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Accompanying Another in Prayer
Tony Horan SJ is the National
Chaplain (Ecclesiastical Assistant) to CLC in England and Wales.
He lives in North Wales, at St Beuno's Spiritual Exercises Centre
in Clwyd.
This is
a very grand title for a very simple thing; something that members
of CLC do at every meeting, when we listen to what God is doing in
each other's lives and try to help each other discover where God
is leading us. Out there beyond the Christian Life Community there
are lots of people who need the support of someone else if they
are to go on seeking God in prayer, especially when things get
difficult.
What
does accompanying another involve ?
First
of all and above all, it means listening. So many people in our
world don't have anyone who will really listen to them; certainly
not, when they want to talk about God. So it is a great blessing
to be prepared to listen. What are we listening for? Many things,
but particularly for what the other really wants. Our deepest
desires are God given and indicate the unique way God is leading
us and they indicate what God wants to give us. To help a person
explore what they are really looking for is the first step.
Strangely it is not always easy to know what we want from God. So
often our feelings are ambivalent. Sometimes we resent God because
of the hold God seems to have on us; it is as if we want to be
free of God in order to go our own way and yet, deep down we
discover a hunger for God. It is only when we talk this out that
we discover what our heart wants. We may be angry with God because
we blame God for what has happened to us or to those we love, but
try to hide our anger from God because we don't think it's
appropriate. We don't realise that it is an act of trust to be
able to be angry with God and we need someone to tell us that to
express our anger to God is prayer. Always our emotions are a clue
to what we want from God at this moment in our lives.
So the
first step in prayer is knowing what I want to pray for. (In the
Spiritual Exercises it is called the grace or that which
I want.)
Once we
have helped someone discover what they want to pray for, it is
easier to find scripture passages or hymns or poems or images
which will help the prayer. So often we are helped by images: it
may be an empty chair beside me on which I imagine Jesus (or any
other member of the Trinity) sitting while we talk together or it
may be an image of a favourite place where I feel comfortable and
therefore more able to talk straight to God.
The joy
of accompanying someone in prayer is to find out how close God is,
for God is just on the other side of that person drawing them
close and supporting them.
Tony Horan SJ
Progressio - World Christian Life Community,
1992 No. 4-5
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