The Prayer of Recollection

What is recollection? The term “recollection,” is used in reference to a type of meditative prayer. You may have only heard that phrase used as a hillbilly word for “remember.” In this sense though it means to bring yourself inward. Outside of us there are sights, sounds, distractions. Inside, is our soul and God. With prayer we wish to communicate with God so it makes sense to turn inward.

A few weeks ago we had a discussion about the nature of spiritual things; how the human soul, angels, demons and God are all pure spirit and as such cannot be seen, felt or known directly by our physical senses. And yet, we can know that they are real. We used an example a man born blind who, though he could not see colors, accepted their existence as real. He knew there was a difference between a red and green traffic light, because if he crossed when the light was red he would hear all the screeching tires and honking horns. He had indirect knowledge of the color that he couldn’t otherwise sense. We noted how we also have indirect knowledge of God who we cannot see directly, through visible signs of the invisible spiritual world, such as the order the universe and the design and beauty in nature. We also have indirect information from the spiritual realm through the three sources of truth in our faith: scripture, tradition and the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the church. There is another source of indirect information from God and that is prayer. While we often address God directly with audible words in prayer, He, for the most part, answers us with inaudible communications to our souls. And so to hear God’s answer to our prayers, we need to turn inward.

Detachment: Preparing for Meditative Prayer

In recollection, “the soul collects together all its faculties and enters within itself to be with its God…. My God, if I could only recall often that You are dwelling within my soul, I think that it would be impossible for me to give myself up to the things of the world, for compared with what I have within me, they seem to me to have no value at all.” –Teresa of Avila

Look over the diagram regarding happiness that we used at the last meeting. Remember the need to remain somewhat detached from the worldly sources of happiness and pleasure; to remain along the trunk of the tree, ascending towards God and true happiness, and not resting in the things of this world, slipping out onto the branches that tend to fall off into despair.

We are meant to enjoy these things, but they are like stepping stones, or like a rest stop along a long trip. The purpose of the rest stop is to refresh us so we can go on with the trip. You can imagine how silly it would be to want to stay at the rest stop forever and never get to your destination. We have to let go, even if it is painful at times, in order to arrive at our goal, which on the tree drawing is ultimate happiness and union with God.

Think of any situations you might be in on those branches, where you are really enjoying something, but you see that it is pulling you out, away from your goal; the trunk of the tree, your faith and family, and so you have to let go, and move on? Something that might be difficult or painful to let go of? For example, friends that you like to be with, but who are pulling you away from your faith in little, subtle ways; or entertainment that you really enjoy, but which tends to make you become lazy with regards to your chores or schoolwork; or recognition you get in sports or school work that feeds your pride and then makes you want to get more recognition, even at the expense of missing time with your family. Write those down on the handout or in your journals under “things to let go of.”

We don’t have to give up everything we enjoy, but we can’t be overly attached to these things, so we aren’t pre-occupied with them with thoughts of tomorrow’s soccer game for example coming into your mind during prayer. So throughout our lives, but especially now, as we prepare to pray, we let go of these worldly sources of happiness, and focus our attention completely on the top of the tree, that is God.

Trust in God

Have you ever felt worried or anxious about anything? Honestly think of things that you may have been worried, or unsure about, or things that you were just concerned about. Write them down in your journals now. Anything you can think of, write them down: homework, doing well in school, getting along with friends, having friends, being liked, becoming good at a sport or other skill. Be honest with yourself. What are you worried about? Take a few minutes and write them down.

Now draw a circle around those things and under it write “Jesus I trust in you.” Let go of all those concerns; give them to God and trust in His providence. Remember that nothing happens by chance. All things are either directly willed by God or allowed by God to happen. There is no such thing as luck, good or bad. Take a deep breath, relax, don’t worry about anything. Trust in God.

Remember the little exercise we did earlier and how hard it was initially to trust. But after a few times, with practice, you let go of your natural anxiety and uncertainty and came to trust. The more you come to know God in prayer and practice putting your trust in Him, the more you will be able to do so even when there are tough times and your natural impulses would otherwise lead you to be afraid and anxious

Turn Away from Selfishness

You’ve probable seen or heard the phrase “all natural” a lot of times in advertising, meaning nothing but good things are in that product. Many people might think that if something seems natural to do, then it’s good. It’s natural. To not do it would be unnatural, strange. The problem is, because of original sin, we have a fallen human nature. We are all naturally proud, naturally lustful, naturally gluttonous, naturally envious, and naturally lazy, we naturally covet others’ things and we are naturally prone to anger. So you don’t want to do what comes naturally. That would lead you off the edges of the tree branches, into sin and despair. You have to make an act of the will; remember you’re not just an animal that functions on instinct alone, you have a free will, that’s what sets you infinitely above all the animals of the earth. You have to choose to turn from your natural impulses and to do God’s will. That’s all you have to do; make the choice; the commitment, and God will give you the strength to do it.

