Are Our Parishes "Schools of Prayer"?

R. Thomas Richard

John Paul II has exhorted all Christian communities to become schools of prayer, where Christians can learn the art of prayer.

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, our Christian communities must become genuine "schools" of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly "falls in love". (John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 33)

We Catholic laity for the most part live in two Christian communities: the home and the parish. Each of these holds its own unique primacy for us, in the particular ways appropriate to them. This paper is concerned with that responsibility of the parish. For many Catholic adults today, very poorly catechized in their youth, the ways of prayer will be learned in and through the parish, or not at all. Until the deficiencies in their childhood formation are corrected and filled through the parish, these adults will remain poorly equipped to create "schools of prayer" in their homes and for their children.

We Come to Know Christ in Prayer

We need the light of Christ, or else we walk as in darkness, stumbling over every obstacle that is thrown in the path. We need His virtue and love in our hearts, or else we fall to temptations and urges as quickly as any unbeliever. We need to know, in the deep knowing of faith that He is here with us, closer than our breath. Apart from Him, the divine Companion, we stand and walk alone, no matter how numerous those around us, no matter how crowded the journey. Apart from Him we are weak and easy prey to the fears that imprison and enslave us. We need Christ, and the strength of His grace. Therefore we need prayer. We need to learn prayer; we need to live prayer. "Pray always," is the exhortation from Scripture: we need to remain, moment by moment and always, in communion with Him who is life.

The more deeply we see into the mystery that is prayer, the more importance do we hear in this charge from John Paul II: our parishes should be schools of prayer. Prayer is union with God - it is covenant relationship with God. Prayer is our bond with Him: it measures our closeness to Him, or our distance. It is the gauge of intimacy and fidelity in Him, or it reveals estrangement from Him. If we do not know Him in prayer, then we do not know Him and our religion is without the vital power of love.

There are many ways that a parish can occupy time, and multiply programs, and yet fail to be a school of prayer. A local Catholic community can offer events pleasing to this group or that group in the parish - dinners and raffles, breakfasts and dances, luncheons and festivals - and yet stay far from guiding us to true personal union with Christ. Baptisms can be celebrated, and Confirmations, and First Penance - even the Holy Mass can be celebrated and Eucharist received, yet how many remain unchanged, distant, unconnected to the Source given so intimately to them? How many kneel in silence, trembling in the real and living presence of Christ within? How many, a scant few moments later when the Mass is over, chat and chatter busily of this or that worldly concern, oblivious to Him whom they had so recently received in Communion?

It is in prayer that we find Him, and begin to hear His voice. It is in prayer that we come to know Him, and knowing Him, we love Him. It is in prayer that we touch Him, as when the crowds pressed upon Him yet one woman alone touched Him such that He knew power going out from Him. (Mk 5:31) It is in prayer that He touches us, with His heart pressing upon our own hearts, leading us into the consecration that is life in Him.

Our parishes are to be schools of this prayer. Within the friendships and fellowship of a people gathered about the altar, we are to learn Him in the communion of prayer. How vital our local churches would be, if in truth He were our center! How fervent would our love be, such that the whole world would take notice, if in truth His blood coursed through our veins! In our parishes we gather for the sacraments, we listen to the homilies, we have our social events and our meetings - we recite prayers alone and together - but do we come to know Him in prayer, ever more intimately, as He intends, and as we ought?

John Paul II has seen and articulated the need very clearly. Has the Church responded? Has your parish responded? His Apostolic Letter continues, "It is therefore essential that education in prayer should become in some way a key-point of all pastoral planning." (NMI 34) It will take planning, and commitment, and perhaps above all recognition of the need. That lack of recognition, where this need remains unattended, is sadly a consequence of a lack of prayer itself - a poverty that begs us to cry to God ever more fervently, to awaken our pastors and our people.