A National Tragedy: Can Contemplative Prayer Help?

By Fr. James Farfaglia
12/16/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

How does contemplative prayer have anything to do with a tragedy which is beyond comprehension? "If my people who bear my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I myself will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land."

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CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - The beginning of the Year of Faith was very exciting for me. I decided to put together a group of clergy that would provide a daily homily for Catholic Online and I committed to writing a weekly article on contemplative prayer, a topic which interests me greatly.

Tonight, as I sit before my computer, I must be honest, I am really stuck. I am at a loss for words.

Should I just drop the article and call it a night?

Deacon Keith is always asking his small team of writers for new material.

Turning off the computer would be an easy way out.

The best approach with you, the readers of this series on contemplative prayer, is just to be honest.

So, let me be honest with you tonight.

The shootings in Connecticut have had a huge impact on me. I have been holding back the tears since I learned of the news on Friday morning. This is not to say that other shootings have not caused me to feel profound sadness, but this one is really close to home.

You see, although I now live in Corpus Christi, Texas, I grew up in Ridgefield, which is located about 40 minutes west of the Newtown and Sandy Hook area. As a kid, our family used to take Sunday rides through this part of Connecticut.

Like Ridgefield and other areas of Connecticut, Newtown and Sandy Hook are your typical small New England communities: beautiful, quiet, friendly and great places to live.

How does contemplative prayer have anything to do with a tragedy which is beyond comprehension?

I am not sure.

I am trying to figure it out myself.

However, I do think that it does have something to offer us.

I am a Catholic priest and the pastor of a poor Hispanic parish. I can't even begin to imagine what the members of the clergy are going through. I am here in Corpus Christi. As a member of the clergy too, how do I deal with this tragedy? How can I help? I can't leave. My people need me here and it is almost Christmas.

I think that my best response and perhaps my only response is prayer.

My prayer could take many forms. I can offer Masses. I can pray the Rosary. I can spend time in adoration, or I can open myself up to the Holy Spirit in contemplative prayer and simply remain in silence, with the hope that somehow that time of prayer will bring some kind of peace to all those who suffer so profoundly.

Is there any act of violence worse than shooting children and adults in a school, a movie theatre or a place of work?

Joined together in prayer, the contemplative prayer of all of us around the world who are not directly involved in helping the people of Connecticut could in some way be united to the prayer of the suffering of Jesus on the Cross.

It is a powerful prayer because it is a prayer that unites itself to the cry of the Crucified Lord: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?"

I don't think that we need a Mayan calendar to tell us that we are in big trouble.

Whatever motivated the alleged shooter to inflict such terrible pain upon a small New England community might be discovered by the local law enforcement officials.

There is a bigger picture to consider as the world is left in shock at such a horrific act of evil.

This is not the first time that this has happened. These acts of evil are only symptoms of a very deep and a very serious problem.

Not everyone is going to like what I have to say here.

First, if we can kill an innocent baby in the womb of a mother, what is to keep us from killing a child outside of the womb?

What about our television, our movies, our video games and our music? We have an obsession and fascination with violence.

And what about the guns? Yes, I understand the Second Amendment of the Constitution, but did the Founding Fathers of our nation foresee this kind of perversity and insanity?

Can a democracy exist when a people can no longer govern themselves?

This may sound unrealistic and even radical, but what I really think that we need is a national day of silence.

Yes.

One day when no one drives a car.

The television, the radio and the Internet are shut down.

One day when no one goes to work, no one goes to school and no one goes shopping.

Twenty four hours of silence when nobody speaks a word.

Twenty four hours where we sit in our living room, on our front or back porches, in the backyard, on the beach or in the woods and we just listen.listen to the voice that calls us back to wisdom.