Think of several times recently that you were selfish. Times you put yourself first before others in your family or with your peers. Times you took offense and got angry at something said to you; maybe you were told by a parent or teacher that you couldn’t do something, and you felt angry, thought that it was unfair. Think about times you may have made yourself look better by listening to or taking part in gossip; any time you were lazy, maybe slow to do some chore. Write several of these things down in your journals.

Now put an “X” over them and underneath write, “I choose God’s will.”

Discernment

How do we know God’s will? We noted that you are not able to see or feel spiritual things. You may wonder why God is like that. Wouldn’t it be simpler if we could just see and hear Him directly? Then we wouldn’t have to try to figure out His will for us; we would hear it firsthand. We could have our “to do” list given to us directly from God. Why can’t we see Him. Does He hide from us?

When it appears that God is hiding, He is actually right before us. We simply cannot see Him. Just like no one is hiding the streetlight from the blind man; he simply cannot see it; it’s not in his nature to see it. We don’t see God because He transcends us; He is infinitely above us. Our souls are spiritual, but our bodies are quite lowly, having more in common with animals than with angels. So it shouldn’t surprise us that our physical eyes and ears, so far beneath the spiritual realm cannot apprehend it. We know that one day these bodies of ours will become transcendent themselves like the body of The Virgin Mary and Jesus, but for now, they are within the confines of this world.

This can be discouraging. If I can’t feel any of this communication with God, how do I know if I’m doing it properly? How do I know if I’m “hearing” it right, if I can’t hear it at all? And if I’m not aware of it, what good does it do me?

When great saints like Teresa of Avila write about communications they received from God, they tell us that Jesus “spoke” certain things to them, which they “heard” not with their ears but with their souls. Such communications are not apprehended by our senses. So how did Teresa of Avila “know” what was spoken to her soul?

Discernment is determining what God is saying to us: figuring out His will. Since this will is “spoken” to our souls, we don’t have direct access to it, but we do have a sort of spiritual feedback. This is like the physical feedback we have in sports: knowing that your shot is going to go in even before you see it – knowing that everything “felt” right. When we feel everything is on track, and “right” with something we’re planning to do and there is no conflict with the other sources of indirect knowledge (scripture, tradition, Magisterium), we can know it’s in line with God’s will. And even more importantly, when something doesn’t “feel” quite right, that’s spiritual feedback that you’re on the wrong track. This is also known as your conscience; a delicate whisper in your soul that you have to train yourself to be sensitive to.

Now you do have to be sure this sense is from the Holy Spirit and not just an unconscious impulse from your human nature or a temptation from the Devil. So once you receive this feedback, when you get a sense that something is right or wrong, first test it. Ask yourself, is it consistent with church teaching, or is it something that seems to be pulling you away from that tree trunk: your faith and family? Then you get advice.

When you’re swinging a baseball bat and you know something’s not quite right, what do you do? You don’t think, my deltoid muscle didn’t contract quite right there, I needed to get my scapula over a bit more… You go to your coach, who can give you guidance on how to improve your swing. With spiritual matters, when you tune in to the whisper of your conscience, you may get that sense that something’s not quite right. That’s when you go to your spiritual coach, your priest, and ask him for advice.

Through practice you can tune into this spiritual feedback so that just like in sports, it can become second nature for you. It’s like a sixth sense: you really can know if something is consistent with or contrary to God’s will, as long as you’re tuned in.

We’re prepared now – we’ve let go of our worldly distractions: we’re detached; we’ve put away our worries and concerns – we trust in God, we’ve committed ourselves to doing God’s will and are tuning in to the whisper of the Holy Spirit in our souls.

Prayer

Before we start the prayer, let’s review the 4 types of prayer. “ACTS:” Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, Supplication.

Whenever you pray, try to go through those types of prayer in that order. Then we have the 5 steps of prayer that Fr. Hardon laid out in his prayer primer.
1) Find a suitable place,
2) Remember who it is you are speaking with;
3) Say a short vocal prayer,
4) meditate on the subject you have read or heard,
5) make a concrete resolution and thank God for listening.

At the end of this prayer today, we should all make a concrete resolution of something specific we will do this summer.

As we begin our prayer, we recall the infinite difference between ourselves, created human beings, and God, the all knowing, all-powerful, completely transcendent spiritual creator.

