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THE BIBLE: MY PRAYER BOOK
By Fr Patrick Fitzgerald - Lombard O. Carm.
Last month I wrote about the Bible as my prayer book. Because we belong to the Church, it is also natural for us to gather in groups to pray the Scriptures together. So let us now see how we can use the Bible as our prayer book.
The following steps give us a simple way of doing this:
1. The leader welcomes everyone and prays for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2. The leader announces the passage and invites someone (chosen beforehand) to rea
d the selected passage.
3. After a pause for a few minutes, the members then each read aloud a word, phrase or sentence, which has spoken to them. In this way the group hears again the passage in a way which reflects its own needs
4. The leader then announces silence for so many minutes, perhaps 10 to start with.
5. The leader then invites members of the group to share what they have received.
6. Prayers of intercession follow and the whole concludes with the Lord’s Prayer and Glory be...
This works best with a group that meets regularly. What might seem strange at first will settle down and flow naturally so that after a while the leader will scarcely be needed.
It takes time too for trust to grow in the group. What we are called to do is to share what we have received in prayer. Sharing always speaks of “I” and “me” and must be received by others in silence and with respect. It is a privilege to be sharing our faith with others.
Further thoughts and reflections
We always pray as members of the Church, we are always among the baptised, whether they are actually present with us or whether we are alone. Our personal prayer, our personal journey of faith is all important but always within the body of Christ. We can speak of our personal prayer but our prayer is never individual prayer.
Praying on our own reading the Scriptures follows the process of Lectio Divina, Holy Reading, as I described in The Voice last month. I stressed that the four stages of Reading, Meditation, Prayer and Contemplation describe what is happening, these four stages are not a method but rather unravel what happens when we encounter the Word of God in prayer.
While each one of us within the group will be following a process of Lectio Divina what is happening in the group as a whole will be rather different. Because we now have a group or community praying together we need a method.
The aim of a group praying together is to support each other and to share in faith what we receive through our Lectio Divina. Each one of us will receive different graces, different gifts of contemplation during the time of prayer. By sharing what we have received we are helping to build up our community and encourage each other in our journey of faith.
The aim therefore is to share in faith. Sharing though is not discussion or preaching. Sharing is a personal witness to what I have received in prayer to be received with faith and trust by the others present. Sharing is always “I” or “me”; it is never “we”, it is certainly never “you”. What is shared is heard in silence and there is no response to it, either within the prayer session and certainly not after it. The whole time of prayer in a group must be a privileged session for those taking part, the support and encouragement we receive because others have shared their faith and their prayer with us. Of course it takes a long time for trust to build up within a group. A group which meets for shared biblical prayer needs to do so regularly and to persevere for a long time if it is to bear fruits. If someone is unable to be present then they must be careful to let the others know beforehand. Great courtesy is also part of great trust.
There are a number of methods of praying the Bible together. The one I like the one I outlined because it has a clear direction first evolved in Soweto back in the days of South African apartheid. It may help to be clear about the length of time to be set aside, an hour is good. The session though will develop as members become comfortable with each other.
Above all praying together regularly like this will give a new outlook on life. In the words of the Second Vatican Council: “faith throws a new light on everything, manifests God’s design for man’s total vocation and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human.” (GS11)
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