Who is running after us?

Haga was the Hebrew term for meditating and meant muttering in a low voice, producing a low sound with the throat: the faithful translation of psalm 1 would therefore be «Blessed is the man who mumbles the law of the Lord day and night »! In Greek haga had been translated "meletàn", "melète" and in Latin "meditari, meditatio" which however also had the meaning of "to take care": to take care of the words of Scripture, as Mary does in Lk 2 , who took care in his heart of the facts and words of Jesus' little life. From the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas onwards, "meditate" had been translated as "ruminate" the word, alluding to Deuteronomy and Leviticus which define the animals that ruminate as "pure". Those who ruminate keep the same food in their mouth for a long time, repeating and memorizing a few verses, to plant it inside and make it bloom.

Theophanes the Recluse said that ruminating the word has the effect of sugar in fruit, impregnates the soul with the words of God and so there is no more room for evil thoughts. In the sixteenth century, the meditation of St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises begins to involve all the dimensions of the soul, not only the will and the memory, but the intellect and above all the imagination: it is the "revival" of the Gospel scene, as if one were right there in the middle, seeing faces, hearing voices, smelling smells. However, the method had only one purpose: to enter into a relationship with God more intensely, to "feel and taste" spiritual things, so that the eyes open and one begins to see oneself and reality with the gaze of God.

Saint Teresa of Avila, more or less contemporary with Ignatius and the undisputed teacher of prayer, instead insisted on the recollection of "all the powers" of the soul, which "enters within itself, with its God "with all the internal and external senses, in search of a personal relationship with Jesus. Recollection is a human effort, but without grace nothing happens: it is a pure gift of God. Therefore, no claims on the part of those who start praying : «My sisters, get used to what I suggest to you! If we don't get it in a year, let's take a lot of it! ... Who is running after us? ». It takes graduality, the fruits are not seen immediately, but in the long run, as soon as someone starts to pray, "here is his senses will gather as when the bees, return to the hive, enter it to make honey". Do it "muchas vece", she said: friendship grows by dating, "the lack of relationships with a person creates embarrassment ... friendship is lost without relationship". Complain, rejoice, but talk to Jesus, "bring your realities within", without masks: "he will suggest what you have to tell him". For St. Francis de Sales, a gentle and balanced bishop, a forerunner of the Second Vatican Council and a great popularizer (and therefore patron of journalists), in prayer one must "keep one's spirit in holy freedom", without clinging to any method. It is necessary to cultivate "confidence" with God: "founded on faith, hope and charity". Trust, he said, is the best prayer.


Flaminia Morandi
NP June / July 2021