Chapter 20. Revernce in Prayer
Whenever we want to ask some favor of a powerful man, we do it humbly and respectfully, for fear of presumption. How much more important, then, to lay our petitions before the Lord God of all things with the utmost humility and sincere devotion. We must know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words. Prayer should therefore be short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace. In community, however, prayer should always be brief; and when the superior gives the signal, all should rise together.
Today we have left the neighborhood of liturgical instructions, but are still discussing prayer. For Lay Cistercians prayer should be the first thing on our minds in the morning, then punctuate our day, and be the final act of the evening.
It is interesting that we are taught to pray short prayers, and with not too many words. Occasionally when people lead a public prayer it goes on so long that everyone starts to wonder just what is s/he really trying to say. Or is it, what are they trying to prove? Somewhere in the bible it says something like "you will not be saved by many words."
Also interesting in today's reading is how Benedict acknowledges the occasional prolongation of prayer by the Holy Spirit. Oh! that is indeed a blessed moment in prayer, when the Holy Spirit holds rapt our attention, teaching us. Is that not the reason we are Lay Cistercians to begin with? Did we not feel our hearts thrill within us when we first decided that the "it" we encountered in the Cistercian monastery had to be God calling us to kind of life that demanded a certain Rule, a certain expression? Did we not find it in the silent solemnity of Cistercian worship speaking to us in the deepest levels of our psyche?
If Huerta has shown anything, it has shown that this is a feeling shared by Lay Cistercians world wide, independent of one another, independent of culture, or background. This is a call from God, and Benedict is here to help show us the way.
May God bring us altogether to everlasting life.
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