Prayer

In this book, Balthasar writes about contemplation that ignites prayer, which should also awaken and inform mission. Here Balthasar displays the mind of a world-class scholar, the heart of a mystic and the feet of a missiologist. In Eugene Peterson's book Pastor we read: "I still had a great deal to learn about the vocation of pastor, but I knew one thing for sure: the work of prayer was at the heart of everything" (150).Aidan Nichols, author of A Key to Balthasar, wrote that Balthasar's goal of theology was to "encourage readers to holiness and to steady them in the praying life that flows from the theological virtues. That for him ... was the best test of whether any book was worthwhile" (115). For Balthasar, Prayer encourages the disciple to abide in the Word so that his "heart will be swept and purged to its innermost core ... burning through him and searching him out" (234, 237); it is definitely worth rereading - mainly because it is that good and because its concepts are not easily grasped - but, it's meant only for the theologically trained mind and contemplative, prayerful heart.Balthasar is a Roman Catholic; therefore, most Protestants will be uncomfortable with his mention of the 'stations of the cross', Mass, a sinless Mary, venial and moral sin (222), penance (225), and the Apocrypha, even if they are all sparsely mentioned within the book. Regardless, Balthasar's thoughts in Prayer are ecumenical and deserve to be read outside of the Roman Catholic Church. He gives prominent and consistent place to Jesus, the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, and the Word: in these areas he's without parallel amongst evangelicals. E.g., Jesus is "the Father's Word, his eternal and sole beloved Son whom he has given to be the price of our redemption" (199). "In beholding divine truth [encapsulated in the life, death and resurrection of the Christ] we are purified and enabled to share in justification and sanctification ... it is the gracious will of God justifying us which turns us toward him and opens our eyes to his truth" (125). "Faith offers its life to the Son" (237). "By hearing the Word, the believer genuinely participates in the life of the Word, which is a life of obedience, of cross and resurrection" (238).For Balthasar, contemplation opens the believer to hear the Word of God (241), drawing him into intimacy and an encounter with God (268) that has an effect upon the Christian's ordinary life (286) and mission (288); it does not cause people to be "daydreamers in flight from the world, living in a fairyland divorced from reality (290)"; its very act lifts one's heart and mind to God, who is expressly seen in the Word becoming flesh, living amongst us, and being crucified and resurrected that the believer may be that `resident alien'. This contemplative Christian is like Mary, who said, 'Let it be done to me according to your Word' and therefore allows the Word to be birthed in the believer, shaping their very lives.Though Balthasar speaks at length about the object of contemplation (155-238), V.S. Harrison's book, The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness - Von Balthasar's Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology, best summarizes these thoughts: "... God can only be contemplated through Christ: The object of contemplation is God, and God is Trinitarian life; but for us he is life in the incarnation of the Son, from which we may never withdraw our gaze in contemplating God" (43). In Prayer, you will not find four easy, practical, clearly laid out steps to becoming like Christ through prayer. Instead, Balthasar summons the believer to swim in the waters of God's Son, his Word made flesh: "Harassed by life, exhausted, we look about us for somewhere to be quiet, to be genuine, a place of refreshment. We yearn to restore our spirits in God, to simply let go in him and gain new strength to go on living. But we fail to look for him where he is waiting for us, where he is to be found: in his Son, who is his Word" (16). "The vital thing is the living encounter with the God who speaks to us in his Word, whose eyes pierce and purify us `like a flame of fire' (Rev 1:14), whose command summons us to new obedience, who each day instructs us as if until now we had learned nothing, whose power sends us out anew into the world upon our mission" (22).

Although we may have heard countless times, "Indeed he is not far from any one of us," [for] "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:27-28) and, we know, "Whoever does the will of God remains forever" (Jn 2:17), to discover the "living waters" in our lives--this underlying reality: We must "ask," "seek" and "knock." We must find quiet. We must find a way to be recollected amidst all the noise, the attractions, and distractions of the world. We must find the "meaning" of our lives. In short, we must pray--amply! In this book, Hans Urs von Balthasar tells us that anyone who would begin to take time, not just seek to know God, but simply seek and find the fundamental meaning or mystery underlying his or her existence would begin to take the necessity of prayer for granted, particularly the prayer of listening and of contemplation.He tells us, "Existence itself was only given to us for the sake of an even earlier and even more inconceivable purpose of God "before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:3, ff); indeed, our existence as a whole is immersed in a far deeper sea, the bottomless ocean of the love of the Father who creates natures and laws as a foil for his miracles. This is something we must be vividly aware of as we pray, contemplating the word of God: that the whole compact solidity of our creaturely being and essence, and of the everyday world in which we find ourselves and find our bearings, is afloat like a ship above the immense depths of an entirely different element (which alone is absolute and decisive), namely, the unfathomable love of the Father."Wow! It's like he's telling us that the Father is this "living water." And, to seek and find the "living water" is to find LOVE. Von Balthasar says, "The person who prays must experience this love." To experience this Love means: we put aside all pride, that sin in us that resembles the fallen angels, that moves us to want to be the one who determines our lives, that lets us think that we are a necessary part of creation, that wants to be worshipped rather than to love. We no longer try to "stand secure" on our own. He says that we begin to experience the freedom to change--to be willing to see ourselves as created, unnecessary, dependent beings, very much restricted by the meaning of our Creator's purpose--created by Love and for Love. What does not conform to love of God and love of neighbor does not belong in our existence. We have been destined to live in this Sea of Love, "but [with] the much deeper and wholly new and different freedom which accords with the Father's `good pleasure': we, his creatures and servants, are to be regarded and `esteemed' as members of his household, as his children and `co-heirs' with his Son." This great Sea of Love actually envelops us--now! In this "we live and move and have our being," but blind as we are, we cannot see it. We are like the Samaritan Woman who did not know the gift of God. It is as if he must say to us too, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water" (Jn 4:10). And so, the Father sent his Son in human flesh that there would be no mistake about it--that we might believe and have eternal life and share this life with him--in mansions already created for us. For, if "We do not believe ... we will die in our sins" (Jn 8:24). We will die with neither Baptismal Promises coming to fulfillment--nor with the Love that created us--nor even wanting Love.Not exactly an easy read. Maybe better to be read in spurts, or to use in daily meditation.

This book by Fr. Von Balthasar gave me a huge kickstart into a more profound and rewarding life of prayer. The book is simply beautiful, and transformed my whole way of thinking about prayer and the spiritual life. Probably falls into my all time top 5 books. It is also very likely von Balthasar's best.The only reason I'm putting 4 stars is that it is a bit too lengthy (and some sections may give the impression of dragging a bit too long). However, each and every patient reader will most assuredly find the effort put into the reading to be a very rewarding experience.

This book is required reading for a course I am taking at Regent College in Vancouver BC. It is an oldie but goody.

Understanding prayer is awesome.

Muito bom! Descobrindo mais um autor católico de grande magnitude. Vou procurar conhecer mais sobre Balthasar.Recomendo a todos os cristãos.

The astounding gift of prayer so wonderfully taught.