Life_as_prayer


Life_as_prayer

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32 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
2.2 LIFE AS PRAYER
Fr Ivo COELHO
Councillor for Formation
In his Presentation of the documents of GC27, the Rector
Major, Fr Angel Fernandes Artime, speaks of the "grace of unity":
it is "the way ahead in order to respond with generosity and be
ourselves: consecrated Salesians, brothers at the service of the
young. In welcoming this gift we encounter a characteristic
feature of our spirituality - union with God; this fosters the uni-
fication of our life: prayer and work, action and contemplation,
reflection and the apostolate" (CG27, p. L2).The Chapter itself
chose the icon of "The vine and the branches" as a symbol of the
deep unity between being mystics in the Spirit, prophets of fra-
ternity, and servants of the young. We want to offer here a reflec-
tion that might help us on our journey towards the unification
that transforms us into contemplatives in action (C l2), persons
with a "closely-knit life project" like that of our father Don Bosco
(c 21).
There is no doubt that Salesian life is characterized by tireless
work, in fidelity to the motto "work and temperance", but above
all in imitation of Don Bosco. Work alone, however, can become a
great risk, an obstacle to prayer. We are not referring here only to
"prayers", understood as "practices ofpiety", but above all to that
"union with God" that ought to characterize our whole life.
Recalling the beautiful phrase of St Teresa of Jesus that "mental
prayer is nothing but friendship, the willingness to spend much
time in the company of someone who we know loves us",' we
could ask: how might our lives become an experience of God, a
loving encounter with him? And how might our mission set the
tenor of our whole life (C 3), in such a way that life becomes
prayer?
' "Que no es otra cosa oraci6n mental, a mi parecer, sino tratar de amistad, estando mu-
chas veces tratando a solas con quien sabemos que nos ama." St Teresa ofJesus,VidD8,5.

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GIJIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 33
In the very first section on the fundamental identity of the
Salesian, our Rule of Life says:
"As he works for the salvation of the young, the Salesian experi-
ences the fatherhood of God and continually reminds himself of the
divine dimension of his work: 'Apart from me you can do nothing'
(Jn 15,5). He cultivates union with God, aware of the need to pray
without ceasing in a simple heart-to-heart colloquy with the living
Christ and with the Father, whom he feels close. Attentive to the
presence of the Spirit and doing everything for God's love, he
becomes like Don Bosco a contemplative in action" (C 72).
How could we transform this ideal into reality? Clearly, we
have no intention of downplaying the importance of ttre practices
of piety and of the sacraments that give concrete shape to our
dialogue with the Lord. We are asking, rather, about how our life
and work might become experience of God.
"Life as prayer": The distinguishing mark of Salesian
prayer
To this question, which lies at the very core of our life as con-
secrated apostles, we have an extraordinarily rich response in our
Constitutions. Article 95, which in fact bears the title "Life as
prayer", runs thus:
"Immersed in the world and in the cares of the pastoral life, the
salesian learns to meet God through those to whom he is sent.
Discovering the fruits of the Spirit in the lives of men, especially
the young, he gives thanks for everything; as he shares their prob-
lems and sufferings, he invokes upon them the light and strength of
God's presence. He draws on the love of the Good Shepherd, whose
witness he wants to be, and shares in the spiritual riches offered
him by the community. His need of God, keenly felt in his apostolic
commitment, leads him to celebrate the liturry of life, attaining
that 'tireless industry made holy by prayer and union with God'
that should be the characteristic ofthe sons of St John Bosco."'
' While union with God is the topic of C t2, C 95 on life as prayer occupies a very
special place in the Constitutions, coming as it does at the very end not only of ch. VII: In
Dialogue with the Lord, but also of the Second Part of our Constitutions: Sent to the