"If my people who bear my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I myself will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land" (Second Book of Chronicles: 7; 14).
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Father James Farfaglia is a contributing writer for Catholic Online and author of Get Serious! - A Survival Guide for Serious Catholics. You can visit him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: year of faith, contemplative prayer, tragedy in Newtown, father james farfaglia

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

virginiahymel
5 months ago
AMEN, Father.
The Lord does hear the cry of the poor and I am with you 100% on this prescription. Even if the nation doesn't take the time to follow it.
I will and will do this for 1 full 24hour period. Who knows, if more committed Prayer Warriors follow suit, the "silence of the lambs" who were slain will send out a silent shout that will be heard cosmically around the world and unto the heavens that will send a warcry that is loud and clear to the enemy that we all know the end of his story and God DOES WIN the Final Confrontation. Be not afraid for God is with us and will do battle for us. The Lamb is VICTORIOUS. He is coming with the armies of heaven behind Him and He has Victory written on His Heart. He will smite His enemies. Our battle is not with flesh and blood but with Powers and Principalities. Love and Good shall overcome and conquer hate and evil. Maranatha, Come Lord, Jesus, Come!
Love in the Lamb,
Virginia (smg)
andrew
5 months ago
The devil is in the media, the new narcosis. If one should go cold turkey by the day in contemplation, so be it. At least, one would possibly be aware that any 'taking of life news' is pathetic reporting and far worse, indulging in a discussion. Your suggestion makes sense, a day in silence would give us all a chance to look for the Son in these cloudy days and see the devil plummet from the ratings. When the wind has scorched the fields, locusts have ravaged the crops, your children taken away in their prime, remember Job who prostrated to God alone. Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes. Deliver this blow on the devil and see the Glory of God.
rafaelmarie
5 months ago
50% of so-called catholics voted for obama.

If these so-called catholics followed Catholic teaching, obama would of been defeated.

Catholic teaching states that voting for a pro-abortion political candidate, like obama, is a mortal sin.

That means that millions of catholics have committed mortal sin.

If they went to communion in that state, then they have committed a more grievous sin, the sin of sacrilege.

Also, they have made it possible for the HHS mandate to more likely remain in effect.

The HHS mandate forces the catholic church to pay for contraception, which is diametrically opposed to the teachings Holy Roman-Catholic Church.

Since these so-called catholics voted for obama, they have essentially become accomplices in the persecution of the Clergy of the Holy Roman-Catholic Church, meaning they are actually persecuting Jesus-Christ himself, since the Priest is Person Christi (representing Jesus-Christ on earth).

On top of the great societal sin of abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia, so-called embryonic stem cell research, birth control, etc., etc., etc., the scales of justice are that much heavier against america!

Do you think that God will just stand idly by while we go on our merry way to hell???

NO!

We are due for chastisements, BIG TIME!

In fact, in my humble opinion, our national deficit for sin is higher than our actual national monetary debt, that even though we would stop all these sins today, it would not be enough to tip the scales in our favor. We would have to fast and do major penances and prayer to even attempt to try to affect them!

May God have mercy on all our souls!
Sharlene Talijan
5 months ago
Thank you, Father, for saying the hard things. They are the profound truth. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry. And may He continue to bless all of us with deep faith and joy in His promises.
Rose
5 months ago
I am fully on board with 24 hours of silence. 24 hours of contemplation used to be called "Sunday," the Lord's Day. We need to bring it back.
I wonder about the statement "can a democracy exist when a people can no longer govern themselves." What is Father's meaning here?
I believe people can govern themselves. The problem is government intrusion. A government that legalizes the slaughter of the unborn. A president who believes that a child who survives an abortion can be killed after birth. A president who denies God's law and "evolves" and decides sodomy is okay. A government which takes the name of God out of our schools so non-believers aren't "offended." An administration that gathers our Bishops in the White House and tells them to start listening to the "enlightened" minds in the Obama camp, aka non-practicing, so-called Catholics. A government that wants to force a religious organization to provide medication that kills the unborn. A government that wants the Catholic Church out of education and the medical field because it refuses to abide with its secular, materialistic, God-less agenda. I could go on and on.
Can we govern ourselves? Absolutely, if tyrannical government gets out of the way!!
Andrew M. Greenwell
5 months ago
Fascinating suggestion: the whole country go on silent retreat for 24 hours! Be still and know that I am God. (Ps. 46:10 [45:11])
don
5 months ago
i agree with father 100%. This world of ours lacks faith in God, and is preoccupied with worldly things and has lost putting the lord number 1 in our lives.

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