Friar’s Corner: Types and levels of prayer

Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR

Exodus 17:8-13; Psalm 121:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:14- 4:2; Luke 18:1-8     

Holy Spirit, please, take us deeper in our understanding of prayer. The Exodus reading speaks of Israel winning the battle against Amalek and his forces by the persistent of Moses with his hands raised in prayer. In St. Luke’s gospel today, Jesus recommends persistence in our prayer. The old Baltimore Catechism first defines “prayer as the lifting of our mind and heart to God.” The current Catechism defines prayer as a “vital and personal relationship with the living and true God” (CCC, no. 2558). Prayer is Christian “insofar as it is communion with Christ” (CCC, no. 2565), and a “covenant relationship between God and man in Christ” (CCC, no. 2564). There are seventy pages about prayer in this new catechism.

Many Catholics do not understand the various types and levels of prayer. There are three major types of prayer. First, we have the Purgative level of prayer. This category means working to get rid of the major sins in our life, like weeding a garden. The next stage embraces most of our life. It is called the Illuminative level. It deals with how the Holy Spirit guides us deeper into our relationship with God. The last stage is the Unitive level. It is more toward the end of our life when we have a deeper and quieter personal relationship with God.The Catholic Church tells us about ten levels or types of prayer. These are petition (asking), intercession (praying for others), penitence, (asking for forgiveness), praising, worshiping, adoring God, thanksgiving, meditating on scripture passages or spiritual books, contemplation (going into complete silence), and praying in tongues (new languages given by the Holy Spirit). The latter has nineteen explanations in the New Testament. This is still a big secret except for those in the Charismatic Renewal Movement.

Eight categories

We can think of these various prayers in eight categories.

1) Vocal prayer which we usually say with our mouth or think of asking God for something. Most people stop there because they don’t know there are higher levels, like climbing steps to a higher floor.

2) Meditation involves thinking about the meaning of certain scripture passages and their meaning in our life.

3) Affective prayer simply involves a level of loving God from our mind or heart.

4) Prayer of Simplicity means a loving gaze at a loving picture or statue or adoring Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle or exposed on the altar.

5) The Night of the Senses in which God withdraws consolation in our prayer with him. It is called a dark night. This is when many leave the church because they “don’t get anything out of the Mass anymore.”

6) We are drawn into Contemplation. This involved silent union with God. Here there are no prayers or words spoken, just silence and you are not asleep.

7) The Night of the Spirit, in which there is no consolation from prayer. This can be for a longer time when the person thinks he or she is separated from God. Keep praying for this is just a period.

8) The highest or last level is called Transforming Union. In this level, there is a beautiful union between a person and God himself. It is called a mystical marriage or union.

Call to holiness

In the last sixty or so years we hear the popes, like Pope St. John Paul II, calling us deeper into union with God and using the term “the universal call to holiness.” If we remain committed to the practice of our faith and keep trying to go deeper, the Holy Spirit leads us on to these deeper levels. If we don’t understand or respond, we remain at vocal prayer. Relationships are meant to be progressive. Most Catholics never move on because they don’t know there is anything better

I would encourage you to spend a little time looking at these types and stages of prayer to see where you are. God always has much more for us. God manages our lives, the entire world and universe. He is not limited in what he wants to give us. The question comes down to whether we want more. Fr. Bartholomew J. O’Brien wrote a short and simple book to help his family and others understand. It is called, “Primer of Prayer.” It is published by Queenship Publishing Company, P.O. Box 220, Goleta, CA 93116, (800) 647-9882 or (805) 692-0043, www.queenship.org.

St. Luke, the evangelist

Last Friday our Church celebrated the Feast of St. Luke, the evangelist. He is so important and impressive I want to share these paragraphs about him.

We know little about St. Luke’s origins. Tradition tells us that he was a well-educated Greek doctor probably a native of Antioch, Syria, and was converted to Christianity. He is the only non-Jewish writer in the Bible. He wrote one-third of the New Testament, a two-volume work, his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, sometimes referred to as the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. In these two books, he showed the parallel between the life of Christ and that of the Church. St. Paul calls him “the beloved physician,” (Colossians 4:14). His Gospel was probably written between 65 and 85 A.D. After Paul’s beheading, Luke seems to have returned to Greece where he wrote his two books. He died a natural death perhaps in Boeotia, at the age of eighty-four. He is the patron of physicians and painters and is represented in art as an Ox.

These are important facts about St. Luke. He appears in Acts of the Apostles during Paul’s second journey. He remained at Philippi for several years until Paul returned from his third journey. He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem and remained near him when he was in the prison in Caesarea. During these years, Luke gained much information and interviewed persons who had known Jesus. He accompanied Paul on the dangerous journey to Rome where he stayed near Paul in his imprisonment.

Six insights

Luke wrote as a Gentile for Gentile Christians. He knew of the other gospels. his gospel reveals Luke’s expertise in classic Greek style as well as his knowledge of Jewish sources. The character of Luke may best be seen by his emphases of various subtitles. First, the gospel is one of Mercy. Luke emphasizes Jesus’s compassion and patience with the sinners and those suffering. He has a broad-minded openness to all, showing concern for Samaritans (half-breed Jews), lepers, publicans, soldiers, public sinners, unlettered shepherds and the poor. Luke alone recorded the stories of the sinful woman, the lost sheep and coin, the prodigal son and the good thief.

Second, his Gospel is expressed his gospel expresses Universal Salvation: Jesus died for all people on earth. Jesus is the son of Adam, not just of David, and Gentiles are Jesus’s friends also. The third insight about Luke’s gospel is that it is the gospel of the poor. “Little people” are prominent like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, shepherds, Simeon and the elderly widow and Anna. We learn more about the birth of Jesus from Luke. He is also concerned with what we now call “evangelical poverty.” Fourth, Luke’s Gospel is noted for Absolute Renunciation. He stressed the need for total dedication to Jesus Christ. Fifth, this gospel can be called one of prayer and the Holy Spirit. Luke showed Jesus at prayer before every important step of his ministry. The Holy Spirit is in charge of bringing the Church to its final perfection. Lastly, this gospel can be called one of joy. Luke succeeded in portraying the joy of salvation that permeated the primitive Church.

These are amazing aspects to see in St. Luke’s Gospel. Acts of the Apostles, by some called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, is the life of the primitive Church for about the first fifty years. How was the Holy Spirit working very powerfully in the lives of the earliest evangelists especially Peter and Paul? We could ask ourselves this question, “How does the Holy Spirit want to empower us to be torches of his Good News and new life in our parishes, dioceses, country and world today? “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in us the Fire of Your love.

Have a blessed week being lifted closer into the mind and heart of God through Jesus and their Holy Spirit.

+ Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com

(© 2019 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)