Blog Archives

HECKER REFLECTION: ON PRAYER

2/9/2015

These next few weeks we will be publishing Servant of God Isaac Hecker’s notes on prayer. They were written in 1850s and used in his early morning class on prayer that he often conducted during the Parish Missions. Hecker would hold class often at 6am in the morning to prepare people to receive baptism, reconciliation or first communion. The class as often a jumble of different people from potential converts to cradle Catholics who had never received the sacraments of initiation.

Servant of God Isaac Hecker taught:

Do not imagine that because you now enjoy the grace and friendship of Almighty God that you can keep this state independently of all aid. For to practice virtue you need the special help of God’s grace in order to persevere. If you wish to live a good life you must pray. For God’s assistance is obtained by prayer. As Saint Augustine has said, “God created you without your cooperation, but he will not have you without your cooperation.”

Even if you fail to complete the mission, forget not to pray. Pray as Saint Catherine did. When she sinned, she would pray, “Behold O Lord, these are the fruits of my garden, the bitter fruit of the garden of my soul. I gave them to you in your mercy, give me the grace to do better.”

Prayer is our strength. You may have changed your heart but the devil is not converted and neither is the world. The devil will tempt you again and the world will try and end your prayer and seduce you again. Your sincerity will be tried and tested. Perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps another day – or next week you will be assaulted by your old enemies and your old temptations. It is only after being greatly tested that you shall receive the crown of eternal life. For the crown is only given to those who have been in battle and have been tested and who have conquered “Man of God must pursue justice, piety, faithfulness, love, fortitude and gentleness. Run the great race of faith and take hold of eternal life.” (Tim 6:11)

Reflection by Fr. Paul Robichaud, CSP

In the introduction of his morning talk on prayer, Servant of God Isaac Hecker begins with the necessity of prayer. If you are going to live a good life, you need prayer to be a part of it. Hecker reminds his listeners that while an individual may change his or her heart and experience a growing closeness to God, that this relationship needs to be fed by prayer. Our hearts may change says Hecker but the world does not and we still have to live in world that succeeds when we drift away from prayer.

The late Albert Mollegen an Episcopal priest, theologian and bibilical scholar who I had the pleasure of studying with some years ago, put it simply. Mollegen used to say, Just pray, let is come out anyway that it can but just talk to God and God will take you from where you are to where God is. God is so delighted to engage you that whether you know it or not, you have God’s ear. This is reflected in Hecker’s quote from Poor Clare Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463). Saint Catherine says even bring your sins to God and ask for help and God will help you. The saint joined the Franciscans when she was 14 and in time served as Mistress of Novices. An excellent painter as well as a spiritual director her works and miniatures as well as her writings survive today. She is the patron saint of artists.

Paulist Father Paul Robichaud CSP is Historian of the Paulist Fathers and Postulator of the Cause of Father Hecker. His office is located at the Hecker Center in Washington D.C.

HECKER REFLECTION: BE PERFECT

2/2/2015

Servant of God Isaac Hecker Wrote:

Our Lord says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This may appear strange that God should require us to a perfection like his own but it is not. God’s own character is the model of man’s perfection because he created man in his own image.

God’s mind is occupied in the contemplation of is own truth, wisdom and beauty, his will in loving his own goodness and both mind and will are guided by his infinite truth and goodness. So man’s mind should be guided by the contemplataaion of God’s truth wisdom and beauty, his will to the love of God’s goodness and both mind and will be directed by obedience to God’s truth and goodness. Man’s life would be an image of God’s life and man’s perfection would be like that of his Father in heaven.

Reflection by Rev. Paul Robichaud CSP

To be like God, what an idea! Some of us might wish we had the God-like power to control our world and make it respond so that everything would turn out the way we want. Most of us understand that while God has created us, we are with our imperfections, a long way from being like God. But the good news is as Servant of God Isaac Hecker writes that God has created us in God’s own image no matter how imperfect we are and this is our starting point. We are created in the image of God through the loving care of the Father and we have become the adopted children of the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus. So as imperfect as we might be we have divine potential.

Father Hecker invites us to grow in God’s image. God’s mind is occupied in the contemplation of is own truth, wisdom and beauty, his will in loving his own goodness and both mind and will are guided by his infinite truth and goodness. So by doing what God does, as we contemplate God’s truth, for example, we grow in God’s image.

Paulist Father Paul Robichaud CSP is Historian of the Paulist Fathers and Postulator of the Cause of Father Hecker. His office is located at the Hecker Center in Washington D.C.