Sometimes I just don’t get it. Not being snarky, truly. I just don’t get it. Even in the context of a larger and valid point, how can a Pope utter this sentence?
“Prayer that doesn’t lead to concrete action toward our brothers is a fruitless and incomplete prayer,” the Pope said July 21.
In the interest of fairness, I will give the full context even though I don’t think it mitigates in any way the clumsiness of this sentence.
In his Sunday Angelus message, Pope Francis told crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square to unite prayer and action in Christian life, reports Catholic News Agency.
“Prayer that doesn’t lead to concrete action toward our brothers is a fruitless and incomplete prayer,” the Pope said July 21. “But at the same time, when ecclesial service only attends to work, not reserving time for dialogue with God in prayer, it risks serving itself rather than God who is present in the brother in need.”
Even within the full context, I think that the sentence is simply wrong.
Prayer is action. Pure and simple. There are other forms of action and they can certainly be inspired by prayer, but prayer itself is never fruitless or incomplete in any way for lack of additional action. Hey, the Pope is human and the Sunday Angelus is certainly not ex Cathedra, but I find it strange that such a sentence could pass the lips of a Pope without immediate correction. It makes one wonder that when wackos like Leonardo Boff quote the Pope as saying things like this that perhaps, just perhaps, he is not entirely making it up.
From the Catholic encyclopedia.
The great function assumed by contemplatives, as has already been said, is the worship of God. When living in community, they perform this sacred office in a public, official way, assembling at stated hours of the day and night to offer to the Almighty “the sacrifice of Praise” (Psalm. xlix, 14, 23; see Office, Divine). Their chief work then is what St. Benedict (Rule, xliii) Call emphatically God’s work (opus Dei), i.e. the solemn chanting of Divine praise, in which the tongue gives utterance to the admiration of the intellect and to the love of the heart. And this is done in the name of the Church and of all mankind. Not only does contemplation glorify God, but it is most beneficial to the soul itself. Nothing brings the soul into such close union with God, and union with God is the source of all saintliness. Never so well as when contemplating the perfections of God and the grandeur of His works does man see his own imperfections and failings, the vileness of sin, and the paltriness and futility of so many of his labours and undertakings; and thus nothing so grounds him in humility, the prop and the bulwark of every other virtue.
July 23, 2013 at 4:42 am
it's very easy to mis-speak when you are talking off-the-cuff. I'm sure he doesn't think St. Clare was wasting her time in cloister and that St. Francis was "fruitless" as he spent his latter years in contemplative seclusion. It is an awkward thing to say for someone who took the name of Francis…
July 23, 2013 at 6:47 am
It should also be said that nearly all americans need to pray more and "act" less…
July 23, 2013 at 7:00 am
The way I read this statement, I think Pope Francis was trying to echo the very traditional concept in spiritual theology that the fruitfulness of our prayer is best determined by the way we live our lives. I.e., if our prayer isn’t leading us to a greater growth in virtue (which includes, among other things, a readiness to help our neighbor), then we have to question whether or not our prayer life has turned into something like pious naval-gazing.
This isn’t the same thing as saying that prayer is somehow worthless unless we’re outwardly accomplishing a lot of things.
July 23, 2013 at 8:38 am
I think the Pope is really saying that prayer must always lead to a growth in Charity; a move towards God and neighbour.
July 23, 2013 at 12:20 pm
With all the respect, I don't think Pope had something bad on his mind. But he did not speak ex-catedra, so its not like he attacks an doctrine, or something.
July 23, 2013 at 1:02 pm
“Prayer that doesn’t lead to concrete action toward our brothers is a fruitless and incomplete prayer,” Prayer for the brother brings forth the brother. If man sees himself and his neighbors as the gifts and benefits accorded to man by God, then the brother is the fruit of prayer.
July 23, 2013 at 1:06 pm
I think this is like that passage in James where the Apostle tells us don't just wish others to be warm and eat well but act concretely to make it possible. In context, when actions are possible they should accompany prayer. I'm pleased to read that he (the Pope) balanced the remark by pointing out that a works only focus can takes us away from God. He's doing just what a Pope should do: pointing out the rails on the left and right side of the road. On the right the love of God that grows in prayer must eventually bear fruit concretely ( we don't get to retreat entirely from the world – even the rare monastic devoted to entirely to prayer acts under the direction of the Church – not on their own – so that their devotion and sacrifices can be used as a concrete sign/public witness of faith). On the left the total focus on charity to the exclusion of prayer that seeks God risks loss of the reliance on his grace the risks self righteousness.
July 23, 2013 at 2:00 pm
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July 23, 2013 at 2:06 pm
He's not the most careful or methodical Pope ever. The fact that he came right after Ratzinger underscores this.
July 23, 2013 at 2:11 pm
Faith without works…
July 23, 2013 at 2:26 pm
I agree that what he meant is that prayer, if it is genuine prayer, yields the fruit of the Holy Spirit of love, and love disposes us to the good of our neighbour which we then seek according to the proper duties of our state of life.
But yes, it is an infelicitous choice of words, open to misinterpretation.
July 23, 2013 at 2:37 pm
Isn't this just ora et labora from St. Benedict? I really don't think in context it has any flavor of heterodoxy. The entire reason monasticism in the West developed from the desert hermits was to assure community along with contemplation. I'm not fond of the Holy Father's meden agan approach of condemning both extremes equally, as he seems to do here, because it leads to an "equally bad" leitmotif of the errors of "right" and "left" which the press will seize upon. But that is a preudential, not theological, observation.
July 23, 2013 at 2:37 pm
It is upsetting that darn near everything he says on liturgy and prayer is open to misinterpretation.
July 23, 2013 at 2:51 pm
I don't understand all the people trying to put this in context. I understand there is context. I mentioned the context. I even agree with what he was likely trying to get at. But none of that changes the fact that the sentence in question in troubling.
If you disagree with me, fine. But the problem is not that I misunderstood him.
July 23, 2013 at 2:53 pm
I understand what he 'meant' and I also understand what he 'said'
July 23, 2013 at 2:53 pm
"What is a Jesuit really thinking?" One of the three things known only to God.
July 23, 2013 at 3:15 pm
As I read your article, I was fully on your side, however after reading the responses of your readers…
“I'm sure he doesn't think…”
“The way I read this statement…”
“I think the Pope is really saying…”
“I think this is like….”
“I agree that what he meant is….”
….I am ashamed that I thought so poorly of this most perfect of Popes.
It seems that we must repent of expecting the Teacher of All to speak clearly.
So, please Patrick, before you write another word you need to get reeducated – get thee hence school of mind reading and politically correct word parsing.
Might I suggest Humpty Dumpty’s words mean what I want them to mean – everything is hunky-dory -don’t look behind the curtain school of mind reading and word warping?
July 23, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Think of the scene in Hamlet, where the Uncle is praying and acknowledges that prayer without repentance is not prayer. The irony being that his act of praying, buys him the grace of living longer, as Hamlet will not kill him while in the act of praying. Prayer that does not lead us to greater love of God or our neighbor, is empty, not because God refuses our prayer, but because we refuse the grace.
July 23, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Indeed, that sentence in question is troubling.
If I pray for graces to become, for example, more patient, more humble etc., to have a greater love for God or pray for perservance until the end (last two are prayers St. Alphonsus de Liguori, a Doctor of the Church, always recommended) and God answers my prayer, and I become more virtuous, then was this prayer useless?
July 23, 2013 at 4:01 pm
The words of the visible head of the Catholic Church should not initiate a worldwide guessing game as to what he meant.
Regardless of what he meant, he should really think about his words and how they might be interpreted by reasonable people before he says them. But then, Pope Francis doesn't seem to think such effort is warranted.