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34 AjTS oF THE GENEBALC)UNCIL
In order to highlight some of the elements of this beautiful
text, I would like to compare it with the earlier version in the
Constitutions approved ad experimentum by the Special General
Chapter (1972). Interestingly, the text of 1972 speaks of the
problem of the synthesis between prayer and life: "The Salesian
immersed in the world and in the cares of the apostolate may
at times find it difficult to meet God freely and sponta-
neously." This observation certainly contains some truth, but at
the same time it implies a certain dichotomy, which recurs once
again towards the end of the article: "an interior need of God can
lead us to live in him 'the liturry of life', offering ourselves in our
daily work'as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God' (Rom
L2,l)." (C 67,1972) This also is true, reflecting as it does the whole
spiritual tradition of the Church; but we could ask ourselves: is
this "offering of ourselves" not so generic that it could be applied
to just any kind of work and to any kind of spirituality?
Our present article, instead, tries to overcome this dichotomy
at its very root. It proposes to us o Salesian way of understanding
the relationship between our work and union with God. We might
add here that it was not easy to arrive at the formulation of this
article, which is a true jewel of Salesian spirituality: only towards
the very end, in the frnal draft, did the Chapter hit upon this won-
derful and illuminating synthesis. This can be seen from the very
first words of the article, which stand in sharp and explicit con-
trast to the earlier text: "Immersed in the world and in the cares
of the pastoral life, the salesian learns to meet God through
those to whom he is sent." And the same thing is highlighted
at the end: "His need of God, keenly felt in his apostolic com-
mitment..."
I would like to invite you to an attentive and careful reading
of this article in order to discover in it precious elements that con-
stitute a set of eriteria that can not only help us discern whether
Young - in Communities - following Christ. GC22 was extremely attentive to the structure
of the Constitutions, and the position of C 95 makes it a kind of summary not only of our
life of prayer but of our whole life. It deals, precisely, with life as prayer.

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 35
our activity is becoming prayer, experience of God, but can also
suggest the conditions of possibility for moving towards such
prayer and experience.
1. In the first place, we find an element that is essential and
indispensable: being in the midst of young people and with them.
This "active and friendly presence" (C 39) that we call "assis-
tance" has nothing to do with a police kind of presence that is in-
terested solely in keeping order. But neither is it merely some-
thing on the basis of which we then go on to do other, more im-
portant things. Our mission does not consist in "doing things"; it
consists in being like Jesus and in him, epiphany, revelation, the
Face of the Father; it consists in being signs and bearers of his
love (C 2). Salesian presence is a concrete mediation of the pres-
ence of "God-with-us"; and in some way we can say that it is an
anticipation of Jesus'prayer to the Father for all of us: "Father, I
desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me
where I am" (Jn 17, 24). This "being-with" constitutes the heart
and essence of eternal life: being with God and with all our broth-
ers and sisters.a This is one of the aspects in which all of us are
called to grow: all of us, and not only our young confreres, are
called by vocation to be "assistants".
2. Salesian presence is marked by a very clear characteristic:
the consciousness of mission. The text of the Constitutions
speaks not just about "people", and not even merely about
"young people", but explicitly about "those to whom he is sent."
No matter how much good will we have, we will not find the Lord
a It is worth dwelling on Salesian presence as an anticipation of eternal life, and as
essentially a being with God and with all our brothers and sisters. On the former point, see
J. Ratzinger, "My Joy is to Be in Thy Presence: On the Christian Belief in Eternal Life",
in J. Ratzinger, God is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life (lSan Francisco: Igrratius
Press, 2003). On the latter, see the pregrrant suggestion ofJ. A]ison that "thejoy that was
set before him [Jesus] " (Heb 12, 2) was precisely "the possibility of delighting forever in a
huge celebration along with a huge multitude ofus human beings, people who are good,
bad, creative, depressive, but humans and, for that reason, loved." J. Alison, .Bois ing Abel:
The Recouery of the Eschatnlogical Imagination (New York, Crossroad, 1996), 189. "Where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt 6, 21). The heart ofJesus is certainly
set upon his Father and upon us, his brothers and sisters.

