The Prayer of One's Total Being

The Prayer of  One's Total Being

The life of a Congregation does not depend on its activities but on the charismatic spirituality inherited from its Founder. This is the historical-theological reason which justifies the presence of a Congregation in the Church.

It is inescapably true that the attitude which keeps spirituality alive is prayer, understood not just as prayers" or "emotional practices" but as that way of life which consciously puts Christ at the center of one’s existence and makes every thought, decision and gesture begin with Christ, even those we might consider quite commonplace.

The distinction between "spiritual Christians" and "psychic Christians" is based on this truth. The difference between the two categories is not to be found in the fact that one has been baptized and the other not, but in the lifestyle the believer leads after baptism.

They have "psychic" Christian lives as if the Spirit did not exist. The Spirit of Jesus is in no way a point of reference for his thought, his decision, or his choices. He believes in God but lives "as if" God did not exist. He is a practical atheist.

The spiritual Christian lives in a conscious commitment to refer himself continually to the Spirit of Jesus and makes conscious decisions as he keeps the Spirit of Jesus in mind.

This method of linking oneself to God becomes the prayer of one’s total being, a living prayer. And this is why one author says that the Christian commitment is not just to bring prayer into one's life but to put one’s life into one's prayer.

"The prayer of one's total being" is a typical expression of Fr. Alberione. For this very reason he always admired St. Paul's spirituality: not just to "say" prayers but to "be" prayer.

Here are some statements found in two meditations given to the Rome community on November 16 and December 31, 1963.

1. How are we to understand the prayer of one’s total being?  Prayer, no matter of what degree, must always be living prayer, that is a prayer which encompasses our whole life, concentrates all our activities and puts all our faculties in motion. All our life: the present life and eternity. Prayer must always include mind, feeling, will and the day's activities.

2. Such a prayer is not an option but an indispensable way of looking at things. Prayer is like the blood which leaves the heart and goes through all the members, nourishing and enlivening the whole organism. It must influence the apostolate, the recreation, study, everything we do and all our relationships, just like blood which must flow to every part of the organism to enliven it and make it active.

3. The Bible is the foundation of such prayer.  Prayer must engage our entire day and our whole being, because the whole person must be made holy. Whoever finds his spirituality in the Bible clearly has a complete prayer, a wholistic and God-pleasing one . . . From it we draw leaching and piety, reform of life and of the apostolate, everything.

4. We need to examine ourselves often on the totality of our prayer: is our prayer total? Separating apostolate from prayer is like have a member paralyzed, an important member which does not receive its blood-supply. This point is so important that it should be considered in a month of meditations.

~Dec. 2015 Concord