meditation


meditation

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POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
FOR DAILY MEDITATION
IN THE SOCIETY OF
ST FRANCIS DE SALES
Catania 2020

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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Beginning the journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vocal prayer, mental prayer, meditation, contemplation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Teachings on meditation at the beginnings of the Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
With Don Bosco and with our times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Personal prayer and Liturgical prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The anthropological value of meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Paul Albera . . . 8
Suggestions and general reflections on the “method” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The three fundamental stages of meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The role of the body in prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Criteria used for the choice of the suggested methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Luigi Ricceri . . 16
Suggested methods for meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1. SIMPLE METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Simple repetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Jesus Prayer or prayer of the heart (Hesychasm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Composition of place (St Ignatius Loyola) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A word on the role of the imagination in meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Mira que te mira (St Teresa of Avila) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
An examen for the coming day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Egidio
Viganò . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2. STRUCTURED METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Lectio Divina according to the method of Guigo (Guy) the Carthusian . . . . . . . . 26
Lectio Divina according to Carlo Maria Martini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Lectio Divina. Fr Pascual Chávez’s summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Ignatian meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Simplified Ignatian method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The method taught by the Vade mecum (Fr Giulio Barberis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The “seven steps” method (Lumko – Africa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The ruminatio method (according to Clodovis M. Boff) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Fr Thomas Keating’s Centering Prayer method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Juan Vecchi 40
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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Introduction
“I need to make a very special and clear recommendation regarding a means that I consider is
essential for any method of spiritual work to be effective. I intend to speak about meditation…
If the Lord is not with us and does not work with us, our work will inexorably be condemned
to sterility. All this means that prayer and the spirit of union with God are necessary: we
need to pray and meditate a lot; we need to have our novices pray and teach them in time to
meditate well. Our members when they come to the novitiate already love prayer in general
... But they could not have any idea about meditation. Therefore, at the beginning of the
novitiate, your first great concern should be to teach them how to meditate, well convinced
that only when they have begun to have a taste for meditation will novices be able to begin
real progress in the spiritual life.”1 (Fr Philip Rinaldi).
W e have chosen to begin this booklet of ours with a quote taken from a 1930’s letter
addressed by the then Rector Major to the Cari Maestri degli Ascritti (Dear Novice
Masters), because to us it seems to sum up well the fundamental aim we have set
ourselves: to provide some pointers and concrete suggestions in order to return to making
something vital and effective of this practice of piety that our Constitutions prescribe and that
the Church continues to point to as essential in the initial formation of young seminarians
and religious.
“To be formed in the spirit of the Gospel” we read in the ratio of the Congregation for the
Clergy, 2016, entitled The gift of the priestly vocation, “the interior man needs to take special
and faithful care of the interior spiritual life, centred principally on communion with Christ
according to the Mysteries celebrated in the Liturgical Year and nourished by personal
prayer and meditation on the inspired Word. In silent prayer, which opens him to an authentic
relationship with Christ, the seminarian becomes docile to the action of the Spirit, which
gradually moulds him in the image of the Master.”2
This renewed exhortation of the Church to silent prayer and to the art of meditating,
as resources that allow us to preserve our identity, comes to us at a particular moment of
our experience as believers and religious. Fr Clodovis Boff wrote some years ago: “The
daily grind stuns and baffles us. Always agitated, we live projected outwards. We are like
a popular boarding house with its bustle of people of all kinds. And so we run the risk
of losing our identity. We no longer know who we are and where we are going. We are
becoming empty and subjectively impoverished and, as a consequence, we lack inner peace,
we fall prey to discouragement, anguish and, at times, depression.”3
The effort and strain that has swept through the daily practice of meditation, however,
is not something recent, if it is true that already in 1971 another Rector Major, Fr Luigi
1 P. Rinaldi, Cari Maestri degli ascritti, in ASC A 384.01.15.
2 Congregation for the Clergy, The gift of the priestly vocation. Ratio fundamentalis institutionis studiorum, 8 December
2016, 42.
3 C.M. Boff, Come fare meditazione. Il metodo della ruminatio, (How to make meditation, the ruminatio method)
Cinisello Balsamo 2010, 8.
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Ricceri, stated in his Report on the state of the Congregation presented to the Special General
Chapter: “It seems to us that we can say, based on the external data we possess, that there
has been a notable decline in the congregation, a very noticeable lowering of the spiritual
level, especially in the area of piety and spiritual life”;4 and two years later, in his circular
on Our Prayer he wrote: “The painful summary of everything however is here: we pray little
and badly.”5
This authoritative, courageous intervention of the Salesian magisterium Is in line, as
we will have occasion to say, with other voices that have preceded and followed it. Don
Bosco himself, in the second Italian edition of the Constitutions (1877) wanted to insert in a
central position, after the introduction To the Salesian confreres and before the constitutional
text, a lengthy letter by St Vincent de Paul to his religious (of active life!) on the importance
of meditation in common and the need to get up at the same time in order to make it; a
clear reminder of the importance of a practice of piety that, we may hypothesise, became
problematic from then on for the young Congregation. “The grace of vocation is bound up
with prayer”,6 St Vincent had written to his religious; and with the authority of this Saint of
charity, Don Bosco made it his own, framing this message of the French saint in an important
way and entrusting it to the fledgling Congregation.
This booklet of ours, addressed to all the confreres but in a particular way to those who
share responsibility for initial formation of novices and young Salesians, comes from the
desire to contribute to making some rules of the game more vital and shared, rules that are
the basis of a healthy pedagogy to prayer, in line with the current teachings of the Church
and with our tradition.
It would seem especially important to us to emphasise the need for this initiation to prayer
during early formation to Salesian religious life. For on it will depend, often continuously,
the very attitude with which we will live out the different moments of our community life
and our personal life of prayer for the rest of our years. The lack of this gradual pedagogy,
combined with a practice focused on the obligations of religious life rather than on the
authenticity of the relationship of love which can fill each and every one of our practices of
piety with meaning, can make the experience of prayer tiring and lifeless, at time indelibly.
After some initial clarifications that are needed in order to undertake the journey, we
have dedicated a few pages to the role and opportunity of a method that makes the meditation
envisaged by our Constitutions more effective and fruitful. We will then move on to a
practical description of some methods, from the more simple and immediate ones to some
other more structured ones that the experience of the Church and the Congregation have
given us.
By its very nature and because of the purpose it sets out to achieve, this booklet needs to
be “experienced” personally and communally, as well as to be read with care. The various
4 SGC, Report on the state of the Congregation, 32
5 ASC no. 269, 12.
6 Regole o costituzioni della società di S. Francesco di Sales secondo il decreto di approvazione del 3 aprile 1874, Torino 1877,
47.
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methods proposed should be gradually tested in practice, preferably with the help of a guide,
with a view to developing a personal and effective method.
In his letter of invitation to the Bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth, the then Rector Major,
Fr Pascual Chávez urged us: “We must have a deep knowledge of Don Bosco’s spirituality
and also live it. A knowledge of the external aspects of Don Bosco’s life and activities and of
his method of education is not enough. At the foundation of everything, as the source of the
fruitful results of his actions and activities, there is something we may often overlook: his
deep spiritual experience.”7 The precious charismatic legacy we have received comes to life
again for us in the task of returning to reading the past, especially our valuable magisterium,
in order to write a future that is consistent with the gift that has been handed down to us. In
this perspective, we have sought to include in the text some fragments of Salesian teaching
on the theme of meditation.
Don Bosco wrote in his Life of St Vincent de Paul published for the first time in 1848, and
then reissued in 1876 and 1877, close to the first Italian editions of our Constitutions: “There
is nothing so in keeping with the Gospel as the gathering of enlightenment and strength
through prayer, reading and solitude, and thus making people part of this spiritual pasture.
It is to imitate what was done by our Lord, and after him by the Apostles; it is to combine
the tasks of Martha and Mary; it is to follow the example of the dove, which digests half of
the food it has swallowed, and then with its own beak passes the rest into that its chicks’
mouth to feed them.”8
Our hope is that this precious spiritual food can continue to nourish and make ever more
fruitful the mission entrusted to our Congregation.
7 AGC no. 394, 11.
8 G. Bosco, Il cristiano guidato alla virtù ed alla civiltà secondo lo spirito di San Vincenzo De’ Paoli, Torino 1848, 39-40
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Beginning the journey
“The Lord leads all persons by paths and in ways pleasing to him, and each believer responds
according to his heart’s resolve and the personal expressions of his prayer. However, Christian
Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer: vocal, meditative, and contemplative.
They have one basic trait in common: composure of heart. This vigilance in keeping the Word
and dwelling in the presence of God makes these three expressions intense times in the life
of prayer.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2699).
T he first thing to do, before beginning our journey, is to try to understand the terms
we will be using: mental prayer, meditation, contemplation… are they synonymous, or do
we need some clarification? These initial clarifications will help us approach our less
recent tradition with greater awareness, and interpret some of the texts our magisterium has
handed on to us. Every genuine memory, in fact, translates into a task, into the responsibility
to remain faithful to ourselves and to the gift we have received.
Our current Constitutions C 93, says: “For us mental prayer is essential. It strengthens
our intimate union with God, saves us from routine, keeps our heart free and fosters our
dedication to others. For Don Bosco it is a guarantee of joyous perseverance in our vocation.”
Instead, we read in the Regulations: “Every day the members will spend in common at least
half an hour for meditation and some time in spiritual reading.”
Let us be immediately clear that the personal reading of a good book can be a great
resource for our spiritual life; in the strict sense, however, it cannot regularly replace the
time given to meditation which, as we will be saying, is in the first instance silent prayer, a
personal and intimate dialogue with God.
These initial clarifications, even if they force us to be pharmacists for the moment, are
essential if we wish to approach the Church’s tradition with greater awareness, and interpret
some of the texts that the history of Christian spirituality has passed on to us.
Vocal prayer, mental prayer, meditation, contemplation
In its more common and general understanding, the adjective mental, when used to describe
the term ‘prayer’, is the opposite to the adjective vocal; so it is not used in reference to prayer
that involves logical reasoning, but prayer that involves the affections, the human being’s inner
self, prayer that doesn’t need words to express itself. Carmelite Fr Albino of the Child Jesus
writes in his Compendium of Spiritual Theology: “Prayer is called mental when it takes place
in the powers of the soul without any external manifestation. Every act of faith, hope and
charity, every thought and spiritual affection is mental prayer, that is, an encounter with
God.”9
Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro instead, in his Methods of mental prayer, attributes this meaning
to the term diffused mental prayer, which he describes as “any pious thought that might have
9 Albino Del Bambino Gesù, Compendio di Teologia Spirituale, Torino 1966, 336.
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POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
God or things that relate to God as its object.”10, distinguishing it from formal mental prayer
that for him is “the particular exercise of the spiritual life with which we give a determined
amount of time daily or regularly, excluding every other occupation, and without the use of
pre-established verbal formulas.”11
Formal mental prayer, then, would be the practice of piety that our Regulations refer to.
“The prayer that the Constitutions prescribe for us as nourishment of the spirit” Fr Paul
Albera writes in his circular on Don Bosco the Model of the Salesian Priest “is mental prayer
which, according to St Teresa is ‘pure communion of friendship by means of which the soul
spends time alone with God.’”12
Diffused mental prayer, constant, real attention to the presence of God, then is the particular
gift for which our founder is recognised and that ordinarily we call union with God, or also
the grace of unity.
In this booklet, however, we consider mental prayer and meditation to be synonymous.
In the history of Christian spirituality, they have most often been used indiscriminately,13
both indicating, according to Lercaro’s terminology, formal mental prayer, or in other words
the particular practice of piety recommended or prescribed in religious or priestly life, and
distinct from diffused mental prayer, which can be thought of as routinely thinking of God,
something that should accompany personal prayer and more generally our entire life. In
any case we repeat the fact that the expression mental prayer does not mean reference to
prayer which only involves the mind, the intellect, but to prayer that is not reduced merely
to vocal expression. It is prayer that involves all of the inner self of the one who is praying.
“This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” (Mt 15:8).
However, we do note that in some cases the term “meditation” has been reserved for the
reflective aspect more than for the prayerful aspect of religious practice; when understood
this way, for example, it is used as we shall see to describe the second moment of Guigo
(Guy) the Carthusian’s Lectio Divina. We will have something to say about this.
The use of the term meditation14 is common to many spiritual and/or religious traditions
of various origins. What is common to these different perspectives is the search for a time
or particular technique that focuses the individual’s energies on their interior life.
The term contemplation, then, often employed in our early Salesian tradition as well,
refers much more clearly to the fundamental object of every prayer experience and, in the
final analysis, to the end or aim of the believer’s life, which is union with God, the deification
the Fathers speak about and which the Orthodox tradition often calls on. Fr Egidio Viganò
wrote: “Mental prayer evolves gradually from meditation to contemplation; it is an interior
attitude through which one enters into relationship with the love of God. St Teresa has
described it as dealing with the Lord on friendly terms.”15
10 G. Lercaro, Metodi di orazione mentale, Milano 1969, 3.
11 Ibidem.
12 P. Albera, Lettere circolari ai salesiani, Torino 1922, 443.
13 Cf. G. Lercaro, Metodi di orazione mentale, cit., 3.
14 To avoid misunderstanding, any time we refer to the particular practice of piety envisaged by the Regulations, we
will use meditation in italics.
15 AGC no. 338, 14.
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Beginning the journey
Don Bosco tells us the same thing in his life of Dominic Savio: “His preparation for
Holy Communion was most thorough. Before going to bed the previous evening, he said
a special prayer to prepare himself... In the morning he carried on his preparation, but
his thanksgiving was liable to have no end to it. If he were not reminded he would forget
about breakfast, recreation and even morning class, so caught up was he in prayer or rather,
in contemplation of the divine goodness who wonderfully and mysteriously passes on to
mankind the treasures of his infinite mercy.”
We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed
on Jesus. ‘I look at him and he looks at me’: this is what a certain peasant of Ars used to say
to his holy curé about his prayer before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation
of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes
of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion
for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it
learns the ‘interior knowledge of our Lord,’ the more to love him and follow him.”16 In any
case it is therefore the same caritas that, in the moment in which it makes us more intimate
with God and with ourselves, restores our awareness of the task that has been entrusted to
us: that of being “a good gift” for all our fellow travellers…
Teachings on meditation at the beginnings of the Society
The clearest testimonies of the relevance ascribed by Don Bosco and his fledgling
Congregation to this particular practice of piety are probably the teachings on the importance
of meditation and on how to make it. These would be imparted from the time of the first
canonical novitiate located for the first five years at the mother house at Valdocco under Don
Bosco’s paternal gaze, following the official approval of the Constitutions of the Society on 3
April 1874.
The Salesian Central Archives have preserved the handwritten exercise books in which
the first novice master, Fr Giulio Barberis,17 wrote down neatly and fully the text of the
conferences he gave the novices from 1875.18 The early pages of the first exercise book are
dedicated precisely to a lengthy conferences entitled Meditation and how to make it; we could
say that this topic is really the entrance to the experience of the novitiate.
A brief quote drawn from these pages expresses well the sentiments and deep beliefs of
this priceless master of bosconian spirituality: “Oh if only I could entice you to it [meditation]
a little today; If I could make the usefulness of it penetrate your hearts a little, if I could teach
you well how to do it; so that I would come out of this conference all happy and consoled
and could say: Oh Lord, I have put many on the right path, I have given into the hands of
16 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2715
17 From 1874 onwards, Fr Giulio Barberis would practically have responsibility for formation in the Congregation
for the rest of his life: novice master until 1900, he was then provincial for nine years and finally Spiritual director
of the Congregation until 1927, the year of his death. Considered the “guarantor” of fidelity to the founder’s spirit,
he would also have the task of overseeing all the novitiates of the fledgling Congregation.
18 Cf. ASC B 509.03.01.
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POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
many others the key to perseverance; I have rekindled the fire of fervour in those who did
not have it. May the Lord make it so.”19
The method taught by Fr Barberis since those early years, as we shall see, then taken up
again and perfected in his Vade mecum dei giovani salesiani, is substantially the Ignatian one; no
surprise given that some years later the First General Chapter of the fledgling Congregation
(1877), when tackling the question of choice of text for the confreres’ meditation, would
insist on the appropriateness of continuing to use the text by Jesuit Fr Luis de la Puente.20 We
read in the minutes: “Especially recommended is the introduction. It is an introduction that
should be read a hundred times and learned off by heart since it is worth its weight in gold.
Whoever follows well what is said there will find the way of making meditation immensely
facilitated; but one needs to have patience; beginners must be well instructed; we have to
make sure they all have the book in hand, and have them learn by that method.”21
Historian Fr Eugene Ceria wrote, in the context of 1875: “That year the novitiate was
pushed far forward on the path to normality… Piety was the cornerstone upon which the
religious life of the Oratory was to be based if regularity was to be established. Among the
practices of piety two are of the utmost importance: the annual spiritual retreat and the
daily meditation.”22
Fidelity to the charism brings with it, as we will say in the next paragraph, an awareness
of the importance the founder attributes to mental prayer in religious life, but it does not
imply the strict repetition of forms and methods that are the children of a precise historical
time. As Optiones Evangelicae stresses, it is about, “a dynamic fidelity open to the impulse of
the Spirit, which passes through ecclesial events and the signs of the times.”23
With Don Bosco and with our times
The mandate that Vatican Council II entrusted to consecrated life is that of the constant
return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes.24 Along the same
lines the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata states: “In the first place, there is the need
for fidelity to the founding charism and subsequent spiritual heritage of each Institute. It is
precisely in this fidelity to the inspiration of the founders and foundresses, an inspiration
which is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit, that the essential elements of the consecrated life can
be more readily discerned and more fervently put into practice” (no. 36).
The charism of the founder, however, is presented as a living reality prolonging its effects in
history, creatively bringing up to date, in fidelity to the gift received, the founding experience.
Progress and return to the origins, renewal and fidelity are a pair and as such need to be
19 Ibidem.
20 His widespread Meditaciones de los misterios de nuestra santa fe, con la práctica de la oración mental sobre ellos, published
for the first time in Valladolid in 1605, saw very many editions in many languages.
21 ASC D 578, 116-117. In the 1875 Italian edition we consulted, published by Marietti, this lengthy Introduction takes
up 36 pages.
22 BM XI, 254.
23 Optiones Evangelicae, 29.
24 Cf. Perfectae caritatis, 2.
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Beginning the journey
kept together. We could say that every charism is destined to remain faithful to its own
genetic patrimony, its own DNA, but also to grow and develop as a living organism that grows
while remaining faithful to itself.
In relation to our theme it seems to us that we can clearly identify as an essential
charismatic element the attention given from the very beginning to the meditation that Don
Bosco constantly recommended to the first Salesians but also to the laity and young people.
He wrote to Cavaliere Ubaldi di Bellino in 1862: “Every morning, mass and meditation.
After midday a little bit of spiritual reading.” In 1867 he wrote to Fr Giovanni Anfossi, a
past pupil of the Oratory at Valdocco: “Meditation and the visit to the Blessed Sacrament
will be very powerful safeguards for you: benefit from them.” “I recommend three things
to you” he wrote the same year to cleric Luigi Vaccaneo: “attention to meditation in the
morning; mixing with companions most given to piety; temperance with food.” To Cavaliere
Federico Oreglia, another friend and benefactor of the Oratory, he wrote in 1868: “Do not
forget to make your meditation and spiritual reading every day.” And as recommendation
to the boys leaving for holidays: “While you are at home, at least go to Holy Communion
on Sundays. During the week do not let go of your meditation each morning.”25
We note that Don Bosco constantly distinguished meditation from spiritual reading, here
as elsewhere; the latter, as we were saying, is certainly useful for spiritual life, but it is not
strictly prayer. This thought allows us to emphasise that the habitual use of a text during
the time envisaged by the Constitutions for daily meditation can be likened to a very useful
personal spiritual reading, but strictly speaking it does not absolve us from the indication
that we dedicate at least half an hour in our day to an intimate and personal dialogue with
God.
In the years preceding the foundation of the Society of St Francis de Sales and the definitive
approval of the Constitutions, Don Bosco was able to apply the principle of gradualness to the
religious in his fledgling Congregation, in relation to the requirements of religious life. We
ought not forget that in the year he began the journey towards institutionalisation, some of
his “religious” were not even sixteen years of age.26 Healthy realism, other than the desire
to avoid burdening the conscience of some of them with moral obligations beyond their
strength, probably inspired Don Bosco to a healthy prudence.
Despite all this, as we have seen, over those years there was no lack of explicit reference to
the importance of daily meditation and the Constitutions approved in 1874 would ultimately
established the length of time: saltem per dimidium horae.27For example, in a handwritten
sheet in 1866 we read that Don Bosco spoke often when preaching the first series of retreats
to his fledgling Congregation from 1866, of: “Meditation: whether short or long always do
it. It is a mirror for us, says St Nilo, for knowing our vices and lack of virtues; but it should
25 The letters we have made reference to can be found in the second volume of the Epistolario edited by Fr Francesco
Motto, in the following pages respectively: 526, 446, 458, 494-5, 407.
26 On 18 December 1859, when signing his act of belonging to the Society of St Francis de Sales, Francesco Cerruti
was fifteen, Luigi Chiapale sixteen, Antonio Rovetto seventeen. The average age of this group, other than Don
Bosco and Fr Alasonatti, was less than twenty-one years of age.
27 Regulae seu Constitutiones Societatis S. Francisci Salesii juxta approbationis decretum die 3 aprilis 1874, Torino 1874, 37.
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POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
never be omitted. The person who has no prayer is lost (Saint Teresa). In meditatione mea
exardescet ignis. It is like the warmth of the body to the soul.”28
Personal prayer and Liturgical prayer
In this first part of the booklet we have sought to also hint at one of the possible reasons
for the loss of interest, in priestly and religious life, in the practice of meditation in the time
following the end of Vatican Council II and, in particular, the rediscovery of the Liturgy as
the source and summit of the Church’s life.
If it is undeniable that the different forms of methodical prayer were born and developed
mainly during certain periods in the history of spirituality in which the liturgy and
theological reflection on the celebratory experience had lost relevance and depth, it is also
true that in no case did the liturgical reform initiated by the Second Vatican Council want to
diminish the importance of personal prayer and all other expressions of Christian piety.
In No. 12 of Sacrosanctum Concilium the Council Fathers wrote: “The spiritual life,
however, is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. The Christian is indeed called
to pray with his brethren, but he must also enter into his chamber to pray to the Father,
in secret [29]; yet more, according to the teaching of the Apostle, he should pray without
ceasing.”
Many years earlier, in Mediator Dei, Pius XII has said: “Unquestionably, liturgical prayer,
being the public supplication of the illustrious Spouse of Jesus Christ, is superior in
excellence to private prayers. But this superior worth does not at all imply contrast or
incompatibility between these two kinds of prayer. For both merge harmoniously in the
single spirit which animates them.”
The matter, however, is not resolved by discussing the greater or lesser dignity of the
two kinds of prayer, but by starting out from the belief that personal prayer, meditation,
devotions and pious practices prepare for liturgical action and originate from it. In fact the
Liturgy, “is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same
time it is the font from which all her power flows” (SC no. 10).
The heart of the liturgical spirituality which the Apostolic Letter Spiritus et Sponsa makes
reference to, on the fortieth anniversary of the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, lies
not in the exclusive use of the means offered by the liturgy, but in the awareness that all the
other means are orientated and subordinated to it.
From this point of view we strongly affirm that daily meditation is an extraordinary
resource for appreciating the texts of the Eucharistic liturgy and for making participation in
it more authentic and effective, since it is the fonte e culmine of the life of every believer.
The habit, then, of using the time for meditation to personally say the Office of Readings,
an often widespread practice among the confreres, due to the length and variety of texts
offered, risks distorting the very identity of this time which our Constitutions says is for
mental prayer, a familiar, silent spending time with God. At the strictly juridical level then, the
28 ASC A 225.04.03.
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two obligations are distinct and require, each due to its peculiar features, energies, ways of
doing them and their own time.
The anthropological value of meditation
A final reflection in this introductory part is dedicated to a fundamental matter. The initial
reference to our Constitutions, in fact, could risk framing the theme of meditation in a juridical
perspective, the one we have also hinted at in the last part of the previous paragraph.
In reality the experience teaches us that if we keep our gaze fixed on the obligation, here
as elsewhere we risk losing sight of the value and benefits that derive from this healthy habit.
“Keep silent, what a strange expression!” Bernanos has his main character say in the
Diary of a Country Priest. “It is silence that keeps us!”29
The realisation of the loss of interest on the part of some regarding the practice of daily
meditation must not result in a moralistic kind of exhortation. Such an approach would be a
loser, because it would rely on a willingness that is incapable of grasping the deep meaning
of things and the motivations that should enlighten our actions.
The risk that we religious continue to run during our periodic efforts to revise our
spiritual life, is to obstinately indulge in an ethics of obligation rather than to look for the true
motivations that should sustain our human and spiritual experience. In other words, it seems
that at times we find great difficulty in asking whether something is “doing us good”, and
instead continue tormenting ourselves by thinking that “we have a duty to do it”.
The habit, then of making meditation in common, from the earliest years of our formation
journey, has probably made it more difficult to develop personal beliefs about the importance
of considering our meditation as a precious resource, rather than a duty. The result is that
in most cases when it comes to lacking support for a community timetable, the practice of
personal mental prayer gradually comes into crisis.
One might wonder, even more radically, if prayer in our religion can even be considered
an obligation. We know that this happens in other religious contexts, while in Catholicism
the duty to pray in a strict sense seems to be the prerogative of clerics and religious. In the
recent past, then, an attempt was made to leverage the so-called virtue of religion to show
that the moral obligation of every believer to respect God springs from justice towards God,
“giving back to him” the glory and honour that are his due.
Today we understand that a perspective like this is not enough to sustain our life of
prayer. The dialogue and intimacy between two persons who love on another must flow from
a deep need, from the immediacy of a relationship that needs to be looked after and fed by
appropriate times and moments, but that could even be threatened by strict and insufficiently
internalised rules and habits.
Often our initial formation has foregrounded the obligation to respect, from the time we
entered a religious community, times for prayer in common and the different ways we do this
without allowing for sufficient growth in the relationship that should make this dialogue
a joyous one and without having applied the principle of gradualness that is the basis of
29 G. Bernanos, Diary of a country Priest, Penguin Classics 2019.
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every genuine pedagogy of prayer; daily prayer from the Psalms, too, in the early years of our
religious experience, is often imposed without an adequate biblical formation; it seems that
what is important is saying (or singing) the words together, without worrying too much
about healing our vocal prayer by involving the mind and heart.
The periodic exercise of freedom that sustains and motivates every deep relationship,
should accompany the growth of awareness of every young confrere regarding the beauty
and gratuitousness of a life of prayer that can sustain the gift of ourselves and renew the
motivations that are the basis of our choice to be religious out of love for...
Here we would have to appeal to an ethics of happiness, something to dear to both Aristotle
and St Thomas, that gives first place to the profound conviction that virtue and happiness
dwell at the same address, or we appeal to themes in Pope Francis’ magisterium and his
constant calls to joy; or, rather, to the very many scientific studies by Christians and non-
Christians alike that link the practice of meditation with physical and psychological health, as
well as spiritual health.
It should be forcefully proclaimed, even in a purely anthropological context, that
meditating is good for you and that the task of the formation process is to restore to each
confrere an awareness of the value and joy that flow from personal prayer, rather than making
it something that needs to be checked on and evaluated.
This is the ideal towards which we are striving.
Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Paul Albera
The circular entitled Don Bosco Model of the Salesian Priest by Fr Paul Albera in 1921 is
certainly one of the most interesting for “recognising” some of the features of our original
Salesian spirituality and piety. The two central paragraphs of this long letter, no. 15 and 16,
bear the titles What our prayer should be like and Method for praying well.
15. What our prayer should be like
The prayer that our Constitutions prescribe for us to nurture the spirit is mental prayer which,
according to St Teresa, is “pure communion of friendship by means of which the soul spends time
alone with God, and never tires of showing love for Him whom we know loves us”; and according to
St Alphonsus Liguori, it is “it is the furnace where souls are inflamed with love of God”. “If it helps”,
says St Augustine, to live with wise men, because there is always something to be gained from their
conversation, what should be said of those who habitually live in the company of God?” Therefore we,
my dear confreres, in order to conform ourselves to the spirit of the constitutions, should give mental
prayer the character of true intimate entertainment, of simple and affectionate conversation with God,
both to show him our love, and also to get to know better the works necessary for our sanctification
and to encourage us to practise them with greater generosity. This practice, taken in its broadest
meaning, is not only morally necessary for the preservation of the spiritual life suitable for a priest,
but absolutely indispensable for progress in the supernatural life. We must therefore attend to it with
constancy, not letting ourselves be discouraged by the difficulties that we may encounter there; and
possibly do it in common, during the entire half hour prescribed.
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16. Method for praying well
In doing mental prayer we follow the method learned during the novitiate and the years of our
religious formation, and the norms contained in the booklet: "Practices of piety in use in Salesian
houses". Let us avoid burdening the mind and heart with minute divisions and subdivisions: these
things hinder the work of the Holy Spirit, and take away from the soul the freedom of movement that
is necessary for it to rise up to God. But let our meditation be active, that is, a true work of the powers
of the soul, which nevertheless does not degenerate into arid speculation but limits the activity of the
intellect only to the considerations necessary to move the will and excite supernatural affections in
it. Spiritual teachers state that it is the common doctrine of the Saints that a special way of prayer
corresponds to each degree of perfection. Hence, as long as our soul is absorbed in outward cares and
occupations, however good they may be, as long as it is exposed to grave dangers of sinning, and at
the same time less expert in spiritual things, we will need many reflections and considerations to lift
up our minds and hearts to God and move our will to holy and strong resolutions. However, as the
power of the passions diminishes in us, as the desire for spiritual progress becomes more vivid and
the love of God more ardent, the work of the intellect will play an ever-decreasing part in our prayer,
while the movements of the heart, holy desires, supplicating questions and fervent resolutions will
prevail. This is the so-called affective prayer, which is superior to mental prayer, and which in turn
leads to unitive prayer, called ordinary contemplative prayer by the spiritual masters.
Perhaps someone will think that a Salesian should not aim so high, and that Don Bosco did
not want this from his children, since at the beginning he did not even impose on them methodical
meditation in common. But I can assure you that it was always his desire to see his children rise, by
means of meditation, to that intimate union with God which he had so admirably achieved in himself,
and he never tired of urging us to this on every propitious occasion.
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the “method”
“’Lord, teach us to pray!’ (Lk 11:1). The disciples would like to pray but do not know how
to. It can become a real ordeal wanting to speak with God without knowing how to, being
forced into silence before him, being aware that the echo of our invocation is confined within
ourselves, that the heart and mouth speak a twisted language which God does not want
to hear. In this painful situation we have recourse to people who can help us, who know
something about prayer. If someone who knows how to pray were to involve us, allow us to
share in their prayer, we would have some help! Certainly here those Christians who have
already come a long way can help us a lot, but only through the one who must help them,
too, and to whom they will direct us if they are genuine teachers of prayer, that is, through
Jesus Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
P rayer is dialogue, encounter, exchange of feelings. The initiative is always God’s, his
Spirit’s. No one can come to this encounter unless God “lifts them up”. “Who would
ever be able to free themselves” exclaims St John of the Cross, “from their way of
acting and from their imperfect condition, if you, O my God, did not raise them up to you
in purity of love....?”30
Christian prayer in its deepest expression, then, is not the result of an effort or some
human technique, but rather a gift. Just the same, like any other gift of Grace, this requires
an active acceptance, collaboration with God’s action in us. In addition to this, this gift is
“inscribed” in our nature, respects its fundamental laws and dynamics.
As a human activity, then, prayer is “teachable”. The Gospels themselves testify to this
possibility; there are many teachings about prayer in them.
Seen this way a pedagogy of prayer is possible, one that helps us to arrive at the “threshold
of the mystery”; the rest lies “beyond”, is Grace, the gift of the Spirit.
The history of Christian spirituality from its origins until our time, is rich in pointers to
and teachings about prayer and, more especially, about meditation or mental prayer. Saints,
founders, masters of the spirit have given life to schools of spirituality, including teaching
methods for deep personal prayer.
However, the method is not the prayer; no simple automatic approach is possible.
However, in its respect for human nature and its laws, it can be an effective introduction to
prayer, a help, a start; the fact remains that when prayer, on occasions in our life, springs up
spontaneously and immediately, the forced use of a method could end up even being an
obstacle to prayer.
It is appropriate to repeat this. The method is inscribed in the concreteness of our lives. Its
fundamental task, its very nature is to help us organise our time of prayer while respecting
our anthropological dynamics.
30 John of the Cross, Prayer of a soul taken with love, 25.
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It is significant, in this regard, to reread the beginning of the famous letter of Guigo
(Guy) the Carthusian to his friend Gervasius. “One day while I was busy with manual work
I began to reflect on the human being’s spiritual activity. Then suddenly, four steps were
offered to my intimate reflection, that is reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.” While I
was busy with manual work… It is in this practical and real context that Guigo’s intuition is
inscribed. He is recognised as the one who thought up the method of Lectio Divina.
The choice of method is subjective, and in our life it is temporary, never definitive. “From
the rich variety of Christian prayer as proposed by the Church, each member of the faithful
should seek and find his own way, his own form of prayer” (On some aspects of Christian
meditation, no. 29).
So, there is no method that can be universal (for everyone) and immutable (forever). Each
of us is called, dynamically, to build up his own, personal pedagogy of prayer.
Knowledge of some of the methods that the tradition has handed down to us allows
us, however, to know the “rules of the game” and to choose the pointers that best meet
our current situation or difficulties. Paradoxically we could add that the function of these
methods of mental prayer is to… lead us to do without a method, gradually introducing us to
a state of theological prayer that can mark the end of any methodological complication.
In this regard St Francis de Sales writes in his Introduction to the Devout Life: “It may be
that sometimes, immediately after your preparation, your affections will be wholly drawn
to God, and then, my child, you must let go the reins, and not attempt to follow any given
method; since, although as a general rule your considerations should precede your affections
and resolutions, when the Holy Spirit gives you those affections at once, it is unnecessary to
use the machinery which was intended to bring about the same result. In short, whenever
such affections are kindled in your heart, accept them, and give them place in preference to
all other considerations.”31
In our tradition, this particular charismatic gift received from the founder and invoked
daily is defined as union with God. As Fr Luigi Ricceri has said, “for us it remains a summit,
an ideal towards which to strive, but not yet fully achieved; therefore it must not serve as a
pretext to deprive our soul of that solid nourishment that the encounter with God can give
it.”32
We would like to repeat, in the light of what we have said thus far, that the method adds
nothing, from a theological point of view, to our concept of prayer, but at another level, the
anthropological, it is of genuine assistance especially at ordinary times or in times of dryness,
tiredness.
It would be impossible, in this short space to enter into detail regarding the countless
number of meditation methods that the Church’s tradition has handed down to us33 or
31 St Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, part 11, Chapter VII.
32 L. Ricceri, La nostra preghiera, Editrice SDB, Roma 1973, 58.
33 The most suitable tool for getting to know the classical methods of the Catholic tradition today is still the text by
Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro (1891-1976) entitled Metodi di orazione mentale, published for the first time in Genoa in
1947 by Bevilacqua & Solari - Apostolato. There are many interesting and more recent texts, but less systematic;
among others, in Italian, G. Comolli, La senti questa voce? Corpo, ascolto, respiro nella meditazione biblica, Torino
2014; F. Jalics, Esercizi di contemplazione, Milano 2018; S. Welch, Mindfulness cristiana. 40 semplici esercizi spirituali,
Cantalupa 2018; F. Lenoir, Rallenta, ascolta, respira - La meditazione che apre il cuore al mondo, Milano 2020.
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regarding those, including from more recent history, which are part of the valuable
contribution that founders and spiritual masters offer through the various schools,
movements they have given birth to.
Our task will be that of simply outlining some general principles and proposing some
methods that we believe are more suited to our spirituality and consistent with our traditions,
with the sensitivity of the Church in the post-conciliar period and with the progress of the
anthropological sciences.
The three fundamental stages of meditation
A first attempt to unify these methods and reduce them to the essential brings us to the
realisation that, in most cases, the time given to meditation is ordinarily organised in three
stages: preparation, the body of the meditation, conclusion:
1. Preparation: the preparation consists of a kind of entry to prayer. We could say that the
essence of this first stage is acquiring the awareness of God’s presence. It is a kind of re-
appropriation of our inner energies, which are gathered together in the confident certainty
that here and now the Lord wants to resume his dialogue of love with us.
In our congregation it has happened, in recent times, that this first stage has been
accompanied or guided in community meditation by a vocal prayer of introduction to
meditation; this could be an aid to concentration, but in some cases it risks becoming
a “delegation”, a distracting habit, and therefore, paradoxically, an obstacle to genuine
personal concentration.
2. Meditation: the body of the meditation is the heart of the experience; in the light of the
Council’s reflection and the Patristic tradition, we believe that the Word of God should
always be at its centre. We read in Dei Verbum no. 21: ”For in the sacred books, the Father
who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force
and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the
Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting
source of spiritual life.”
So that meditation is genuine mental prayer and not purely intellectual reflection on
themes of the Word, it must be open to a dialogue, a response of love to the initiative of
God who is speaking to us; it needs to introduce us to prayer and suggest to us what its
matter should be. “And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of
Sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together” Dei Verbum insists (no. 25).
3. Conclusion: The conclusion is the time in which the transforming efficacy of the Word of
God is embodied in the concreteness of our daily journey of growth in faith and in the
love of God and our brothers and sisters. A new awareness, a living sentiment of love, a
resolution (with due attention given to avoiding any kind of moralism), a corner of our
daily life to throw some light on…; Francis de Sales called it a spiritual bouquet, while
in Lectio Divina it is given the name actio. “By prayer” Don Bosco writes in the notes
he used for the instructions for the 1870 retreats “we mean everything that lifts up our
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affections to God. Meditation in the morning is the first. Everyone always does it, but
coming down to practice, it always concludes with a resolution so as to benefit from,
avoiding a defect, practising some virtue.”34
Before going into the presentation of some methods for meditation or mental prayer, it
seems important to us to spend a few words on the role that our body has in prayer and
meditation in particular. These considerations too, like those on method, have no particular
theological relevance but belong to the concrete nature of a wise pedagogy of prayer.
The role of the body in prayer
In prayer it is the whole of the person that must enter into a relationship with God, so
also the body must adopt a position most suited to and in harmony with this very special
relationship; something similar also happens in our ordinary relationships with our brothers
and sisters.
The body’s position, also, can symbolically express the very content of our prayer. The
publican in the parable in Lk 12 remains standing and at a distance, expressing his prayer
through his humble attitude; In the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen knelt down and cried out in a
loud voice to God not to place any blame on those who were stoning him (cf. Acts 7:60). Jesus
himself, in the Gospels, often enfleshes his prayer with his body’s attitude: looking upwards
he prays during the episode of the resurrection of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11:41) or at the beginning
of his priestly prayer (cf. Jn 17:1); he lies down with his face to the earth at Gethsemane,
while his sweat becomes drops of blood (cf. Lk 22:44).
In our tradition, perhaps as a consequence of a certain anthropological dualism that
almost opposes the body to the soul, great importance has not generally been given to the
role of the body in prayer and, more particularly, in meditation. There is no lack, however, in
the history of Christian spirituality, of teachings and traditions that enhance the role of the
body, recovering the instances of a unitary anthropology. It is enough to mention, by way of
example, the ancient tradition of the nine ways of praying of St Dominic (this is the description
of the nine different positions that the saint took in his prayers), or the indications that
Ignatius of Loyola constantly gives to those who have embarked on the path of the spiritual
exercises(“…enter into contemplation on one’s knees or prostrate on the ground or supine
with the face up or sitting or standing, always looking for what I want…” [no. 76]).
Over recent decades and in some particular contexts, awareness has grown of how
much the body’s demeanour and position can favour (or hinder) prayer. Proof of this is the
concern that animated an intervention by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith entitled in 1989 the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian
meditation. In this important document, the only post-Council one dedicated uniquely to
themes of prayer, the characteristics of Christian prayer are traced in the light of Revelation,
in order to then highlight some errors or absolutes related to some meditation techniques or
practices coming from other religious traditions, which could be attractive to people today.
34 MB IX, 708.
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At the same time, however, the document is very balanced in stating that “Human
experience shows that the position and demeanour of the body also have their influence
on the recollection and dispositions of the spirit. This is a fact to which some eastern and
western Christian spiritual writers have directed their attention ... The spiritual authors
have adopted those elements which make recollection in prayer easier, at the same time
recognising their relative value: they are useful if reformulated in accordance with the aim
of Christian prayer” (no 26).
Finally then, these techniques of relaxation, concentration, psycho-physical recollection are
in no way to be condemned or demonised, but their instrumental and relative value are to
be stressed: “The love of God, the sole object of Christian contemplation, is a reality which
cannot be ‘mastered’ by any method or technique. On the contrary, we must always have
our sights fixed on Jesus Christ, in whom God’s love went to the cross for us” (no. 31).
In conclusion, let us try to sum up some of the pointers that we consider useful and
current in a healthy pedagogy of meditation:
– experience teaches that the body’s position and demeanour are not without their
influence on the individual’s recollection and disposition;
– the choice of position most suited to concentration is a completely subjective one. In
general, however, we can say that such a position, in order to helpful for recollection,
should be neither too comfortable, leading to excessive relaxation, nor too uncomfortable,
since it would hinder concentration. At any rate the position chosen should be able to
be reasonably maintained throughout the meditation time;
– Psycho-physical relaxation techniques, especially those that refer to the control of breathing or
training, can be a useful aid, an introduction to meditation, but they should not be made
absolutes and they depend on sensitivity and previous experiences, on each individual’s
experience;
– of particular importance also is the choice of a peaceful setting, one suited to recollection.
For some and at certain times some background music can be helpful, or dimmed lighting
in the surrounds or incense, an icon or a lit candle… But even in this case we are dealing
with relative matters that can certainly be helpful for some (and an obstacle for others…);
here too the principle that any kind of automatic approach is to be avoided is valid, and
that meditation is simply, in essence as St Teresa of Avila said, thinking about God who
loves us…
– meditation is ordinarily done in common in our Salesian tradition. This circumstance can
be an added value because it supports our fidelity to the Constitutions and contributes to
strengthening communion through the mutual witness of faith. The already highlighted
danger remains of a routine that might not encourage autonomy and the maturing of a
personal journey of prayer, in the long run weakening the authenticity of our motivations.
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Criteria used for the choice of the suggested methods
This booklet proposes offering some methods that can still be proposed today to our
Congregation and especially to novices and young confreres.
The choice we have made is based on certain principles, responding to certain criteria
that we believe embody the needs and characteristics of our formation programs and, at
the same time, of our charismatic identity. Let us try to spell these out:
1. A first criterion seems to us to be sought in the necessary harmony with the current progress
of theological sciences and, in particular, with the awareness of the centrality of the Word of
God in the life of every believer. “Consecrated persons will be faithful to their mission in
the Church and the world, if they can renew themselves constantly in the light of the
word of God” (Vita consecrata, no. 85);
2. A second criterion to be considered is consonance with the tradition of our religious
family. The return to our sources, requested by the Council as an essential premise for
the renewal of religious life, allows us to appreciate some spiritual traditions and certain
pointers that can revitalise our meditation. In this regard it may be interesting to highlight
the fact, including with reference to the first criterion, that the meditation texts by Jesuits
De la Puente and Rodriguez that have accompanied meditation by Salesians for around
a century, make constant reference to the mysteries of Christ’s life as they emerge from
the Gospel accounts;
3. A third essential criterion is fidelity to our Constitutions. “Every day the members will
spend in common at least half an hour for meditation”, we read in the Regulations no.
71; similarly in the first constitutional text approved in 1874, we read: “Singulis diebus
unusquisque praeter orationes vocales saltem per dimidium horae orationi mentali
vacabit.”35 Probably we should more often emphasis the adverb saltem (at least half an
hour…!). In any case, we entrust to Fr Paul Albera the exegesis of our constitutional
dictate: “The prayer that our Constitutions prescribe for us to nurture the spirit” as he
says in his circular entitled Don Bosco the Model of the Salesian Priest, “is mental prayer
which, according to St Teresa, is ‘pure communion of friendship by means of which the
soul spends time alone with God and never tires of showing love for Him who we know
loves us’ … in order to conform ourselves to the spirit of the constitutions, should give
mental prayer the character of true intimate entertainment, of simple and affectionate
conversation with God”;36
35 “Every member, as well as vocal prayer, will give no less than half an hour a day to mental prayer”.
36 P. Albera, Lettere circolari ai salesiani, Torino 1922, 443.
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Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Luigi Ricceri
This heartfelt letter of the Rector Major, Fr Luigi Ricceri, entitled Our Prayer (ASC no. 269)
goes back to 1973. The context is the Special General Chapter, the first to be held after the
conclusion of Vatican Council II, and the beatification of Fr Michael Rua. It is a circular
written “authoritatively”, strong words on the vital topic of prayer written in the light of
data collected for the General report on the state of the Congregation prepared for the opening of
GC21. The crisis and many defections over those years thus found a key to their interpretation
in the serious and profound deficiencies of the confreres’ prayer life. According to Fr Ricceri,
the causes of this shortcoming have their roots in the early formation period, Where there
has often been a gap in the pedagogy of prayer, compounded by inaccurate beliefs about the
role of prayer in Salesian life.
Serious and profound deficiencies occur in the area of personal prayer: desertion or total
abandonment, in many cases, of meditation, spiritual reading; the same can be said of visits to the
Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary, etc. In other cases we have to lament the hollowing out of meditation
as "mental prayer" through its arbitrary substitution by different forms, perhaps under the banner
of novelty, but which are not true prayer at all. Apostolic impoverishment of work, sometimes done
merely "professionally", without apostolic intention and perspective.
I could add other findings. But the painful summary of it all is this: we pray little and badly.
One Provincial described the situation in his Province thus: “A degree of absence of God in our
language and actions. Wounded faith. Tired or over-exerted hearts. Insufficient peace and calm for
prayer and joy. The motivations for our actions lack evangelical roots and strength. Interiority is very
much lacking.” Perhaps we can see any number of confreres reflected in these sincere and courageous
observations.
There are so many reasons
Faced with the picture outlined above, a natural question arises: what are the reasons for this
situation? Although they are of different kinds, they are many and they all converge. Some have very
distant, complex roots that are not easily detectable, since they are largely an inner reality that is to
be identified with the intimate history of each individual’s spiritual life.
There are those of a general nature dependent on the sociological environment, the change of
culture, currents of thought, especially around the concept of man and the world, certain theological
or pseudo-theological hypotheses or theses accepted uncritically, at least de facto. Others, on the other
hand, have more direct relevance to our Congregation, such as the notable changes in the educative
and pastoral field, the different and new rhythms of community life, or the real lack of peaceful “space”
for recollection and dialogue with God.
Quite a few reasons have their roots in the distant period of formation, where it can often be
seen that there has been a real emptiness in the pedagogy of prayer, aggravated later by our kind of
eminently active life and by very approximate and inaccurate ideas on the role of prayer in Salesian
life.
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“Christian prayer is always determined by the structure of the Christian faith, in which the
very truth of God and creature shines forth. For this reason, it is defined, properly speaking,
as a personal, intimate and profound dialogue between man and God. It expresses therefore
the communion of redeemed creatures with the intimate life of the Persons of the Trinity.
This communion, based on Baptism and the Eucharist, source and summit of the life of
the Church, implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from "self" to the "You" of God. Thus
Christian prayer is at the same time always authentically personal and communitarian. It flees
from impersonal techniques or from concentrating on oneself, which can create a kind of rut,
imprisoning the person praying in a spiritual privatism which is incapable of a free openness
to the transcendental God. Within the Church, in the legitimate search for new methods of
meditation it must always be borne in mind that the essential element of authentic Christian
prayer is the meeting of two freedoms, the infinite freedom of God with the finite freedom
of man.”37
T he Catechism of the Catholic Church says in no. 2707: “There are as many and varied
methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves
to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first
kinds of soil in the parable of the sower (cf. Mk 4:4-7,15-19). But a method is only a guide;
the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ
Jesus.”
We have chosen to present some of these methods that the history of spirituality has
handed down to us, dividing them into two large groups: there are simple methods that can
be immediately understood and used, and that offer no particular complications, and there
are structured methods with a more complex, articulated scheme containing numerous
subdivisions and stages.
1. SIMPLE METHODS
These first methods, then, do not require complex organisation of the time for meditation.
Some can also be thought of as preparatory to a more articulated approach or even as part of
such.
This should not lead us to believe, however, that these simple methods are also easy ones,
because is some cases they require a childlike heart and a good habit of concentration and
awareness of the fundamental objective of any meditative practice that always remains an
introduction to the threshold of Mystery.
In his Il Cattolico Provveduto Don Bosco wrote: “To pray means to raise one’s heart to
God, and to spend time with him by means of holy thoughts and pious feelings. Therefore
every thought of God and every look at him is prayer when it is joined to a feeling of love
… Praying is therefore very easy. Everyone can at any time and in any place raise his heart
37 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Some aspects of Christian meditation, 15 October 1989, no. 3.
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to God through pious sentiments. There is no need for refined and exquisite words, but
simple thoughts accompanied by devout inner affections suffice. A prayer that consists only
of thoughts, for example in a quiet admiration of the divine greatness and omnipotence, is
an internal prayer, or meditation, or contemplation. If it is expressed in words, it is called
vocal prayer. Both ways of praying must be dear to the Christian who loves God. A good
son willingly thinks of his father, and vents the affections of his heart to him.”38
Simple repetition
There are many spiritual traditions that make use of the repetition of a word or a phrase to
foster concentration and, in the great religions, prayer. In yoga or trascendental meditation the
use of a mantra (from the Sanskrit roots man, meaning “mind” and tra, meaning “protect”)
is recommended to focus and free inner energies from any distraction; but, we insist, the
point of arrival of Christian meditation is not “to empty the mind” (no pensar nada), but to
think of God by loving him (St Teresa).39
In the Christian tradition of the past centuries, the use of brief prayer phrases was often
recommended, a true synthesis between vocal prayer and mental prayer and an effective tool
for acquiring the habit of the constant thought of God. Our first Constitutions indicate them as
an opportunity in the event that, for reasons of ministry, it is not possible to do meditation in
common: “Each one” we read in no. 3 of the chapter on Practices of piety in the 1875 text, “as
well as vocal prayer, will do at least half an hour of mental prayer each day, unless prevented
by the sacred ministry. In this case he will make up for it with a greater frequency of short
prayers, addressing to God with great fervour of affection those works that prevent him
from the ordinary exercises of piety.”
In practice, after the introduction to meditation one might choose one or more of the
invocations found in the liturgy of the day (from the responsorial psalm or the readings)
and repeat it or them silently with the mind and heart attentive to the Mystery… In other
words not a purely mechanical repetition of a prayer but an internalisation that at the same
time can recollect us and lead us to simple and profound intimacy.
We can conclude things in the usual way at the end of the half hour (Prayer of entrustment
to Mary Help of Christians).
Many spiritual masters suggest tying this repetition to the rhythm of breathing. St Ignatius
suggests in his Spiritual Exercises: “With each breath you pray mentally, saying a word from
the Our Father or another prayer that you want to recite; thus, between one breath and
another, you think mainly about the meaning of that word”; a teaching also picked up by Fr
Barberis in his Vade mecum: “One can usefully take as a subject for meditation the formula of
a prayer that one knows by heart, for example the Pater, the Ave Maria, the Acts of Faith. In
this case you recite one of these prayers, pausing a few moments over each word to reflect,
38 G. Bosco, Il Cattolico Provveduto per le pratiche di pietà, Torino 1868, 2-3.
39 This was Franciscan Francisco de Osuna’s idea of meditation, opposite to that of Teresa of Avila. Christian meditation
does not consist in non pensare a nulla, but in thinking of God by loving him.
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to penetrate its meaning and nourish the soul. If you do this, you will spend half an hour in
meditation, even if you only recite the Our Father.”40
For potential, ordinary distractions, a general principle applies: it is sufficient to return
gently to the chosen verse or invocation.
One of the particular applications of simple repetition could be the traditional prayer of
the Taizé community. The chants that give rhythm to the three daily sessions are simple, made
up of a single phrase repeated at length, often in different languages, taken from psalms or
biblical passages, in a syllabic pattern (one syllable for each note). They are extremely catchy,
always incisive, often harmonised in several voices, and therefore encourage internalisation
and deep prayer.
The Jesus Prayer or prayer of the heart (Hesychasm)
Among the simple repetitions, certainly the most widespread of them has its origins in the
Christian east and is known as the Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the heart. Spread by Evagrius
Ponticus (4th c.) and other spiritual masters like John Climacus (6th sec.), the practice of the
hesychasm (from the Greek hesychia meaning quiet, peace), is still alive in the Orthodox
tradition, but also spread last century to many Catholic settings.
It consists of constantly repeating the formula Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on
me a sinner, and this is split into two according to the breathing rhythm (breathing in: Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God; breathing out: have mercy on me a sinner…). The prayer is often given
its rhythm with the help of a special rosary made of wool or rope, usually with a hundred
knots, known as a komboskini. Legend says it was St Anthony Abbot, inspired by a vision of
the Mother of God, who invented this way of making the knots for this Orthodox rosary.
The prayer became famous in Europe last century with the publication of The Way of
a Pilgrim by an anonymous 19th century (Russian) writer. The beginning of these short
stories is particularly evocative: “By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions
a great sinner, and by calling a homeless wanderer of the humblest birth who roams from
place to place. My worldly goods are a knapsack with some dried bread in it on my back,
and in my breast pocket a Bible. And that is all. On the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
I went to church to say my prayers there during the liturgy. The first Epistle of St. Paul to
the Thessalonians was being read, and among other words I heard these—"Pray without
ceasing." It was this text, more than any other, which forced itself upon my mind, and I
began to think how it was possible to pray without ceasing, since a man has to concern
himself with other things also in order to make a living.”
One of the most detailed descriptions of the “prayer of the heart”41 is contained in an
anonymous piece, probably the work of a monk from Mount Athos, Nicephorus the Solitary
(14th c.). “Rest your chin on your chest” – Nicephorus writes in his Method of prayer, “pay
attention to your self with your intelligence and your eyes. Hold your breath long enough
40 G. Barberis, Vade mecum dei giovani salesiani, Torino 1931, 1176.
41 We note here that the expression “prayer of the heart” is used in other contexts and by other spiritual traditions
with a different meaning, in many cases the more generic meaning of “affective prayer”.
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for your intelligence to find the place of the heart and remain there in its entirety. At the
beginning everything will seem dark and very hard, but with time and daily practice you
will discover a continuous joy in yourself.”
Given these features and according to the terminology of Some aspects of Christian
meditation, this can be described as a psycho-physical method; this latter, however, is not
essential to the method and depends on each one’s own sensitivities.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church too makes reference to the Jesus Prayer. In no. 2667:
“This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms
in East and West. the most usual formulation, transmitted by the spiritual writers of the
Sinai, Syria, and Mt. Athos, is the invocation, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on
us sinners.’ It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 with the cry of the
publican and the blind men begging for light[cf. Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:13]. By it the heart is
opened to human wretchedness and the Savior’s mercy.”
In the Orthodox tradition the repetition of the Jesus Prayer is not only a method for
daily meditation, but gradually opens the heart of the one praying to continuous prayer,
following the indications of Paul to the Thessalonians: “Pray without ceasing, give thanks
in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:17-18). This is the grace of unity called on daily in our
recent tradition in the Prayer of entrustment to Mary Help of Christians: “You were Don Bosco’s
teacher. Show us how to imitate his virtues, especially his union with God…”
Composition of place (St Ignatius Loyola)
The composition of place is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the Ignatian pedagogy
of prayer.
It consists in taking oneself, with the help of the imagination and through the application
of the spiritual senses, inside the scene of the Gospel that we are contemplating. Let us leave it to
the Basque saint to describe this interior journey to us: “First point. This consists in seeing in
imagination the persons, and in contemplating and meditating in detail the circumstances
in which they are, and then in drawing some fruit from what has been seen. Second point.
This is to hear what they are saying, or what they might say, and then by reflecting on
oneself to draw some profit from what has been heard. Third point. This is to smell the
infinite fragrance, and taste the infinite sweetness of the divinity. Likewise to apply these
senses to the soul and its virtues, and to all according to the person we are contemplating,
and to draw fruit from this. Fourth point. This is to apply the sense of touch, for example, by
embracing and kissing the place where the persons stand or are seated, always taking care
to draw some fruit from this.”42
The purpose of composition of place is to “collocate” the one praying at the heart of the
Gospel episode, arousing emotions and sentiments that then allow the person to draw spiritual
fruit from it. The role of the imagination goes further: the person praying is also invited to
find his place, his role in the story he contemplates. For example, in relation to contemplation
of the nativity in the second week of the Exercises Ignatius writes: “1. The first point. This will
42 Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, nos. 122-125 (Tr. by Louis J Puhl sj).
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consist in seeing the persons, namely, our Lady, St. Joseph, the maid, and the Child Jesus
after His birth. I will make myself a poor little unworthy slave, and as though present, look
upon them, contemplate them, and serve them in their needs with all possible homage and
reverence. Then I will reflect on myself that I may reap some fruit.”
The faculty of the imagination thus becomes creative fantasy, always for the sole purpose
of arousing in those who meditate the awareness of an event that is not distant in time,
but that is happening for me and to generate feelings of love and gratitude, of genuine and
profound inward participation. Ignatius wrote in his second annotation of the Exercises: “For
it is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the intimate understanding
and relish of the truth.”
A word on the role of the imagination in meditation
This method for meditation or contemplation of the mysteries of Jesus’ life is no novelty in
the Church’s history, but it is part of a spiritual current that starts from the reflections of
Bernard of Chiaravalle and St Bonaventure.43
In a providential way Ignatius came into contact with this spiritual tradition through
Ludolph of Saxony’s Life of Christ,44 during his convalescence at Loyola. Luigi Tucillo,
in an interesting article entitled La scena della passione tra visio e actio nella letteratura
meditativa e nell’arte tardomedievali (The scene of the passion between visio and actio in
meditative literature and late medieval art) wrote: “What distinguishes Ludolph’s work is
the extraordinary physical involvement to which the reader is called within the episodes: he
adopts an internal perspective to the scene, physically descends into space and acts in the
first person. For example, when Jesus is surrounded by his enemies in Anna’s house, the
devotee is invited to approach his Master and sit next to him. Similarly, during the scourging,
when Christ is represented in a river of blood, the person meditating is compelled to throw
himself on him: he touches him, embraces him and receives the scourges destined for the
Condemned man on his own body. He makes his physical presence felt, he becomes an
actor, co-protagonist of the events, companion of Jesus and almost his stunt double.”45
John De Caulibus († 1376) in his Meditationes vitae Christi writes along the same lines: “If
you want to profit from these meditations, make yourself present to the words and actions
of the Lord Jesus, which are reported as if you heard him with your ears and saw him with
your eyes, with all the fervour of your spirit, with diligence, joy, and at length.”46
The method of composition of place lends itself to be used in meditation on the Gospel
stories. Fr Giulio Barberis writes in his Vade mecum dei giovani salesiani: “St Ignatius also
teaches us to apply our five senses in certain circumstances, helping the weakness of our
spirit with our imagination. This is done by removing our senses from any earthly sensation,
43 Cf. ibidem, nos. 179-188.
44 Other famous names could be mentioned, other than Ludolph, such as Vincent Ferrer († 1419) or Thomas à
Kempis († 1471)
45 L. Tucillo, La scena della passione tra visio e actio nella letteratura meditativa e nell’arte tardomedievali, in www.academia.edu/26145843/
(09/01/2020).
46 Ibidem.
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and imagining ourselves seeing with our eyes the beauty of the celestial spouse and of what
we are meditating; savouring with the palate the spiritual food of his words; hearing the
sweetness of his voice with our ears; experiencing the sweetness of his perfumes with our
sense of smell; and by touch, the happiness of his embraces. And so all our powers are caught
up with the Lord or with the mysteries that we are meditating on.”47
In many other cases our first novice master suggests that young Salesians have recourse
to the imagination to stir up the flames of the spiritual life. “Look at the tabernacle” he writes
as one example, “and imagine that Jesus is really looking at you from there. He is alive and
real, his heart burning with love for us, and imagine that he is prepared to give you greater or
lesser graces according to the greater or lesser commitment you place on doing meditation
well. Oh! imagine that you really see Jesus with your own eyes: imagine that he keeps his
eyes on you for the whole time of meditation: then meditation will certainly be good for
you … Look at the crucifix and focus on yourself, imagine that you really see Jesus on the
cross, while in agony due to the immense spasms he suffers from and that he casts his gaze
on you, and find some relief if you make your meditation with great devotion, while new
pains would be added to the many he already suffers if he were to see you distracted and
cold while meditating.”48
A reason for study and research could be to study some techniques used in the
psychological field which enhance the therapeutic role that can be attributed to the use
of the so-called creative imagination.49 Another psychological technique that can, in some
respects, be combined with the reflections made is psychodrama.50
In the Christian scene too, some authors51 affirm the great value of certain biblical images
which can give our actions a new depth, open new perspectives, disclose the richness of
our inner life. Eugene Kästner has written: “Truth wants to have a home. And it cannot
live except in image, in word, in poetry. Only then is it connected with the earth, suffers,
rejoices; only then can it grow and flourish. Images are windows ... In images there is the call
from above for all things. In image, in parable everything is linked with shiny gold rings.
Metaphor is the love between things; everything is held together through representation.”52
If we let ourselves be involved in some of these images of healing, they will produce effects
in us and modify our being and our behaviour, without even having to go through concrete
47 G. Barberis, Vade mecum dei giovani salesiani, Torino 1965, 1195-1196.
48 Ibidem, 1194-1195. The word in the original is figurati; we have preferred to use the equivalent word immaginati or
imagine.
49 The bibliography on this subject is very extensive. Among other volumes, we would like to highlight: N. Del
Longo, La rêverie in psicoanalisi. Immaginazione e creatività in psicoterapia, Milano 2018; F. Presutti, Educazione alla
creatività e alla immaginazione, Ispef 2015; P. Rice, L’ immaginazione costruttiva, Milano 2012.
50 The inventor of psychodrama is Jacob Moreno, a psychiatrist, who developed this method in the early 1900s. (Cf. J.
Levi Moreno, Principi di sociometria, psicoterapia di gruppo e sociodramma, Milano 1980). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_L._More
for some works in English.
51 We mention, among others, the Benedictine Anselm Grün and his very rich literary production, and in particular:
A. Grün, La forza terapeutica delle immagini interiori. Attingere a sorgenti fresche, Brescia 2012; Id., Scoprire la ricchezza
della vita. Immagini bibliche per una cura d’anime che guarisce, Brescia.
52 E. Kästner, Die Stundertrommel vom Heiligen Berg Athos, Wiesbaden 1956, 104-105.
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intentions; acting on the unconscious, these representations can also change the conditions
of our work.
Therefore, it is not a question of a game for its own sake, but of an emotional involvement
within the pages of the Gospel, which can lead to conversion of the heart.
Mira que te mira (St Teresa of Avila)
This ancient method too has recourse to the imagination of the one praying.
Observe him while he is looking at you… The method consists in imagining the second
person of the Holy Trinity in front of us, with the help of the spiritual senses and then
stopping to analyse his gaze, to feel the beneficial influences on our life.
Thus does Teresa encourage her Sisters in The Way of Perfection: “I am not now asking you
to meditate on him, nor to produce great thoughts nor to feel deep devotion. I only ask you
to look at him. Who can prevent you from turning the eyes of your soul (but for an instant
if you can do no more) on Our Lord?” (26,3). In her autobiography that Mary Mazzarello
read and read again at Mornese to the girls in the workshop, she wrote: “Whoever has
begun it [prayer] should not leave it aside; and whoever has not begun it, I beg him for the
love of God not to deprive himself of so much good; if he perseveres, I hope in the mercy of
that God whom no one has ever taken as a friend in vain; since mental prayer is nothing
more – in my opinion – than dealing with friendship, spending much alone with the One
we know loves us.” (Life 8,5).
Like the other simple methods this one too requires a childlike heart and involves the
affections; but, far beyond an empty sentimentality, such an involvement requires, once again,
to become active, to transform our life.
The religious spirit of our century risks overlooking this affective component, of being
very intellectual; yet it is precisely the feelings that move the will and also the intelligence,
and which keep alive the desire to know The Beloved deeply. Perhaps it is precisely this
emotional involvement that has been lacking in the spiritual experience of many men and
women religious in recent decades. Antonio Rosmini wrote in his Of The Five Wounds of the
Holy Church: “Preaching and liturgy were the two great schools of the Christian people in
the most beautiful times of the Church. The first taught the faithful with words, the second
with words together with rites.”53
These two foundations of Christian experience, Rosmini affirms, were “complete”: they
were not addressed, in fact, only to the intelligence or to reasoning, but to the whole human
being. “They were not voices”, he writes “which could be understood by the mind alone,
or symbols which had no power other than that of the senses; but both by the way of the
mind and by that of the senses, the one and the other anointed the heart and instilled in
the Christian an elevated feeling about the whole of creation, mysterious and divine; which
feeling was operative, all possible like the grace which constituted it...”54
53 A. Rosmini, Delle cinque piaghe della Santa Chiesa, Rizzoli, Milano 1996, 33. In English: Of the Five Wounds of the
Holy Church: Edited With an Introduction by H. P. Liddon [1883]
54 Ibidem.
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An examen for the coming day
This is a kind of preventive examen (or ‘examination’) in the light of the word of God for the
day, adapted to morning meditation.
After a community and personal introduction that is a true entry to prayer, the liturgy
of the day is read attentively. Then, starting from the present moment, try to think about
the day that has just begun, the commitments that await us, the people we will meet, the
individual events that in all likelihood will take place, the Eucharistic celebration, travel,
meals, the ordinary situations that await us.
It is a question, first of all, of observing each of these events in a prayerful atmosphere,
considering them in their concreteness, also in the light of the experiences of the previous
days or situations.
Then we will try to focus our attention, more specifically, on each of the people we
meet, on those who are part of our daily history (confreres, young people, co-workers...),
particularly on the most difficult or problematic relationships.
By renewing our awareness of the presence of the Spirit in the temple of every heart, let
us try to illuminate each of these relationships, including in the light of the Word of the day,
to foresee the difficulties we will encounter, ask the Spirit to suggest the words to say and
gestures to perform right now, so that our relationships can be new and meaningful; let us
learn to entrust our companions on the journey one by one to God from the morning onwards
and let us allow the Spirit to suggest the best way to serve and love them, or, if necessary, to
put up with them and not offend them.
We conclude with an invocation to the Holy Spirit to be with us during the coming day
and to help us be a good gift, a blessing for those we will meet.
In Chapter X of the second part of his Introduction to the Devout Life, entitled Morning
Prayer, Francis de Sales says: “Call to mind that the day now beginning is given you in order
that you may work for Eternity,and make a steadfast resolution to use this day for that end.
Consider beforehand what occupations, duties and occasions are likely this day to enable
you to serve God; what temptations to offend Him, either by vanity, anger, etc., may arise;
and make a fervent resolution to use all means of serving Him and confirming your own
piety; as also to avoid and resist whatever might hinder your salvation and God’s Glory.
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Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Egidio Viganò
In a historical context in which many confreres felt a particular attraction towards some new
ecclesial movements, in 1991 Fr Viganò wrote the long circular Charism and Prayer (AGC no.
338), where he reaffirms the richness of Don Bosco’s spirituality and firmly states:“Now to
reflect on prayer we must first move beyond charisms.” “And so if we are to speak adequately
of prayer we must go back first of all to the praying attitude of Christ.” In the light of some
reflections of St. Francis de Sales, Fr Viganò reaffirms the conviction that the charism of
our founder and Salesian prayer constitute a vital unity, so that neither aspect makes sense
without the other. The reference to contemplation is certainly in line with his predecessors’
magisterium.
The authenticity of prayer, as the beginning of a first response, is rooted in a personal experience
of Gad: think, for instance, of Moses before the burning bush. His attitude was one of discovery and
almost of surprise. It is the Lord who says: “Look, I am standing at the door knocking. If one of you
hears me calling and opens the door, I will came in to share a meal at that person’s side” (Rev 3:20).
This, attitude of attentive listening is found to be particularly fruitful in the farm we know as
“mental prayer”, to which the great Spanish saints of the sixteenth century gave its most developed
farm. Mental prayer is not in fact a practice reserved to monks and hermits, but the very foundation
of all prayer; in fact, faith is before all else an act of listening.
There is no prayer - just as there is no life of faith - without the intervention of the conscience and
freedom of each individual. We know from experience that the most intense moments of prayer are
often those involving our personal interior: moments of meditation more than of feelings; moments of
silence rather than speaking; moments of contemplation rather than of reasoning; in fact: “the word
of God is something alive and active: it cuts more incisively than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12).
“When you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in
the secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you”. (Mt 6,6).
This in no way detracts from communal prayer, which is so important and has its most perfect
ecclesial expression in the Eucharistic celebration, but emphasises the prior condition for an authentic
participation in that too.
Mental prayer evolves gradually from meditation to contemplation; it is an interior attitude
through which one enters into relationship with the love of God. St Teresa has described it as dealing
with the Lord on friendly terms...
We must not think that “contemplation”, to which meditation leads, is something granted only
to a few privileged souls. It is not our purpose here to present it with difficult abstract definitions,
nor to list its different kinds and degrees with their delicate problems, but to look at the example of
those Saints who have lived our own spirituality…
Meditation becomes contemplation when the love, born of listening, gains the ascendancy and
penetrates directly into the Father’s heart. (cf. CC 12).
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2. STRUCTURED METHODS
The first method to be presented in this session is, probably, the major way that the Church
today indicates to laity and religious in order to learn to pray the Word and allow it to
transform our lives as believers, day by day; we will offer three “variants” of it given the
particular importance and relevance of the method. However, out of knowledge and fidelity
to our tradition, we will also present some other structured methods which probably, due
to their complexity, are less suitable for use in the half hour scheduled for daily meditation,
but which can be used on other occasions (retreats, community meditations, spiritual
exercises…).
Lectio Divina according to the method of Guigo (Guy) the Carthusian
Lectio divina is a very ancient expression, one often found in the teachings of the Fathers. In
his Letter to Gregory, Origen recommends: “...and while you study these divine works [lectio]
with a believing and God-pleasing intention, knock at that which is closed in them, and it
shall be opened to you by the porter, of whom Jesus says, John 10:3 To him the porter opens.
While you attend to this divine reading [lectio divina] seek aright and with unwavering faith
in God the hidden sense which is present in most passages of the divine Scriptures. And do
not be content with knocking and seeking, for what is most necessary for understanding
divine things is prayer.”55
In the teaching of the Fathers, the reading of the Scriptures, therefore, is not satisfied
with an "intellectual understanding", but must lead to prayer, to a personal relationship
with God.
The arrangement of the method of Lectio Divina56 as it is understood and widely used
today, goes back to the Carthusian monk Guigo (also Guy in English) who in 1174, in the
wake of the great monastic tradition originating from St Benedict, would be designed as a
guide for the Great Carthusian.57
In one of his letters to his beloved brother Gervasius, probably sent around 1150, Guigo
sketches the outline of a method with extraordinary wisdom, one initially beloved only of
the Carthusian tradition but which would be rediscovered and would spread in the second
half of last century thanks to the new post-conciliar sensitivity and the contribution of
certain writers and masters of spirituality.58
Exhortations of Salesian magisterium regarding the use of this method are many. Already
in 1986 The Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a guide to reading and understanding
the Salesian Constitutions, when commenting on C. 93 says: “The Rule asks us for a daily
form of mental prayer: what tradition calls meditation (as it is called in Article 71 of the
55 Sources Chrétiennes 148, 192-193.
56 When we refer to the method and not just regular reading of the Scriptures, we will make use of upper case (Lectio
Divina instead of lectio divina).
57 For the little information we have about his life, consult A. Wilmart, Auteurs spirituels et textes dévotes du moyen âge
latin, Paris 1991, 230-240.
58 Among Italian writers we mention Carlo Maria Martini, Enzo Bianchi, Mariano Magrassi and Benedetto Calati.
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General Regulations) and which corresponds to a form of lectio divina, according to the
characteristic expression of monastic life.”
There are many recent publications that explain the Lectio method in some detail;59
except that the fundamental point of reference continues to be Guigo’s letter, noted as Scala
claustralium or Letter on contemplative life.
Here we will try to outline the essential steps in the method briefly, adapting them to
our context:
1. INTRODUCTION
Usually in our communities this moment is accompanied by a prayer or invocation of
the Holy Spirit. These formulas can be useful, but they must not replace a personal exercise
of awareness, the willingness to be present to ourselves by gathering our inner energies,
the choice of finding an adequate position of the body (statio); in essence it is a question
of placing ourselves personally in the presence of God, and calling on him with confidence
(colloquio).
2. THE CORE OF LECTIO
Following Guigo’s classic scheme, we need to imagine organising the time for our
meditation by dividing it into four parts (in advance), which can also be of equal duration,
or giving more time to one or the other according to our particular needs.
A. Reading of the passage (lectio)
Usually the chosen passage will be the Gospel or one of the readings of the day; our
meditation will certainly be more effective if this passage is read, even if for a few minutes,
the previous evening (remote preparation). This habit already places us in a fruitful attitude
of listening. We become aware of the fact that God takes the initiative and gives us the gift
of his Word.
This first step has the understanding of what the passage itself says (literal sense) as
its main objective; the passage must be read carefully, perhaps with a pencil in hand that
allows us to underline the verbs (actions) or adjectives (qualities) that strike us most. To use
a metaphor, we could say that it is about doing the work of the ant that patiently collects
every little fragment that can be a nourishment for its life. The use of a commentary and
biblical passages suggested alongside the text can be very useful in this step, as well as in
the next.
It would be helpful to have the skills to be able to read the texts in their original language;
but since this privilege is reserved to a few, we can resort to comparing two or three different
translations available in our own language; this sometimes helps to grasp different nuances.
B. Meditation or reflection on the biblical text (meditatio)
In this second moment the goal is to find out what the passage says to me (spiritual sense);
more explicitly, it is a question of understanding what God wants to tell me, today and in
the concrete situation in which I find myself, through this text.
59 These should be distinguished from simple commentaries on a book of Scripture.
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The metaphor we could possible use is the queen bee, capable of reworking what the
worker bees have patiently collected. Another image used by the Fathers is the slow chewing
of previously ingested food (ruminatio).
In this second step too, the work is mainly entrusted to the intellect, but also to the
memory that allows us to reconstruct some connections between our passage and other
texts of Scripture or readings previously made, and to the affections that involve us in the
understanding of what God wants to tell me, here and now, through his Word.
C. Prayer (oratio)
This third step introduces us to the experience of mental prayer properly speaking. It is
no longer a question of reading (lectio) and understanding (meditatio) the passage, but of
transforming it into prayer (oratio), using in direct conversation (colloquio) the expressions
contained in the biblical text, together with the movements of the heart, our feelings
(affections). Our meditation becomes personal dialogue more explicitly; our attention is no
longer directed to what the Word says in itself and not even to what it says to me, but this
time it is I who put myself in dialogue with the Word, letting it resonate in me with the help
of the Holy Spirit and trying to express my feelings to God.
D. Contemplative silence (contemplatio)
In this final step the sacred text is also set aside physically. Someone has said that the apex
of communication is precisely the silence that is often created, without any embarrassment,
among those who love each other. It is a time when the Word we have read (lectio), meditated
on (meditatio) and prayed with (oratio) goes deeper (contemplatio) and confronts the here
and now of our life to bring light and warmth. In this way our life opens silently and with
emotion to the gift that God wants to make of himself.
We must not forget, in fact, that contemplation, like prayer in general, cannot be considered
the fruit of our efforts; it is up to us only to create the conditions to be able to receive the
gift (active acceptance) that God wants to give us. In this regard, Fr Pascual Chávez wrote:
“The desire to do God’s will leads gradually and unconsciously to adoration, silence, praise
and to ‘the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union
with his beloved Son.’ (CCC 2712). From the contemplation of ourselves and our own world
in the light of God we pass to the contemplation of ourselves as God sees us, to know
that we are in the presence of him who is the object of our desire, the sole focus of our
prayer. As distinct from the preceding stages, which are activities that require a force of
will, ‘contemplative prayer is a gift, a grace,’ (CCC 2713), neither normal nor in any way
our due; we can long for it, ask for it, and welcome it if it comes, but it is never automatic”
(AGC no. 386).
Using one of the small, effective summaries of the letter from Guigo the Carthusian we
can say that: “Reading is the assiduous study of the Scriptures, done with an attentive spirit.
Meditation is a diligent activity of the mind which seeks the knowledge of hidden truths
with the help of its own reason. Prayer is a fervent yearning of the heart for God to ward off
evil and obtain good. Contemplation is a certain elevation of the mind above oneself towards
God, enjoying the joys of eternal sweetness … Reading is an exercise of the external senses,
meditation is a work of the intellect, prayer is a desire, contemplation is an overcoming of every
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sense. The first degree is for beginners, the second for the proficient, the third for devotees,
the fourth for the blessed.”60
CONCLUSION
A. Personal
This is the most important and irreplaceable moment, the one that allows us to reap the
fruit of our meditation every day, identifying a particular corner of our life on which the
Word seeks to shed light. In the context of the Lectio method, many indicate this with the
term Actio.61 A text from Isaiah enlightens us on the dynamics that can accompany every
daily meditation: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return
there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the
sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not
return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing
for which I sent it” (Is 55:10-11).
B. Community
The conclusion of meditation in community in our recent tradition, is marked by the
invitation Blessed are those who listen to the word of God and then by the prayer to Mary Help
of Christians.
Lectio Divina according to Carlo Maria Martini
On 6 November 1980, more than two thousand young people gathered in the Milan
Cathedral to listen to their Bishop who reached the hearts and minds of his young people
by explaining the Lectio Divina method as a way of praying with the Bible. Thus began the
School of the Word, which would continue until 2002, one of the most innovative and richest
experiences in Cardinal Martini’s ministry.
The method he gradually offered takes up Guigo’s four steps, enriching them with the
Ignatian tradition in relation especially to the experience of spiritual discernment. Ultimately,
the scheme is enriched with other stages that we will try to clarify briefly, passing over the
other steps we have already mentioned.
1. Statio = Introduction
2. Lectio = Reading
3. Meditatio = Meditation
4. Oratio = Prayer
5. Contemplatio = Contemplation
60 This little "masterpiece" of Christian spirituality can be read in its entirety in Italian on the Carthusian Italian
website (https://www.certosini.info/guigo_ii.htm).
61 In this case then, there would be six stages: Statio, Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Contemplatio, Actio.
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6. Consolatio = Consolation
The first fruit of the encounter with God is that intimate joy and peace that man
experiences in front of the mystery of God’s love. This is the propitious moment to make
the great decisions of life, decisions not to be changed in moments of discouragement or
of desolation. The bad spirit tries to push us to total distrust and sadness; “The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace...” (Gal 5:22).
7. Discretio = Discernment
With the gift of Counsel, the Spirit suggests to me how to interpret my personal,
family, community situation as well as my social life. It is a question of attuning to God’s
thoughts, of reading the book of history that divine Providence composes with wise
love and reading it with faith. It is the Spirit who teaches me to understand where and
how I can act in the world to prepare the way for the Lord.
8. Deliberatio = Decision
Prayer must not stop at inert contemplation, which gratifies my desire for religiosity
without transforming my heart. I ask the Spirit for the gift of fortitude, so that I know
how to decide to carry out the evangelical choices and the intentions resulting from
discernment. Often it is a question of small decisions; but it is through fidelity in the
small things of every day that one builds full fidelity to God’s call to do his will.
9. Collatio = Sharing
Whenever possible, it is very useful to share the fruit of prayer with our brothers
and sisters on the journey of faith. I am not alone in seeking the face of God, but we are
the Church, a communion of people called to grow together in charity. The spiritual
graces that the Lord grants to each person are not the private possession of individuals
but gifts offered for the common good. In some of our communities, collatio is already
included, with great benefit, in community day or in the monthly retreat.
10. Actio = Resolution, Action
The greater complexity of this ten-step structure probably makes it unsuitable for
a half-hour daily meditation. The presence of the collatio makes it more suitable, as we
said, for a monthly or quarterly community retreat.
The fact remains that this scheme highlights the relationship between meditation
on the Word and the concrete choices we are called to make in our lives. Discernment
is, in fact, the meeting point between prayer and action. Every personal or community
decision should be illuminated by the Word; the moral dimension of Christian life can
be understood and placed in its proper light if it is thought of as life under the guidance
of the Spirit; this perspective represents the real overcoming of all sterile moralism.
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Lectio Divina. Fr Pascual Chávez’s summary
The pages that follow are drawn form the circular “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life” (Jn 6:69). The word of God and Salesian life today, summer 2004 (cf. AGC no. 386).
They constitute an important document of the Salesian Magisterium which is the basis for
the choice of this particular “method” for meditation by Salesians.
An exceptionally good instrument for growth in listening to the Word is lectio divina;
this is a believer’s method of reading Scripture, used from the beginning of religious life
in which it is “held in the highest regard. By its means the word of God is brought to bear
on life, on which it projects the light of that wisdom which is a gift of the Spirit.”62 Rightly
does the GC25, in its first practical guideline about evangelical witness, exhort the Salesian
community “to place God as the unifying centre of its being and to develop the community
dimension of the spiritual life by fostering the centrality of the word of God in personal and
community life through lectio divina”.63
I hope that none of you will think that this guideline of the GC25 has introduced an
element extraneous to our spirituality; “the ancient and ever valid tradition of lectio divina”64
has been at home in the religious life from its very beginnings, and at the present time is
seen to be very necessary: “nowadays a Christian cannot be an adult in faith and able to
respond to the needs of the contemporary world, if he has not learned the practice in some
way of lectio divina”.65
For us to be at home with it, lectio divina, like any method of praying, needs practice, but
it requires especially the will to listen and the willingness to obey. In its most traditional
form it involves four stages or “spiritual degrees”: reading (lectio), meditation (meditatio),
prayer (oratio) and contemplation (contemplatio). In recent times, in an effort to up-date it,
another stage has been added: action (actio). Often other elements are indicated as well
(discretion, deliberation, collation, consolation, etc.), but in reality these seem to be nothing
more than aspects of the fundamental stages.
- Reading. Lectio divina begins with an attentive reading, or better a re-reading several
times, of the text in which we want to hear what God is saying. The chosen text may be
easy to understand or well known – that does not matter; it needs to be read over until it
becomes familiar, almost learned by heart, “emphasising the main elements”.66 One must
not pass beyond this first stage without being able to reply to the question: what is the real
meaning of this passage I have read?
- Meditation. Once he has discovered the meaning of the biblical text, the attentive reader
tries to become involved personally, by applying the meaning to his own life: what is this
text saying to me? “To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by confronting
it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. We pass from thoughts
62 Vita Consecrata, 94.
63 GC25, 31.
64 Novo Millennio Ineunte, 39.
65 Carlo M. Martini, Programmi pastorali diocesani 1980-1990, Milano 1991, 440-441.
66 Carlo M. Martini, La gioia del vangelo. Medizione per i giovani,(The Joy of the Gosepl. Meditation for the young)
Casale Monferrato 1988, 12.
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to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the
movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them.”67 The Word has been heard
and calls for consent; it has not been accepted unless it reaches the heart and brings about
conversion. Understanding the text leads to understanding oneself in its light; in this way
the text that has been read and understood becomes a norm of life: what must I do to put it
into practice, what must I do to give its meaning to my own life?
- Prayer. To know, guess at, or even merely imagine what God wants leads naturally to
prayer; in this way a burning desire arises for what daily life should become. The one who
prays does not ask so much for what he lacks but rather for what God has enabled him
to see and understand. He begins to yearn for what God is asking of him; and in this way
makes God’s will for him the object of his prayer.
- Contemplation. The desire to do God’s will leads gradually and unconsciously to
adoration, silence, praise and to “the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the
Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.”68 From the contemplation of ourselves
and our own world in the light of God we pass to the contemplation of ourselves as God
sees us, to know that we are in the presence of him who is the object of our desire, the sole
focus of our prayer. As distinct from the preceding stages, which are activities that require
a force of will, “contemplative prayer is a gift, a grace,”69 neither normal nor in any way our
due; we can long for it, ask for it, and welcome it if it comes, but it is never automatic.
I can reveal to you that following the decision of the GC25, I feel personally obliged to
“keep on reviving and expressing the primacy of God in the communities”, by fostering the
centrality of God’s Word in personal and community life, first of all “through lectio divina”.70
This is a matter of great importance to me – I will tell you why in the words of Cardinal
Martini – “because I shall never tire of repeating that lectio is one of the main means by
which God wishes to save our western world from the moral ruin that threatens it because
of its indifference and fear of believing. Lectio divina is the antidote offered by God in these
recent times to foster the growth of that interior consciousness, without which Christianity
risks losing out to the challenge of the third millennium”.71
67 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2706.
68 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2712.
69 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2713.
70 GC25, 30.31.
71 Carlo M. Martini, Programmi pastorali diocesani 1980-1990, 521.
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Ignatian meditation
The term meditation is reserved by Ignatius for the spiritual exercises proposed during the
first week (meditation on sin, meditation on hell…). For Ignatius, meditation is a method of
prayer by which the three powers or faculties of the soul are applied to a truth of faith: memory,
intelligence and will. In the second, third and fourth week of the exercises Ignatius prefers
the term contemplation.
The method is apparently a very complex one; only practice can make it familiar to one
who wishes to use it in personal meditation. The three basic steps are always the same:
preparation, the body of the meditation made up of the so-called three points, and the conclusion.
Making reference to the text of Cardinal Lercaro we can sum up the scheme of the
Ignatian method as follows:72
A. PREPARATION:
1. Proximate
1.1 Prepare the “points" the evening before and establish the grace to ask for in the
Preludio.
1.2 Think about it briefly before falling asleep and set your alarm time.
1.3 Think about it once more as soon as you awake.
2. Immediate:
2.1 Next is the place where one must meditate, pause for a moment and place oneself in
the presence of God; make an act of Adoration, outwardly if possible.
2.2 Preparatory prayer.
2.3 Preludes.
2.3.1 Historical prelude: briefly recall the fact you will be meditating on.
2.3.2 Imaginative prelude or composition of place: imagine the place where the fact
takes place; this is replaced, if possible, with another imagination, when Meditation is not
about a fact.
2.3.3 Prelude of petition: ask for the grace in which the fruit of Meditation consists.
B. BODY OF THE MEDITATION
For each of the three points:
1. An exercise of Memory
Recall the parts of the matter to be meditated on and pretty much “scroll through” them
with the mind’s eye.
2. An exercise of the Intellect
Reflections: Make the subject of Meditation your own, exploring it further it. Applications:
Practical conclusions are drawn for one’s conduct and the means to be used are foreseen.
3. An exercise of the Will
Affections: They are devout sentiments (of adoration, praise, love, repentance, aroused in
us by reflections. - Resolutions: Practical, particular, relative to the present, humble, they
are made throughout the Meditation, more especially at the end.
72 Cf. G. Lercaro, Metodi di orazione mentale, cit., 353-354.
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C. CONCLUSION
- Colloquio: conversation with God (or Our Lord or the Virgin Mary), in which graces are
asked for and our own matters are discussed; can be interspersed throughout the Meditation;
must not be lacking at the end.
- Vocal Prayer: Brief (Pater, Ave, Anima Christi…).
- After the Meditation:
Examen on how the Meditation went.
Take note of illustrations, movements.
It is worth noting that this apparently rigid structure contains within it certain
anthropological attentions, all oriented towards the efficacy of the prayer experience; we can
say that Ignatian meditation presupposes a strongly unified anthropology, involving the
body as well as the powers of the soul. The remote preparation, the choice of the place, the brief
pause to gather neself and make an outward act of adoration, the request contained in the
preparatory prayer, the preludes, the final examination, the advice to make a written record of
the experience, are all elements ordered to the “success” of a dialogue capable of producing
an effective growth in the Christian life.
Simplified Ignatian method
Here we limit ourselves to reporting the content of the Ignatian method as it is currently
presented on the official website of the Society of Jesus. It contains, in a brief way, all the
“ingredients” of the previous method.
“Prayer is a personal encounter with the Lord. Choose a time and place that will help
this encounter. Then observe the following steps:
1. PRESENCE. I place myself in the presence of the Lord begging for the gift of prayer
and concentration. I ask the Lord that all my energies may converge on this encounter. I
think of how much love he has in getting to know me and looking at me right now. Then:
– Composition of place: I use my imagination to make an ’inner icon’ of the scene I am
about to meditate on.
– I ask for what I want and desire: I enter into a direct relationship with the Lord by asking
for a very specific gift, in words that I can often repeat.
2. MEDITATION. I read and re-read the passage. I stop where a word strikes me, where I
“find pleasure”, am in no hurry to go on. “It is not so much knowledge that fills and satisfies
the soul, but feeling and enjoying things inwardly.” Regarding the word that strikes me,
I set my memory in motion (what does it remind me of?), my intelligence (what does it
make me understand?), my will (what desires does it give rise to in me?).
3. COLLOQUIO. I speak with the Lord “as a friend speaks to a friend”. And I am not
afraid to “pour” all the “death” in my heart into Him so that He can pour His life into me.
This is “conversation”.
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4. REVISION. After the prayer, in another place, I retrace my steps for a few minutes. I
ask myself how the method went, which word struck me most, and try to name the feelings
that went through me.”73
The method taught by the Vade mecum (Fr Giulio Barberis)
The method taught by Fr Barberis from the time of the first novitiate is substantially the
Ignatian one, as can be easily demonstrated by comparing Barberis’ first manuscript74 of his
Vade mecum with the general scheme of Ignatian meditation.
The Vade mecum, in particular, devotes two entire chapters to this topic; the first, titled
Meditation, is a small treatise on mental prayer, sits effectiveness and importance, on the
need for it and its fruits in religious life. It is full of quotes from Scripture and the history of
spirituality; the second, titled On the practical way of making meditation, explains in detail
the method proposed for making it, after a preface filled with pedagogical wisdom, titled
Doing what is possible. “When you have good will”says Fr Barberis “you always succeed
in meditation, because it depends more on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit than on our
efforts, and the Holy Spirit is always with those who do what they can.”
The subject matter that follows is very complex and does not fit into the half-hour of
mental prayer provided for in our Constitutions. In the Salesian tradition of the first half
of the last century, the three points of the meditation were often read by a guide, partly
because of the difficulty of having a copy of the text available to everyone. Silence and
personal prayer were reduced to a few minutes and, in some cases, fidelity to form became
predominant rather than attention to intimate and personal dialogue. Our hypothesis is
that in many cases excessive fidelity to the model and a certain lack of elasticity may have
harmed the quality of meditation and reduced to a minimum, subjectively, the motivations
that justify its importance and practice.
In summary, the scheme presented by Fr Barberis was as follows:75
1) PREPARATION
Remote preparation
Proximate preparation
a) Placing ourselves in the presence of God
b) Asking forgiveness for our sins
c) Asking for the grace to be able to meditate well
d) Depicting the subject
2) MEDITATION POINTS (three)
a) Exercise of the intellect
b) Depicting the place
c) Application of the senses
73 https://gesuiti.it/metodo-di-preghiera-ignaziano/ [06/06/2020].
74 The original is found in in ASC A 000.02.05.
75 Cf. G. Barberis, Vade mecum dei giovani salesiani, cit., 1180-1206. The subsequent editions are substantially unchanged.
The last edition of this precious treatise on Don Bosco’s spirituality was published in 1965.
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d) Exercise of the will
e) Resolutions
f) Affections and colloquies
3) Conclusion
a) Resolution
Must be practical
b) Thanking the Lord
c) Examination and repentance
“If you do it this way,” concluded Fr Barberis, “I hope that you too will be able to draw
from meditation those fruits that St Bernard, St Ignatius, St Louis and Fr Beltrami used to
obtain. After meditation they all felt inflamed with love for the Lord, they no longer felt a
taste for anything earthly, they felt ready to do anything, even the most difficult, even to
suffer martyrdom for the Lord’s sake.”76
The “seven steps” method (Lumko – Africa)
The last three methods we present are of more recent origin.
The Seven Steps method it is more suitable for community meditation, but can also be
enhanced in personal meditation, with some modifications. It has its origin in South Africa,
precisely in Lumko, a Catholic institute in Del Menville, but it has also spread to Europe,
especially in Germany. In this method too, as in Guigo’s, prolonged and personal contact
with the text, silence, prayer are strongly desired and promoted.77
We read in the Instrumentum laboris (Working Document) of the 2008 Synod on The Word
of God in the life and mission of the Church: “The newness of Lectio Divina among the People of
God requires an appropriate pedagogy of initiation which leads to a good understanding
of what is treated and provides clear teaching on the meaning of each of its steps and their
application to life in both faithful and creatively wise manner. Various programmes, such
as the Seven Steps, are already being practised by many particular Churches on the African
continent. This form of Lectio Divina receives its name from the seven moments of encounter
with the Bible (acknowledging the presence of God, reading the text, dwelling on the text,
being still, sharing insights, searching together and praying together) in which meditation,
prayer and sharing the Word of God are central.”
We briefly present the content of the individual steps, adapting them to the context of a religious
community.
76 Ibidem, 1205.
77 For a deeper understanding of the method see A. Hecht, Passi verso la Bibbia, Leumann 1995. English readers might
go to https://madure.net/2008/03/16/the-seven-steps-of-bible-study-lumko-method-2/
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1. Invitation (We invite the Lord) and introductory prayer
Invitation and prayer are the first step. Each one should have the Bible in hand and
be aware of the journey ahead.
2. Reading the sacred text
A confrere reads the Gospel aloud or a passage from the liturgy of the day. The text
can also be read a second time in another translation.
3. Echoes of the text (Dwell on the text)
Each one chooses a word or some short sentences that has struck them and says it
aloud, prayerfully, letting it “penetrate”. After each of these there is a moment of silence.
At the end the biblical text can be read again calmly.
4. Silent meditation
A pause of silence follows (at least ten minutes); this is the very heart of the
meditation. Each one can also silently repeat in his heart what touched him most,
transforming the Word into prayer.
5. Sharing what has struck us
Once the fourth step is completed, each one, if he wishes, can communicate to others
what he has grasped as a warning or a hope, a commitment or a comfort. It is not just
about communicating an intellectual reflection, but about sharing emotions, feelings
and the attitude that meditation on the passage aroused in us.
6. Exchange about daily life
How is the life of the community challenged by the Word? It is possible to decide on
a specific common action, but above all it is a question of sharing the current situations
and problems of the community, interpreted in the light of the Word.
7. Concluding prayer
The meeting ends with a prayer or a song of thanksgiving, in analogy with the
seventh day of creation, a time of prayerful contemplation. Bishop Hirmer of Umtata
wrote: “The seven steps are intended to educate to inner tranquillity and to open the
heart to listening to the Word of God.”
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The ruminatio method (according to Clodovis M. Boff)
This is the method presented by Brazilian theologian, a religious of the Servants of Mary, in
his Meditação. Como Fazer? Published for the first time in Portuguese in 2006. We reproduce it
here because its characteristics of synthesis between some methods and techniques of ancient
and recent tradition.
Let’s examine it in detail.
1. INTRODUCTION
a. Placing ourselves in the presence of God. For this introduction the author suggests having
recourse to the imagination. “We can imagine ourselves”, he says, “seated at the feet of the
Master, like Mary in Bethany, listening to his word, or as a dinner guest of the Holy Trinity,
Rublev’s icon suggests.”78 this first step can be linked to a relaxation technique, to foster inner
silence.
b. Ask for the light of the Holy Spirit. He is the true Inner Teacher. Only the Spirit can open us
up to the treasures hidden in the word.
2. THE CENTRAL BODY OF THE MEDITATION
a. Slow and attentive reading of the passage.
b. Ruminatio. It is a matter of slowly repeating, over and over again, the word or short phrase
that in the immediately preceding phase struck our mind or heart, to digest the Word. This
metaphor, often used by the Fathers, is borrowed from the animal world. Just as ruminant
animals eat food and then chew it for a long time so that it is assimilated by the body, so
the person of prayer feeds on the Word of God, savouring it slowly. In his commentary on
Psalm 37 St Augustine says: “Whoever swallows, making what he eats disappear forgets
what he has heard. Instead, the one who does not forget thinks, and thinking he rumina
(ruminates) and ruminando (ruminating) he savours it.”79
Clodovis Boff writes: “The interesting thing about this recovery of the ruminatio method is
its similarity with different methods of oriental origin based on the repetition of a mantra
and which today acquire ever greater prestige in a West increasingly prey to rationalism and
activism.”80 And further on: “Spiritual progress passes through the diminution of thoughts
and the increase of feelings, understood in the deepest sense of ’affections of the soul’ ... One
passes from simple meditation to contemplation in the true sense of the word.”81
3. CONCLUSION
a) Write a word or phrase on a piece of paper to remember during the day. Our prayer, to be
authentic, must always confront itself with real life in order to transform it.
b) Thanksgiving.
78 C.M. Boff, Come fare meditazione. Il metodo della "ruminazione", Milano 2010, 76.
79 St Augustine, Exposition on Ps 37. (see New Advent website).
80 C.M. Boff, Come fare meditazione, cit., 6.
81 Ibidem, 78.
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Suggested methods for meditation
In this method once more we find a tripartite scheme, the centrality of the Word, fidelity
to the Fathers and to the tradition of the Church, the repetition (ruminatio) of a verse or a
formula which brings us back to the hesychastic tradition, the concreteness of a conclusion
that makes the practice of meditation alive and effective.
Fr Thomas Keating’s Centering Prayer method
Thomas Keating (1923-2018), a Cistercian monk, was the Abbot of St Joseph’s Abbey,
Spencer, in Massachussets, and is the founder of the Centering Prayer movement.82
As in all methods ordered to contemplative prayer, the theological basis of this method
lies in the awareness of the indwelling of the Trinity in us. It is inspired in particular by the
writings of those who have made a decisive contribution to the Christian contemplative
tradition, in particular: John Cassiano; the unknown author of the Cloud of Unknowing;
Frances de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux and Thomas Merton.
There are four guidelines or stages suggested by the method:83 We describe them here
briefly:
1. 1. Choose a sacred word as a symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and
action in you.
This sacred word is chosen at the beginning, in a brief moment of prayer, asking the
Holy Spirit to inspire us on the one that is most suitable for us. Examples of sacred words
are: God, Lord, Jesus, Father, Mother, Mary; or also, in other languages: Abbà, Kyrie,
Jesu, Mater. Other possibilities are: Love, Peace, Mercy, Silence, Calm, Faith, Shalom,
Amen…
2. Sitting comfortably, with your eyes closed, take a brief moment to quiet down, then silently
introduce the sacred word as a symbol of your consenting to God’s presence and his action in you.
Comfortably means relatively comfortable, but not enough to encourage sleep during
prayer. Whatever position we adopt, the back must be vertical. We close our eyes as a
sign of detachment from what is around us and within us. We introduce the sacred word
softly, as if we were placing a feather on a layer of cotton wool. If we do fall asleep, as
soon as we wake up, we quietly resume our prayer.
3. When you realise that you are overwhelmed with thoughts, return very gently to the sacred word.
Thought is a generic term for all perception: sensory perceptions, emotions, images,
memories, projects, reflections, concepts, comments, spiritual experiences, etc… It is
normal and inevitable to have thoughts and they are an integral part of Centering
Prayer. By saying, “return very gently to the sacred word” it indicates that this action
82 There are many books published by Keating and translated into a variety of languages. In Italian see: T. Keating,
La preghiera del Silenzio, Assisi 1995; Id., Risvegli. La pratica della lectio divina, Roma 2003. In English: Centering Prayer
in Daily Life and Ministry, Thomas Keating Jan 1997 Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
83 Cf. www.antidemalta.org/uploads/5/7/2/6/57264959/centerprayer-italian.pdf
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POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
must be done gently, without effort. This is the only voluntary activity during the time
of Centering Prayer.
4. At the end of the prayer period, remain silent with your eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
These extra minutes allow us to bring the atmosphere of silence into daily life. For
some, a simple look at God, or attention to one’s own breath, may prove more suitable
than the sacred word. After choosing a sacred word, we do not change it during the
prayer period: this would be starting to think again.
Fr Keating suggests, for this method, a minimum duration of twenty minutes, and two
repetitions per day. Centering Prayer thus familiarises us with the language of God, which
is silence.
The peculiar feature of this method is that it is not a discursive meditation but a simple
resting in God.
Reading the past in order to write the future: From a circular by Fr Juan Vecchi
In the circular “When you pray say: Our Father...” (Mt 6:9). The Salesian, a man and teacher of
prayer for the young, 2001 (AGC no. 374), Fr Vecchi devotes vibrant pages to the importance of
prayer in the life of the Salesian. At the beginning of the letter he points out some common
places among them “one that wants to see action at the centre of Salesian life.” «Sometimes
when we speak of God, with reference to ourselves and still more in religious discussions
with others, we put on a mask, we adopt a terminology suited to the occasion, and we use
words that are exact and well stated. These masks do not correspond to what we really are.”
Only a deeper and more authentic life of prayer can enable us to “heal” the motivations for
our actions. It may be interesting to note that in this letter Fr Vecchi repeatedly mentions some
of the contemporary masters of prayer (Carlo Carretto, Enzo Bianchi, Carlo Maria Martini,
José Maria Castillo, Manuel Ruiz Jurado, Maurizio Costa, Romano Guardini…).
On the part of man, this readiness to obey and listen to the Word constitutes the indispensable
condition for discovering the plan which God entrusts to every individual, in the time and place
where he has been called to live, and will also be the fundamental condition for the continual renewal
of his commitment to conversion to God: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and
do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to
the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return
to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent
it” (Is 55:10-11).
The best place for listening to and hence meditating on the Word, is that of Mary at Bethany,
“who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching” (Lk 10:39). Everything begins therefore with
attention directed to the Word, which is then developed in meditation, prayer and contemplation.
Listening to God, with its aspects of silence, centering on Him and not on ourselves, becomes an
act of welcome or, rather, of the revelation in us of a presence more intimately present to us than we are
to ourselves. Silence is the special characteristic of the Word. Silence and the Word are complementary
and mutually strengthen each other. Without silence it is difficult to attain self-knowledge or to discern
God’s plan for our own life. Silence gives depth and is a unifying element.
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Suggested methods for meditation
Salesian moderation in speech implies neither distance nor artificial self-control; it means that our
attention is always given to the other person, with understanding and the desire to give and receive.
In this way we pass to an internal aspect, to being at peace with ourselves, to taking a calm view of
persons and situations, to an internal peace and tranquillity which enjoys the other’s presence. This
leads also to an attitude of self-control and resistance which silences disordered sentiments towards
others, arbitrary ideas about oneself, rebellions, rash judgements, grumbling and gossiping which
spring up from the heart. A controlled silence is the guardian of the internal self and makes it possible
to listen willingly to the one who is speaking. The God we are trying to find is within us, not outside.
The internal self needs time and space to examine and judge. As regards the first we should not
be afraid to reserve in our daily timetable some periods for personal meditation, study and prayer and
– why not? – contemplation: that total attitude as though mesmerised by truth or beauty.
The Gospel advises us to “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in
secret” (Mt 6:6). It is a matter of choosing a place where attention and spirit find fewer obstacles in
reaching God … Anyone with a little experience in the spiritual life knows that this process demands
patience and perseverance, that it is not a path he travels alone for the Spirit both precedes and
accompanies him. As he goes on his way he will gradually come to know also the fruits of a growing
interior peace and degree of freedom, of meekness and charity, which are also the consequences of a
process of prayer.
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Conclusions
“So Jesus, hidden in the tabernacle, is called by Isaiah a fountain of living water; a fountain
is always flowing out, always gushing forth, and one never sees the container from which
it gushes forth, and the more water one draws from it, the more abundantly it gushes forth
clear and clean... What can one say to him by visiting him often? To speak in this way is to
do Jesus a grave insult, as if he were not rich enough to satisfy our every request. A zealous
servant of God ... who was called the spouse of the Sacrament because of her love for Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament, when asked what she did during the many hours she stayed before
the Venerable, replied: I would stay hours and I would stay for an entire eternity and isn’t the
essence of God there, which is the delight of the blessed in Heaven? Good God, what do we
do before Him, and what do we not do? One loves, one praises, one thanks, one asks. And
what does a sick man do before the Physician? What does a thirsty man do before a clear
fountain? What does a hungry man do before a Holy Table?” (Don Bosco).84
A t the end of our journey, we have the feeling that there is so much more that could
be said on such a vitally important subject, but one of the objectives we set ourselves
was to prepare a booklet that would be as easy to read as possible. It is not difficult to
find more extensive information on each of the proposed methods in order to make further
personal enquiries.
It would have been interesting, for example, to visit the spiritual experience of the
first young Salesians through some of their writings preserved in the archives, or through
the letters that recount their sometimes brief life in the Congregation. “He was caught in
his adolescence” states the manuscript which is the obituary of cleric Giacomo Vigliocco,
certainly revised by Don Bosco “several times praying at night and at great length at that.”85
“As soon as he knew the importance of meditation for the progress of the spiritual life,”
says the biographer further on, “he embraced it with such love that he never stopped doing
it... It was beautiful to see him at the beginning of each meditation, concentrating so much
on himself that he no longer heard or saw anything else.”86 Another important field of study
could be to revisit the founder’s writings, in search of his concept of prayer, as well as his
spiritual experience and charismatic legacy.87
However, we would like to conclude our journey in the hope that we have offered, in
particular to novices and young confreres, some stimuli and reflections that will enable each
to find his own method to make the meditation that our rules prescribe for us more forceful,
joyful and vital. This objective, as we mentioned in the Introduction, can only be achieved if
the pages of this booklet and the various methods proposed are gradually tested in practice:
84 This quote is taken from a Discorso per le Quarantore (A Forty Hours devotion sermon) by Don Bosco, according
to the title page of the unpublished manuscript, in 1859 in the church of Santa Croce in Cavallermaggiore and in
1861 in Provonda, a hamlet of Giaveno, also in the province of Turin. It is preserved in ACS A 225.02.08.
85 Società di S. Francesco di Sales. Anno 1877, Torino 1877, 36. The manuscript has corrections by Don Bosco.
86 Società di S. Francesco di Sales. Anno 1877, cit., 42-43
87 In view of this see especially, G. Buccellato, Alla presenza di Dio. Ruolo dell’orazione mentale nel carisma di fondazione
di San Giovanni Bosco, Roma 2004 and studies found on www.ritornoadonbosco.it.
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this is the characteristic of every effective pedagogy on prayer. In the patient and constant
practice of meditation one gradually and naturally acquires the rules of the game that make
the experience of prayer less and less formal and tiring.
We leave you, at the end of the journey, with two testimonials.
– The first, the better known, is taken from Fr Rinaldi’s letter to novice masters and
already mentioned in the Introduction. “I went to visit my dear Father in his final year”,
this authoritative interpreter of the founder’s charism wrote, “or rather, in the final months
of his life, and wishing to make my confession to him once again, I asked him to listen to
me. I knew very well that everyone was forbidden to go to Don Bosco for confession; but
I thought that I would not transgress the order if I did things as I will now tell you. ‘You
mustn’t tire yourself’ I said to Don Bosco, ‘You mustn’t speak: I will speak; then you will tell
me just one word.’ Notice my plea, just one word. The good Father, after he had listened to
me, spoke just one word to me, just one word: and do you know what it was? Meditation! He
added nothing, no explanation or comment. Just one word: Meditation! But that word was
worth more to me than a long speech. And after so many years I still seem to see our Father
in that attitude of holy and tranquil abandonment and to hear him repeat: Meditation!”88
– The second is taken from Carlo Carretto, a contemplative religious with the Little
Brothers of Charles De Foucauld, who died in 1988; he was the brother of a Salesian who was
Bishop in Thailand and of two Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
To one of the sisters, Sister Dolcidia, Brother Charles at the age of forty, a few months
after the beginning of his novitiate in the desert, wrote: “I will give you a physical example
that I have here before me in the desert. There is a piece of desert, all sand and death, at most
a few thorns. Men want to turn the desert into a green oasis. They start work. They build
roads, lanes, canals, bridges, houses, etc, etc... Nothing changes: everything remains desert.
The basic element is missing: water. However, those who have understood begin to work,
but not on the surface: they start to dig deep! They look for water, dig a well. The fertility
of the oasis will not depend on the canals that have been built, on the roads, the houses,
but on that well. This is what I saw in Europe. An army of crazy Catholics builds things,
they build houses, colleges, associations, parties, but hardly anyone bothers to dig wells.
Conclusion: sadness, discouragement, inner emptiness and sometimes despair. We pretend
to build for God without God. And don’t tell me, sister, that we pray. No, we do not pray,
even if we say a hundred rosaries a day, even if we go to Mass regularly. Prayer is something
else entirely! Prayer is breathing, it is freedom, it is love, it is unceasing conversation, it is
above all thinking about God. This is what is lacking in our old Christianity which, when it
wants to pray, begins to insert formulas,”89
This is the only concrete strategy for making the desert bloom again: to go back to
digging wells in order to draw water with joy from the sources of salvation. (cf. Is 12:3).
88 F. Rinaldi,Cari Maestri degli ascritti, in ASC A 384.01.15
89 C. Carretto, Lettere a Dolcidia, Assisi 1989, 46-7.
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