemplatio<\/strong>; i.e. the indwelling Word. Lectio divina cannot be occasional;
\nit is not a random pursuit. Learn to say, “I am not available.” Get over feeling guilty about taking time for God!<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0Holy Rosary<\/strong>. Yes, the daily Rosary. It’s a spiritual\u00a0lifeline that has saved many a priest from spiritual shipwreck. The brilliant\u00a0and holy exegete and founder of the \u00c9cole biblique in Jerusalem, Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange, was observed praying fifteen mysteries of the Rosary\u00a0each day, and asked, “Why, Father, do you, a great exegete, need to pray\u00a0the Rosary?” “Because, ” he answered, “it decapitates
\npride.” I would add that not only does the Rosary decapitate pride; it\u00a0decapitates each of the seven capital sins: pride, greed, lust, anger,\u00a0gluttony, envy, and sloth. With the passing of the years I have come to\u00a0appreciate the profound wisdom of an old Dominican priest to whom I used to\u00a0make my confession years ago. Invariably, after confessing my miseries, Father\u00a0would ask, “Do you say the Rosary, son?” And invariably I would\u00a0reply, “Yes, Father.” And then he would say, “Aye, then you’ll\u00a0be alright.” A priest who prays the Rosary daily will be alright and,\u00a0almost imperceptibly, will grow in purity and humility.<\/p>\n

\"Ange<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

6)\u00a0Meditation<\/strong>. Meditation can mean many things, even within our Catholic tradition. It is integral to the prayerful celebration of Holy Mass and the Hours. “it nourishes Eucharistic adoration. It is the second “moment” of lectio divina. It is the soul of the Rosary. In my own experience, meditation is related to “remembering the things the Lord has done.” Saint Gertrude the Great, a model of the mystical life grounded in the liturgy, used to say, “A grace remembered is a grace renewed.” Understood in this sense, meditation, by recalling the mercies of the Lord in\u00a0the past, infuses the present with hope, and allows the priest to go forward\u00a0with a holy boldness.<\/p>\n

Is it necessary to set a period of time apart for meditation\u00a0as such? That depends on whom you ask. The Carmelite, Jesuit and Sulpician\u00a0traditions would hold fast to some form of meditation as a daily exercise. The\u00a0monastic tradition has, on the whole, taken a more supple approach to\u00a0meditation. It is a daily practice, but one diffused in every form of prayer,\u00a0including the liturgy itself. One learns to pace one’s prayer, to pause, to\u00a0breathe, to linger over a phrase, a word, or an image. Whether one espouses the\u00a0Ignatian way or the monastic approach, meditation is an integral to every priest’s\u00a0daily Rule of Prayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the most part, the time for priestly and diaconal\u00a0ordinations have come and gone. Where I am for the summer, a newly ordained\u00a0priest is due to arrive in a few days. Having heard plenty of ordination\u00a0homilies over the years none are as insightful as Benedict XVI’s especially when he proposes a plan to be spiritually … Continue reading Daily Rule of Prayer: Mass, adoration, lectio divina…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,32],"tags":[32084,1790,3084,1818,1792],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31248,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24699\/revisions\/31248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}