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36 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
if we do not search for him in those to whom he himself sends us.
This is one of the essential elements of Salesian obedience, un-
derstood as the constant and passionate search for the will of
God, after the example of Jesus: "My food is to do the will of him
who sent me" (Jn 4,34). This is not always easy, especially when
the work is not "gratifying".
3. In this movement towards the young people to whom we
are sent, we find an interesting dialectic: God waits for us in these
recipients of our mission, but at the same time we are called to
bring them His saving Love. This is a dialectic which, in certain
sense, we also find in the words of Jesus in Mt 25, 31-46. This
seems to me the central element if Salesian life is to become
prayer. It can be summed up in the phrase "leaving God for God",
provided we understand it well and not just as a convenient ex-
cuse either to abandon 'prayer' for 'work' or the other way
around.
4. The educational and pastoral work for young people pre-
supposes an analysis of reality on the basis of faith and the Sale-
sian mission. It means looking at the youth situatiott. through the
eyes of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in the style of Don Bosco. Such
a "reading" determines whether a particular action is really Sale-
sian, or whether we are reduced to being, as Pope Francis repeat-
edly says, a mere NGO working for the welfare of youth. This
"pastoral look" - and the "serene attentiveness, which is capable
of being fully present to someone without thinking of what comes
next" (Laudato Si'226) - will enable us to discern the evangelical
priorities in our work, and at the same time recognize "the work
of the Spirit" in the lives of young people: otherwise we run the
risk of working a lot, but leaving aside the mission - a very real
danger, given the complexity of the youth situation.
5. A feature of Salesian prayer, emphasized from the begin-
ning in our Rule of Life, is the inseparable relationship with life,
following the example of Don Bosco who "lived an experience of
humble, trusting and apostolic prayer in which praying and living

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 37
were spontaneously united" (C 86). Article 86 ends by stating
that Salesian prayer "is drawn from life experience and flows
back into it": it is both source and summlf, as the Second Vatican
Council says, speaking of the Eucharist.
It is not a question, therefore, ofleaving our pastoral projects,
enthusiasms and disappointments "at the door of the chapel".
What kind of person is he who is entering into dialogue with God
if we do that, we could ask: an empty person, without identity or
history without reasons for meeting the Lord... As we have seen
already, article 95 speaks explicitly of "the need of God, keenly
felt in his apostolic commitment..."
6. Trying to make this point even more concrete, the same
article indicates, in a way that is brief but very important, how
different "forms" of prayer arise from the life situation of our
young people: "discovering the fruits of the Spirit in the lives of
men, especially the young, he gives thanks for everything;u as he
shares their problems and sufferings, he invokes upon them the
light and strength of God's presence." The prayer of praise and
thanksgiuing arises from the contemplation of the work of the
Spirit in our youth (here again we need the look of faith of the
Good Shepherd: we must remember that Jesus praises and gives
thanks to the Father even after the failure of his preaching in the
cities of the Lake: Mt 11,25-30). The prayer of petition arises from
the sharing in their problems and difficulties. I would like to add
a form of prayer typical of the mediator-apostle that is too often
forgotten: that of intercession ("so that the design of the Father
may be fulfilled in each of them" - C 86) and even reparation in
its truest sense.
7. Finally, among many other aspects, I want to underline the
community dimension of our prayer: "(the Salesian) shares in
the spiritual riches offered him by the community". In the light of
all that we have been saying, could we not understand this also as
' The article cites Eph 5,20; I would add Phil 4,6 (the Pauline text in the Mass of Don
Bosco).

