Why We Were Made: Infused Prayer

Going back to my little book, The Spirituality of Saint Faustina, it says that Saint Faustina was often in the prayer of infused contemplation. It gives this example from the saint’s diary: “I more often commune with the Lord in a more profound manner. My senses sleep and, although not in a visible way, all things become more real and clearer to me than if I saw them with my eyes. My intellect learns more in one moment than during long years of thinking and meditation, both as regards the essence of God and as regards revealed truths, and also as regards the knowledge of my own misery” Diary #882. When God infuses Himself in a person through contemplative prayer, the person’s knowledge and love and all the other virtues grow very rapidly, much faster and far deeper than one can ever achieve without infused contemplation. This is evidenced by the fact that Saint Faustina had no theological training, and yet she had many and deep theological insights and a profound understanding. Her heroic virtue was also do to this infusion of God.

In another place in her diary, she wrote: “My communion with the Lord is now purely spiritual. My soul is touched by God and wholly absorbs itself in Him, even to the complete forgetfulness of self. Permeated by God to its very depths, it drowns in His beauty; it completely dissolves in Him—I am at a loss to describe this, because in writing I am making use of the sense; but there, in that union, the sense are not active; there is a merging of God and the soul; and the life of God to which the soul is admitted is so great that the human tongue cannot express it. When the soul returns to its habitual form of life, it then sees that this life is all darkness and mist and dreamlike confusion, an infant’s swaddling clothes. In such moments the soul only receives from God, for of itself it does nothing; it does not make even the slightest effort; all in her is wrought by God” Diary #767.

The sense are not able to contain God, so deep prayer requires that the sense be bypassed in order that the true receptacle of God, the soul, may be ready and waiting for whenever the Lord decides to act and infuse Himself into one well prepared for His wondrous self-gift. If one is inordinately attached to anything, he will not be able to be free to be attached to the only True Attachment, the Divine Bridegroom. Penance, suffering, humiliation, and deprivation all help prepare our sense to be bypassed so that we can get on with the real reason we were made. Obedience and trust prepare our wills so that it can come into perfect union and harmony with God, and so that He can infuse Himself into our wills. When one gives such a love to God, the Lord always gives so much more in return because He gives Himself, and He is God, the Almighty, Eternal One.


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Blessed Feast of Divine Mercy

Continuing where I left off in my little book, The Spirituality of Saint Faustina: The Road to Union with God, we have part of the answer to a question with these words, "In her life Sister Faustina came to know the mystery of Divine Mercy in the work of creation, redemption, and glory by very simple means, such as spiritual reading, daily meditation, listening to conferences, reflecting on the mysteries of the rosary and the stations of the way of the cross, participating in retreats, profoundly experiencing the holy sacraments, the solemnities of the Church throughout the liturgical year, as well as pondering and perceiving all the good that God had placed in the world and in her personal life" (p. 24-25).

The question is, "How do I draw close to God? You say that we are all called to be married to God, but how does one do that?" I will attempt to answer this question more and more as the days go by. I have been mostly concerned trying to show that we are called to such a state. I have put precious little time learning and trying to explain how one does it. The how has been much better answered by others, so I will do what I can to explain what these others have said.

My little book continues saying that Saint Faustina knew that she needed to "constantly work on herself, develop the attitude of continuous conversion, and strive for Christian perfection. Such a disposition of soul leads to the state of contemplation of God" (27). That is easy to say and demanding to put into practice. It can be simply put: it is a state where one continuously seeks to turn fully to Christ, imitating Him in all possible ways.

So do I need to enter a monastery or a convent to reach the state of the mystical marriage? No. That can be a great help, but it is not necessary. "Sister Faustina's life, while running its course behind convent walls, demonstrates that contemplation is possible anywhere, not only in the chapel or during prayer, but also at work and in all the circumstances of daily life. For its essence does not consist in being secluded from the world, but in consciously staying with God" (28, emphasis added).

Shortly after beginning her life as a religious sister, Saint Faustina wanted to leave it to go to a more contemplative order. It was God's will that she stay where she started, and by her staying there it showed "that is is possible to attain even the peaks of contemplative life in every vocation, in every circumstance, in the drab, everyday human life by carrying out the most mundane duties" (29). Of course, she lived a life of prayer and penance, and "She spent all her free time with the Divine Guest within her soul" (33).

This corresponds to what Father Dubay says when he says that union with God "cannot be produced by techniques, because it is above all a love matter before it is anything else--and precisely because interpersonal intimacy is its heart, it is suffocated, even killed, by selfishness in any form" (p. 81 of Fire Within). Also, if one is going to make any real progress in loving God more, it is essential, "as far as his state of life permits, to try to put aside all unnecessary affairs and business. For those who hope to reach the principal Mansion, this is so important that unless they begin in this way I do not believe they will ever be able to get there" (82).

Personally, that is my focus these days. Am I wasting any of my time? Am I keeping the presence of God throughout the day? Do I remember that Jesus lives within me and waits to spend time with me? Am I selflessly giving myself to others, especially my wife and my five children? Do I take pains to help make my home a secure and supportive environment where joy is palpable?


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Universal Call: Mystical Marriage

Blessed Easter!

I picked up a little book a few weeks ago at church when two Divine Mercy sisters came to speak. The book I bought is called The Spirituality of Saint Faustina: The road to union with God. Years ago I bought her diary; that was before she was even beatified. I read some of it at the time; I figure I must have given it away at some point because I don't remember having seen it for years and years. I was going to buy it from the good sisters the other day, but they were sold out of her diary. I started reading my new little book today.

On page twenty-four I found this beautiful quote from her Diary #1523: "I can never help being amazed that the Lord would have such an intimate relationship with His creatures.... Every time I begin this meditation, I never finish it, because my spirit becomes entirely drowned in Him." That corresponds well with what I am trying to say. One of my main points is that we are all called to such an intimate relationship with God.

The Church teaches that all are called to holiness. Holiness comes through a deep prayer life. The well-known and very faithful spiritual guide and author, Father Thomas Dubay, S.M., has an entire chapter on this question in his classic, Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel--on prayer. He says there is no true holiness without deep, mystical prayer: "Ss. Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross are emphatic that without a deep rooting in a serious prayer life no one comes close to living the Gospel ideals with completeness" (199).

Father Dubay poses the question this way: "Is everyone called by God to infused contemplation and to the very fullness of it, the transforming union? Can a person attain to perfect holiness without this kind of prayer? Are there two ways of sanctity, an active, ascetic way and a passive, mystical way? Or is there only one way meant for all, active and ascetic in the beginning, but becoming passive and mystical in full development?" His answer is that in the Scriptures, Saints John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, and the constant teaching of the Church, there is only one way to holiness, and it is the transforming union.

This is what I am trying to say: all are called to mystical marriage with God. I am not saying that many get there; I am only saying that all are called. I am arguing it primarily from the Scriptures with an emphasis on the first few chapters of Genesis. Father Dubay says "...That most people, lay, religious and priestly, assume without study that they are not called to advanced prayer. They take it for granted that the prayer of which Ss. Teresa and John write could not be meant for them. They lose sight of the fact that both of these saints are presented by the Church as universal Doctors precisely because of their teaching about the lofty reaches of the spiritual life. So deeply engrained among us is the minimalistic view that the majority are surprised to hear it said that the heights of prayer are open also to them. Yet people who really want God are, I find, thrilled at the thought that they too can aspire to fullness" (200-201).

I am not a good guide for reaching the heights of prayer; others like Father Dubay are able to do that. My ability is to better enable others to understand the Scriptures; of course, understanding God's Word is helpful in loving Him more and drawing nearer to Him. First and foremost, my goal is to awaken in people the realization that God created us for a marvelous reality. He created us for Himself, to be His spouse. That is why He was willing to become a baby, live an obscure, poor life for thirty years, and die a horrible death as a man nailed naked to a tree. He did all that because He thirsts for you and me.

I'll end with one more quote from the good Father Dubay: "...Once we understand the universal call [to mystical marriage] we are more likely to be willing to pay the price to attain its object. Advancing in prayer is not the result of a mere velleity any more than the selfish loving of another human person issues from wishful thinging. Both demand great detachment from self-centeredness and a strenuous carrying of the cross. If we see that the summit is open to us, we find in the vision a fresh impulse to go sell all that we have and buy the pearl of great price" (201).


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.