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http://vultus.stblogs.org/2007/07/domine_doce_nos_orare.html
Domine, doce nos orare
Seventeenth Sunday of the Year C
Genesis 18:20-32
Colossians 2: 12-14
Luke 11:1-13
Making Connections
In his classic commentary on the liturgy, The Church’s Year of Grace, our wise old friend, Dom Pius Parsch, taught us the importance of making connections. He showed us how to relate the antiphons of the Divine Office to the chants, readings, and prayers of the Mass. He invited us to experience the sacred liturgy as an organic whole. Each individual part can and must serve as the key to another.
Taking It In
Rarely is there but one theme in a Sunday Mass; the liturgy is too vast, too lofty for anything like that. There are, rather, multicoloured threads running through the Divine Office and Mass of any given Sunday. One can focus on one or another of these, or one can stand back, as one would from a tapestry, and take in the magnificent whole. This, of course, requires some investment of time and study on our part. More than anything else, it demands humble prayer. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26).
The Divine Office
Sunday Mass can be approached in a variety of ways. But how, I ask you, does the Church herself approach it? And how does she prolong it even through her evening sacrifice of praise? The Church approaches Sunday Mass and prepares our hearts for it through the Hours of the Divine Office, beginning with the First Vespers of Sunday on Saturday evening. Sunday Vigils (or Matins) follow and, in the day’s first light, Lauds, the morning offering of praise. The Little Hours, though brief, are steeped in the graces radiating from the Holy Sacrifice. The Second Vespers of Sunday, traditionally followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrement, constitute a solemn thanksgiving for the grace of the day’s Gospel and for the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist that fulfills it.
Looking at the Antiphons
Dom Pius Parsch would have us look very closely at the proper antiphons of the Divine Office, especially those of the Magnificat at First Vespers, of the Benedictus at Lauds, and of the Magnificat at Second Vespers. Today, I want to follow his wise counsel, and his method as well.
Magnificat I Antiphon
The Magnificat Antiphon at First Vespers placed us in the setting of today’s Mass. Here is the text given in the Liturgy of the Hours: “As Jesus was in a certain place praying, one of his disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (Lk 11:1). Domine, doce nos orare. To observe Jesus in prayer to the Father: what an incomparable grace! To contemplate His Face, to read there the secrets of His Heart, to receive from His lips even a fragment of His dialogue with the Father in the Holy Spirit! Did the disciples remember at that moment the word of the Father on the holy mountain, “This is my beloved Son; hear Him” (Lk 9:35)? “One of his disciples,” moved by the Holy Spirit, “said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (Lk 11:1).
Teach Us to Pray
There is no need to search for a particular intention in this Sunday’s Mass, no need to formulate any request apart from the one given us last evening at Vespers. “Lord, teach us to pray.” This is Church’s great desire today. All else is subordinate to this one request. This is the one essential petition. One who says, “Lord, teach us to pray,” asks, in effect, for the grace containing all other graces. Saint Alphonsus Liguori (whose feast we will celebrate this coming Wednesday) is one of the great Catholic teachers of prayer. The Neapolitan Doctor says, “God in His goodness grants to everyone the grace of prayer by which they are able to obtain all other graces which they need in order to keep the commandments and be saved.”
Saint Alphonsus
I recommend that all of you read (or read again) — as soon as possible, preferably this week — Saint Alphonsus’ splendid little work entitled “On Prayer.” It is available in any number of very readable English editions, one of them translated by the late Barry Ulanov. Here is the saint’s conclusion:
I say and repeat and will keep repeating as long as I live
that all our salvation depends on prayer
and therefore that all writers in their books, all preachers in their sermons,
all confessors in their instructions to their penitents,
should not urge anything more strongly than continual prayer.
They should always admonish, exclaim, and continually repeat,
Pray, pray, never cease to pray;
for if you pray your salvation will be secure,
but if you stop praying, your damnation will be certain.
Benedictus Antiphon
The Benedictus Antiphon this morning at Lauds gave us Jesus’ answer to His disciple’s petition. The disciple (and each one of us with him) said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In the Benedictus Antiphon, Our Lord answers, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Lk 11:9). Here we have three promises of the Sacred Heart to each of us — but they are conditional promises. Only if you ask, will it be given you; only if you seek, will you find; only if you knock, will it be opened to you. Our Lord makes it clear that we are to persevere in prayer. Never stop asking. Never stop seeking. Never stop knocking. In a word, pray always.
Pray Always
Learn to pray with every heartbeat and with every breath. If you find it difficult, or even impossible to pray, pray for the grace of prayer. And even that is hard for you, pray to be able to pray for the grace of prayer. Again, Saint Alphonsus says, “To save one’s soul without prayer is most difficult, and perhaps even impossible, according to the ordinary course of God’s providence. But by praying our salvation is made secure and very easy. It is not necessary for salvation to go among the heathen and give up our life. It is not necessary to retire into the desert and eat nothing but herbs. What does it cost us to say, My God, help me! Lord, assist me! Have mercy on me! Is there anything easier than this? And this little will suffice to save us if we will be diligent in doing it.”