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38 ACTS oF THE GENERAL C?UNCL
a conl.munity sharing of the experience of God of euery confrere?
How wonderful it would be if, in the community, we could talk
about and share the way in which each of us "finds God" in those
to whom we are sent! I think of the icon of Emmaus: between
those who stayed behind in Jerusalem, and those who went to the
village, there is an exchange of encounters with the risen Lord
that culminates in the presence of the Lord himself (Cf. Lk 24,
33-35).
Concretely..
What we have been talking about is certainly an ideal, a goal
that we do not always reach in our daily lives. On the other hand,
it remains true that it is a key element in our spirituality: the
"grace of unity", the call to become "mystics in the Spirit" and
"contemplatives in action." This, I think, is also the goal of life
understood as ongoing formation, and so I would like to empha-
size a key word that I have deliberately avoided up to now: "the
Salesian learns to meet God..." This word indicates that we need
a period of learning, an apprenticeship, in which personal effort is
certainly called for, but also time, accompaniment, and experi-
ences that facilitate such learning. We should not assume that
every encounter and work with young people automatically be-
comes prayer and encounter with God. In other words, having re-
flected on the "what" , we need to insist also on t}rre "hou)."
Before going on, however, I would like to note that the "what"
that we have been outlining above is itself eminently practical,
and in that sense already a "how." "We are as we come to see and
as that seeing becomes enduring in our intentionality. We do not
come to see, however, just by looking but by training our
vision through the metaphors and symbols that constitute our
central convictions."u In any effort to change our lives, acquiring
6 Stanley Hauerwas,Vision andVirtue (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,
1981) 2.

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GIJIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 39
a right vision is far more important than diligently exercising will
power. Jesus, we might remember, used images. "Willpower is a
notoriously sputtery engine on which to rely for internal energr,
but a right image silently and inexorably pulls us into its field
of reality, which is also a field of enerry."' Moving towards life as
encounter with God, or, better still, union with him, involves a
training of our vision that cannot be underestimated.
It is up to every province and every local community to find
ways and means to this end. But we could also go back to the "cri-
teria" proposed above that are also at the same time "conditions
of possibility" for moving towards life as prayer.
The first criterion is a necessary (f[6s9fu not sufficient!) con-
dition: unless we take the trouble to be with the young, there is
no possibility of discovering the working of grace in their lives.
We note today, in different parts of our congregation, a certain
"distancing" on the part of our confreres, both young and old,
from young people, and, above all, a certain downplaying of assis-
tance, as if we had "more important things to do". We run the
risk of failing to meet real youth (often very difficult to handle),
taking refuge instead in virtual encounters through the many
modern means of communication - though sometimes we might
go to the extent even of "offering these to God"! But this is not
the way to become "good shepherds of the young", after the ex-
ample of Don Bosco. It is, instead, essential to offer our young
confreres the experience of being with youth, educating them
- and this is indispensable! - to the true meaning of Salesian
assistance, which of course is to be done not merely by words but
by example.
The second, third and fourth criteria involve, in fact, a train-
ing of our vision: the consciousness of mission, the awareness
of the dialectic between God who awaits us in the young and our
' Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational
Holiness (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans / Leominster: Gracewing, 1992) 6.

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40 ACT9 oF THE GENERAL C)UNCIL
vocation as epiphany, the "pastoral look." Merely "being with the
young" is not enough: it has to be done with a sense of mission,
which derives directly from obedience understood as a search for
and fulfilment of God's will. We need to discover strategies and
lines of action to strengthen this "sense of faith" in working with
youth, avoiding any kind of individualism or "purely personal
choice" in educative and pastoral action. It is not enough to mere-
ly "do good things", or even to "find God in people". We are called
to Iind God precisely in youth who are "poor, abandoned and in
danger" (C 26), "primarily boys and young men" (R 3), and not
just in any people at all.
T}ae fifth condition is the dialectic between "prayer" and life:
there is a vital relationship between our "practices of piety"
- community as well as personal - and life. Jesus himself felt the
need to spend long moments in prayer. Love is first and foremost
a state rather than an act, but it needs the acts, the special mo-
ments that declare, affirm, celebrate, share and strengthen it. It
is of vital importance to overcome a dichotomous attitude. The
God we discover in those to whom we are sent is also the God be-
fore whom we stand and whom we invoke and celebrate and
thank in our formal and informal moments of prayer. The Sale-
sian needs to take time out of his busy day to look back, relive,
give thanks, intercede. He cannot afford to neglect the quiet mo-
ments that are built into the structure of community life. Such
practices and moments are important elements in the dialectic by
which we move towards the loving union that is life as prayer.
Our life and our work enters into these moments, our intentions
are purified (C 90, 91), our eyes are sharpened and our vision
cleared, so that we can see the work of God in the lives of those to
whom he sends us. It is time to pay heed to the call of our recent
General Chapters and to give special attention to personal prayer
and meditation, where each of us expresses our own personal and
heartfelt way of being son of God, giving thanks to the Father and
telling him about our yearnings and concerns in the apostolate,
and recalling that for Don Bosco mental prayer was "a guarantee

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 41
of joyous participation in our vocation", strengthening our inti-
mate union with God, saving us from routine, keeping our hearts
free, drawing energy and endurance, and fostering our dedication
to those to whom we are sent (C 93, 88). As provincial and local
communities, we need to also give renewed attention to our
monthly recollections and annual retreats, which are "privileged
moments for listening to the Word of God, discerning his will and
purifying our hearts", and which "restore to our spirit a deep uni-
ty in the Lord Jesus and keep alive in us the expectation of his re-
turn" (C 91). To this we need to add the spiritual guidance that
'trains' our eyes, that helps us develop the contemplative intelli-
gence that is the ability to discern the presence of God and the
working of grace in our own lives and in the lives of those to
whom we are sent (see GC27 67.2), as well as pastoral accompa-
niment in the early years of ministry - and here novice masters,
Rectors and spiritual guides of postnovices, practical trainees and
young confreres in specific formation have a very special respon-
sibility. In the early years of formation, especially, we learn and
are helped to remind ourselves of the divine dimension of our
work. We become aware "of the need to pray without ceasing in a
simple heart-to-heart colloquy with the living Christ and with the
Father", we learn to attend to the presence ofthe Spirit and to do
everything for God's love (C 12).
The sixth condition, the "forms" of prayer, needs no further
comment. The seuenth, the community dimension, is worth
dwelling upon, because of the way it makes sense of the insistence
of our recent general chapters on common forms of prayer, both
new and old. One of the difficulties with regard to community
prayer is fraternal sharing, in particular of our experience of God.
It is not easy to "re-educate" ourselves in this sense. It is, of
course, much easier to do this with young people who are begin-
ning their Salesian life, but even with them it cannot be taken
for granted. It is important to find suitable moments of commu-
nity sharing (including lectio diuina) in order to educate them
(and ourselves) to pray together on the basis ofour educative and

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42 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
pastoral experiences: prayers of thanksgiving, petition, interces-
sion, reparation... Such experiences strengthen and deepen fra-
ternal life in an extraordinary manner, so as to become almost a
thermometer of it: where there is no deep communication, com-
munity life is very superficial, and sometimes even inexistent.
I invite the Rector of each community, after having studied
and reflected personally on this letteq to help each confrere do
the same, and to make possible a moment of community sharing
and dialogue, with the help of these or similar questions: What
aspects of this letter raise an echo in me? Where would I/we need
to grow? What steps could I/we take in this direction?
In a special manner, I invite novice masters, Rectors and spir-
itual guides at all levels of initial formation to work out ways of
accompanying our young confreres, as individuals and as com-
munity, in their journey towards life as prayer.
Let us, dear confreres, invoke together the assistance of Our
Lady, "model of prayer and pastoral love" (C 92) and "Mother and
Teacher" (C 98) and of St Joseph, "master of the interior life", of
our father Don Bosco and of a host of confreres, great and small,
among whom Blessed Artemide Zatti andVen. Simaan Srugi, who
lived the grace of unity and now intercede for us.