Recent Sermon
Divine Intimacy through Mental Prayer and the Rosary
Bp. Ward
Too many Catholics have the false notion that divine intimacy is only reserved for the saints. God desires each of us to enjoy this foretaste of Heaven during our life on Earth. To obtain it one must have great desire and persevere in the practice of mental prayer. Mental prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. Meditation is the use of the mind, but prayer is the exercise of the heart. In Affective Prayer the soul rests in mysteries of Our Lord’s life. Those who persevere in prayer are rewarded with the gift of Infused Contemplation in which one is taken up by God and given insights into divine secrets. The knowledge of God given in those moments, surpassing the limitations of human knowledge, far exceeds the knowledge attainable through the sciences of theology and philosophy. There are stages of prayer in the interior life. The beginners find themselves in the Purgative Way, struggling against their faults. The proficients progress to the Illuminative Way where one finds the renunciation of even good attachments loved for their own sake. Lastly, the perfect souls find themselves in the Unitive State, in which the soul is lifted up in the most intimate communications with God. Two qualities are necessary for growth in this intimacy. Humility, which reminds us of how lowly we are before God, and mortification, in which we sever our attachments to the world. In the Rosary we find the seeds of contemplative prayer. For each mystery of the Rosary, we should experience a simple gaze at the mystery in our exchange of love with God. Our hand is in the hand of Our Lady as she leads us towards perfect prayer.