With the Blessed Virgin Mary
Ceaseless prayer, like all other graces, comes to us through the maternal mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is in the Gospels another response to the disciple’s petition, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1), and that is the word from the Cross related by Saint John, and the example of the Beloved Disciple himself: “After that, He saith to the disciple, ‘Behold thy mother.’ And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own” (Jn 19:27). The Blessed Virgin Mary initiates into ceaseless prayer all who welcome her into their homes and into their hearts. If you would persevere in obeying the injunctions of Jesus to ask, to seek, and to knock; if you would experience the truth of His threefold promise — “it shall be given you; you shall find; it shall be opened to you” (Lk 11:9) — then consecrate yourself to Mary, and never let a day pass without praying her rosary. The rosary obtains all sorts of graces for those who pray it, but the first and greatest grace granted to souls devoted to the rosary is the grace of prayer itself.
Magnificat II Antiphon
This evening at Second Vespers of Sunday, the Magnificat Antiphon will sum up all that God would give us today: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Lk 11:13). These words of Our Lord, sung before and after the Magnificat, are the seal and pledge set upon today’s Mass and Divine Office. “Your Father from heaven will give the good Spirit to them that ask Him.” He who has the Holy Spirit has everything. To him who has the Holy Spirit, nothing else is wanting. This, all through history, is the teaching of the saints.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Where is the Holy Spirit given most abundantly, if not in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Every Mass renews and actualizes the mystery of Pentecost among us. One who has the Holy Spirit will necessarily pray with confidence, and pray always. “The Spirit,” says Saint Paul, “also helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings. And He that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what the Spirit desireth; because He asketh for the saints according to God” (Rom 8:26-27).
The Priest at the Altar
The Church teaches that when, in every Mass, the priest goes to the altar to stand before it, he does so in persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ the Head. When the priest, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, asks, and seeks, and knocks, it is Christ Himself, Beloved Son and High Priest who, through his ministry, asks, and seeks, and knocks. The Mass is the actual presence of Christ who has entered “into heaven itself, that He may appear now in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24). The priest in prayer before the altar is the icon of the interceding Christ. Is it any wonder then that the Catholic faithful, through the ages, have said to their priests, “Father, remember me, remember my petition at the altar.”
Do This
It is time now for us to ask, time to seek, time to knock with boldness and confidence. “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1). “This is my body which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me” (Lk 22:19).
Posted by Father Mark on July 29, 2007 8:56 PM | Permalink
Bump for faith.
| Lk 11:1-13 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Douay-Rheims | Vulgate |
| 1 | And it came to pass that as he was in a certain place praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. | et factum est cum esset in loco quodam orans ut cessavit dixit unus ex discipulis eius ad eum Domine doce nos orare sicut et Iohannes docuit discipulos suos |
| 2 | And he said to them: When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. | et ait illis cum oratis dicite Pater sanctificetur nomen tuum adveniat regnum tuum |
| 3 | Give us this day our daily bread. | panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis cotidie |
| 4 | And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. | et dimitte nobis peccata nostra siquidem et ipsi dimittimus omni debenti nobis et ne nos inducas in temptationem |
| 5 | And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, | et ait ad illos quis vestrum habebit amicum et ibit ad illum media nocte et dicit illi amice commoda mihi tres panes |
| 6 | Because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me and I have not what to set before him. | quoniam amicus meus venit de via ad me et non habeo quod ponam ante illum |
| 7 | And he from within should answer and say: Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. | et ille de intus respondens dicat noli mihi molestus esse iam ostium clausum est et pueri mei mecum sunt in cubili non possum surgere et dare tibi |
| 8 | Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. | dico vobis et si non dabit illi surgens eo quod amicus eius sit propter inprobitatem tamen eius surget et dabit illi quotquot habet necessarios |
| 9 | And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. | et ego vobis dico petite et dabitur vobis quaerite et invenietis pulsate et aperietur vobis |
| 10 | For every one that asketh receiveth: and he that seeketh findeth: and to him that knocketh it shall be opened: | omnis enim qui petit accipit et qui quaerit invenit et pulsanti aperietur |
| 11 | And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? | quis autem ex vobis patrem petet panem numquid lapidem dabit illi aut piscem numquid pro pisce serpentem dabit illi |
| 12 | Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? | aut si petierit ovum numquid porriget illi scorpionem |
| 13 | If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him? | si ergo vos cum sitis mali nostis bona data dare filiis vestris quanto magis Pater vester de caelo dabit spiritum bonum petentibus se |