"O Supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed truth, how far you are from me, even though I am so near to you! How remote you are from my sight, even though I am present to yours! You are everywhere in your entirety, and yet I do not see you; in you I move and have my being, and yet I cannot approach you; you are within me and around me, and yet I do not perceive you.” -St. Anselm

"Since the wisdom of this contemplation is the language of God to the soul, of Pure Spirit to pure spirit, all that is less than spirit, such as the sensory, fails to perceive it. Consequently this wisdom is secret to the senses; they have neither the knowledge nor the ability to speak of it.” - John of The Cross

We’ll use this one stanza from John of The Cross’ poem to enter into our meditative prayer. The analysis is from John of the Cross’ own explanation. We’ll have everyone close their eyes at this point, as I read over these lines from John of The Cross.

“In darkness:” Remember the analogy we used when speaking of the spiritual realm: the man born blind who could not perceive color. Just as he cannot “see” color, we cannot see God, angels, demons, or even our own souls. In prayer, our souls reach out to God, and as we progress in prayer, we hope to achieve a union of our souls with God. Since God and our souls are pure spirit, we cannot “see” them or this interaction with our senses. And so we head out “in darkness.” Picture yourself in total darkness, the thick, black darkness of a night with no moon, no stars, no lights. You can see nothing, touch nothing, sense nothing with your body. Reach to touch now only with your spirit “in darkness.”

It is “secure” because this communication between our souls and God is “secret” being imperceptible not only to us, but also to the devil and other demons. The “secret ladder” is our way to God, our intimate communication that even we cannot know directly.

“Ah, the sheer grace:” This interaction, communication with God is a pure gift: sheer grace. It is not dependant upon any technique, no chanting mantras, no specific lotus position or any other action on our part. It is given to us freely and abundantly. We need only be receptive in the proper state to receive it.

“My house now being all stilled:” The house all stilled is the soul in that proper state: in “recollection:” detached from outside influences, quiet, not distracted by the senses, or preoccupied with other concerns, in darkness, ready to pray.

You’re using your sixth sense now: the supernatural sense of your soul.
Bring to mind the fact that you are in the presence of Almighty God.
Silently and slowly say a Hail Mary now to yourselves.
Remember the reality of the soul; the presence of The Trinity within your soul. God is very close by: He is within you. As you turn inward, your soul is becoming more receptive.

Remember the reality of the communion of saints. All the saints know what we are now saying and doing. St. Faustina, St. Teresa and St. John of The Cross, please pray for us, and assist us in our prayer today.

Mary, Mother of God, please pray for us and help us to pray.
Turn away from all other thoughts and distractions. Ask for that deep faith; that living water. Imagine yourself extremely hot and thirsty and picture a cool running stream: the water of life that flows from God.

Offer yourself to God. Remember that anything good you have is from Him. Offer it back to Him, and ask Him to give you a deeper faith. Going against your nature, give up any self-centeredness or selfish thoughts. Trust Him to do what is best for you. Fall into His arms with complete trust.

Picture the “X” you drew over the selfish things you had done. Consider how you can put God’s will first; how this might change your day-to-day activities with your family, jobs, school, with all aspects of your life. Think of different situations and like Jesus in the garden, say now to God, “Not my will but thy will be done; in Latin, fiat voluntas tua.” Turning inward, keeping your “house still,” continue to pray in silence, eyes closed, becoming receptive to the sheer grace of God.

Know that your soul is real; that God has spoken to you and is speaking to you now. Know with certainty that this is real like the blind man knows the red light is real, and like you know that gravity is real. Let The Holy Spirit guide you. Don’t worry about words or thoughts, just love with your whole heart. Give yourself completely to God. Say to yourself, “God is my father and I am His child.” Picture a little 3-year-old child running to his father, calling out, “Daddy, Daddy!” Let that love, the love of a little child for his daddy, rise up within you. Tune in to the whisper in your soul. Consider things you might do for God this summer out of love for Him. As you consider each possibility, what does your spiritual feedback tell you? Does everything seem to fall into place, or is something not quite right?

Focus on a concrete resolution: some way that you will choose God’s will over your own natural will. It may be a one-time thing or something you will do on a regular basis. A resolution to do something specific this summer: Something beautiful for God. As you end your prayer, thank God for the privilege of speaking to Him and write down your resolution on your index card.

“The greatest fulfillment is in doing God’s will. We do not have to do great things, only small things with great love. We do not have to be extraordinary in any way. I can do what you can’t do and you can do what I can’t do. Together we can do something beautiful for God. We can be the little pencils in the hand of God.”
- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta