Expert: Fr. Michael - 7/19/2006

Question
Hello,

My question regards mental prayer and the making of "acts" portion that is recommended in most methods (e.g., St. Francis de Sales' method or St. Alphonsus Liguori's method).

I am a bit gun-shy of incorporating emotional elements into spirituality and prayer after having spent a lot of time wondering why the Church allows Charismatic worship (having seen, for instance, teenagers swaying to music during a Forty Hours Devotion, holding hands, singing loud Protestant-like hymns, and other emotionalist, disrespectful nonsense before the exposed Blessed Sacrament).

But, the saints I mentioned all consider the most important part of a meditation to be the affective part, or the making of acts, by which one is supposed to "rouse up one's affections," so to speak, or "be moved to make an act of faith/hope/charity."

How is this done?  How can one make an act of charity or hope or humility or thanksgiving in some prayerful way?  Is one supposed to attempt to elicit an emotional reply, for example, to a scene from the Passion?  

I am a bit confused about this, but considering that the great saints considered this the most important part of the prayer, I thought it best to figure out how to actually pray this way.

Thank you and God bless you.


Answer
You are correct.  This is a relatively modern approach, which bears some relationship to the herzreligion that developed at the same time.  Previously, more emphasis was placed on public acts of Faith rather than purely interior "exercises."  It sounds as if the latter would be more consonant with your disposition.

We would recommend, therefore, the sanctification of the day by the traditional Divine Office or the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Then there are the Litanies, the Penitential and Gradual Psalms, etc.  For more information, check references at:  www.traditio.com/tradlib/faq05.txt