"What is this 'simple prayer'?"
I've been asked this question by someone I love, and I'm answering it here because as a Christian and a Catholic I hope I love not just that someone but everyone, and I want the blessings this prayer brings for all.
St Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ calls it the 'prayer of the heart'. Fr Caussade, spiritual director of St Jane de Chantal and many others, tells us this prayer causes a person to advance towards God more in one month than any other pious practice in fifteen to twenty years.
It is simple, but it requires discipline and commitment. It's the prayer of meditation which leads to contemplation; it's the contemplative practice taught in the Catholic Church since the time of the Desert Fathers. It is not 'Christian Meditation', a craze that swept the world, a form of centering prayer which leads as Fr Thomas Dubay SM, a modern spiritual director, says, to a dead end. We can discern that by looking for CM's fruits: where are they? Not thronging our seminaries.
How do we practise this 'simple prayer'? We dedicate at least ten minutes (the bare minimum) of our day to sitting in silence, waiting on God. You will think you haven't got the time, but if you attempt this prayer you'll find God rearranges your life so that you do.
And I'm assuming you're Catholic and free from serious sin. If there's something weighing on your conscience you need to begin by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Best to set your alarm ten minutes early and do it first thing in the morning. Choose a comfy but upright chair in a quiet place where you'll have no interruptions. Close your eyes and bring Jesus Christ to mind. Picture him in your favorite Gospel episode, perhaps. Say a very short prayer, a mantra you could call it, which you repeat mentally throughout. I use "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner", but just the word "Jesus" is enough. What's important is focusing on our Blessed Lord and his love for you.
If you're like St Teresa of Avila, who claimed to have no imagination, you might need a book to help you get started. The New Testament, or something written by your favorite saint. St Therese of Liseux is very readable and so is St Francis de Sales.
Distractions will happen, and keep on happening. Try to keep your thoughts fixed on Christ, or the Gospel, or some doctrine of the Church, but if you find yourself thinking about what you have to do today, or what you'll eat for breakfast, or what a waste of time this is, gently bring your mind back to the business in hand: the love Christ has for you. You might need to re-open your book for a moment or two, but only for as long as necessary. You're not there to read, you're there to meditate.
That's it - to begin with. If you persevere in doing this prayer, God will eventually take over and do it for you. That's what's called 'infused contemplation' and that's what you're aiming at, because it causes your will to be joined to God's.
I have to set a timer to tell me when my prayer is up, and I finish with a 'Glory Be to the Father' etc.
There it is. It's as simple as that. Nothing, nothing, will do you more good and bring you more quickly to Christ.
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