Personal And Liturgical prayer in a Time of Disintegration

The sixth Centenary Lecture of the Society, January 1981. The human need to celebrate, to deal with chaos and darkness – prayer as what life may become, and the need for empowerment. The author notes three modes of disintegration that pertain to today: personal, pastoral, congregational. Three consequences are that prayer is seen is neurosis, people turn to other providers such as yoga, and the gospel criticism of society is missing. Exploring the idea of communion with God as Trinity, the author finds that the eucharistic action is celebration of participation in creation, a sign and reminder of God's acts of salvation, an empowering to become salt and light. The loss of a sense of the 'holy day'. The spirituality of Antony (the desert tradition): place of solitude, place of truth, place of vision; this tradition is being recovered in our time. The author advises the occasional recovery of the rite in its traditional form.