The resurgence of prayer in a world
that wants to exclude it
From Monte Cassino, the Pope revives the motto of Saint Benedict: "Ora et labora."
And Cardinal Ruini explains how prayer is the best response to the modern crises of faith.
It has also been discussed at a Festival of theology.
ROME, May 29, 2009 – On the visit he made to the abbey of Monte Cassino on Ascension Sunday, Benedict XVI revived the famous motto of the saint whose name he took: "Ora et labora et lege." Pray, work and study".
And he linked this motto with the other one that the Pope has repeatedly cited as the origin of all Western civilization: "quaerere Deum," to seek God.
In the vision of Benedict XVI, praying to God is not a part, but rather the whole, of man's vocation. The idea may appear daring in an age in which prayer is often trivialized, contested, put off limits. But it finds support in signs of renewed attention to this supreme act of Christian life.
For example, at the same time as the Pope's visit to Monte Cassino, further to the north, in Bologna, one of the most secularized cities in Italy, the feast of the Madonna di San Luca saw a much larger crowd than in the past gather to pray.
Just as a few weeks earlier, in the same city, the immense basilica of Saint Petronius was not large enough to hold the great mass of young people at a prayer vigil, who also filled the square in front of the church.
Even further to the north, also a few days ago, in Piacenza on the banks of the Po, churchmen, theologians, philosophers and artists, believers and nonbelievers decided to discuss precisely this theme: "Prayer and experiences of God."
The meeting, organized as a "Festival of theology," was begun on May 22 and concluded on May 24 with two "master lectures": the first by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and the second by the most famous of the German Evangelical theologians, Jürgen Moltmann.
The speakers included Philippe Némo and Mario Botta, PierAngelo Sequeri and Elmar Salmann, Massimo Cacciari and Guido Ceronetti.
Of particular interest in Cardinal Ruini's lecture are the passages in which he analyzes the objections that today's culture raises against prayer, and, conversely, the profound meaning of prayer as a "serious matter" on which the Christian faith stands or falls.
[Magister reproduces the translation of Cardinal Ruini's full text.]
Magister rightly takes note of events last week at which the practice of prayer is urged, but it is odd that he mentions the Pope's Monte Cassino addresses in isolation, as it were, from his other exhortations to prayer, which are a constant element in Benedict's religious texts as well as in his addresses to priests and bishops.
This week alone, after Sunday in Montecassino, he spoke about prayer in all three of his public discourses (not counting his 'secular' addresses as head of state to the new ambassasdors today).
To the Italian bishops yestrday:
"This ministry is a service to the Church and to the Christian people, and requires profound spirituality. In response to the divine calling, this spirituality must nourish itself on prayer and an intense personal union with the Lord in order to be able to serve our brothers through preaching, the sacraments, an orderly community life and help to the poor."
In the catechesis on St Theodore the Studite on Wednesday:
Apart from describing how Theodore defended the veneration of icons as a communication with God through Jesus and the saints, the Holy Father also pointed out Theodore's belief that "he who is fervent in his material commitments, who works with assiduity... will also be the same in his spiritual commitment" and how the saint considered his spiritual directorship of his monks as his priority duty.
And in his Tuesday address to the annual pastoral convention of the Diocese of Rome:
He exhorted the lay faithful to "prayerful listening to the Word of God", assiduous participation in the Eucharist (the ultimate prayer), and considering liturgy - communal prayer - as "a way through which the truth of the love of God in Christ reaches, fascinates and enraptures us".
Finally, besides the present example of the Holy Father, one cannot forget how much John Paul II's prayer life was such a major feature of his Christian testimony - as it must be to any Pope, as priest and as universal Pastor.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/05/2009 21:59]