With Lent being a season of penitential and intensified prayer, let us prepare ourselves for it with the words of Sacred Scripture depicting two specific seasons of penance and spiritual struggle in Israel‘s history and featuring two great, strong, and prayerful Old Testament Saints, and then in closing listen to Saint Francis de Sales‘ counsel on prayer in general.
Seasons of tribulation and penance in the Bible: the prayers of Daniel and Judith
“Now when Daniel knew this, that is to say, that the law (forbidding prayers) was made, he went into his house: and opening the windows in his upper chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt down three times a day, and adored, and gave thanks before his God, as he had been accustomed to do before.“
Daniel 6: 10
“In the first year of Darius the son of Assuerus of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans: The first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, that seventy years should be accomplished of the desolation of Jerusalem. And I set my face to the Lord my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord God, great and terrible, who keepest the covenant, and mercy to them that love thee, and keep thy commandments. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and have revolted: and we have gone aside from thy commandments, and thy judgments. We have not hearkened to thy servants the prophets, that have spoken in thy name to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To thee, O Lord, justice: but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, for their iniquities by which they have sinned against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our princes, and to our fathers that have sinned. But to thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from thee: And we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his law, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. And all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have turned away from hearing thy voice, and the malediction, and the curse, which is written in the book of Moses the servant of God, is fallen upon us, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us, and against our princes that judged us, that he would bring in upon us a great evil, such as never was under all the heaven, according to that which hath been done in Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and think on thy truth. And the Lord hath watched upon the evil, and hath brought it upon us: the Lord our God is just in all his works which he hath done: for we have not hearkened to his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought forth thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name as at this day: we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, O Lord, against all thy justice: let thy wrath and thy indignation be turned away, I beseech thee, from thy city Jerusalem, and from thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and thy people are a reproach to all that are round about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of thy servant, and his prayers: and shew thy face upon thy sanctuary which is desolate, for thy own sake. Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear: open thy eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies. O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken and do: delay not for thy own sake, O my God: because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people. Now while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people of Israel, and presenting my supplications in the sight of my God, for the holy mountain of my God: As I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice. And he instructed me, and spoke to me, and said: O Daniel, I am now come forth to teach thee, and that thou mightest understand. From the beginning of thy prayers the word came forth: and I am come to shew it to thee, because thou art a man of desires: therefore do thou mark the word, and understand the vision.“
Daniel 9: 1-23
And then Daniel, who humbled himself before the God of Israel on behalf of the whole nation, receives from the archangel Gabriel the foretelling when the Messiah of Israel will arrive: a vision of hope in the land of exile. And at the fulfillment of time, it is the archangel Gabriel who visits the Blessed Virgin Mary and announces to her the Messiah‘s birth from her womb.
The widow Judith‘s prayer is a powerful punch line in the book that tells her story:
“And when they were gone, Judith went into her oratory: and putting on haircloth, laid ashes on her head: and falling down prostrate before the Lord, she cried to the Lord, saying: O Lord God of my father Simeon, who gavest him a sword to execute vengeance against strangers, who had defiled by their uncleanness, and uncovered the virgin unto confusion: And who gavest their wives to be made a prey, and their daughters into captivity: and all their spoils to be divided to thy servants, who were zealous with thy zeal: assist, I beseech thee, O Lord God, me a widow. For thou hast done the things of old, and hast devised one thing after another: and what thou hast designed hath been done. For all thy ways are prepared, and in thy providence thou hast placed thy judgments. Look upon the camp of the Assyrians now, as thou wast pleased to look upon the camp of the Egyptians, when they pursued armed after thy servants, trusting in their chariots, and in their horsemen, and in a multitude of warriors. But thou lookedst over their camp, and darkness wearied them. The deep held their feet, and the waters overwhelmed them. So may it be with these also, O Lord, who trust in their multitude, and in their chariots, and in their pikes, and in their shields, and in their arrows, and glory in their spears, and know not that thou art our God, who destroyest wars from the beginning, and the Lord is thy name. Lift up thy arm as from the beginning, and crush their power with thy power: let their power fall in their wrath, who promise themselves to violate thy sanctuary, and defile the dwelling place of thy name, and to beat down with their sword the horn of thy altar. Bring to pass, O Lord, that his pride may be cut off with his own sword. Let him be caught in the net of his own eyes in my regard, and do thou strike him by the graces of the words of my lips. Give me constancy in my mind, that I may despise him: and fortitude that I may overthrow him. For this will be a glorious monument for thy name, when he shall fall by the hand of a woman. For thy power, O Lord, is not in a multitude, nor is thy pleasure in the strength of horses, nor from the beginning have the proud been acceptable to thee: but the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased thee. O God of the heavens, creator of the waters, and Lord of the whole creation, hear me a poor wretch, making supplication to thee, and presuming of thy mercy. Remember, O Lord, thy covenant, and put thou words in my mouth, and strengthen the resolution in my heart, that thy house may continue in thy holiness: And all nations may acknowledge that thou art God, and there is no other besides thee.“
Judith 9
Saint Francis de Sales on prayer
“Prayer brings our mind into the brightness of divine light, and exposes our will to the warmth of divine love. Nothing else can so purge our mind from its ignorance, and our will from its depraved affections. It is a blessed fountain which, as it flows, revives our good desires and causes them to bring forth fruit, washes away the stains of infirmity from our soul, and calms the passions of our hearts. Above all, I would recommend mental prayer, the prayer of the heart; and that drawn from the contemplation of our Saviour‘s life and Passion. If you habitually meditate upon Him, your whole soul will be filled with Him, you will learn His expression, and learn to frame your actions after His example. (…) Devote one hour daily to mental prayer – if you can, let it be early in the morning, because then your mind is less cumbered and more vigorous after the night‘s rest. Do not spend longer than one hour in this exercise unless expressly desired to do so by your spiritual father. If you can perform it in church, so much the better (…). Begin all prayer, whether mental or vocal, by placing yourself in the presence of God. (…) I recommend you to say the Lord‘s Prayer, Hail Mary, and Creed in Latin. (…) The Rosary is a most useful kind of prayer (…). The Litanies of Our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the Saints, and all the other prayers which you find in the authorized manuals and primers are useful. But if you have the gift of mental prayer, mind and make that the chief thing, so that if from press of business or other causes you are hindered from vocal prayer, you will not be distressed, but will rest satisfied with saying, before or after your meditation, the Lord‘s Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, and the Apostles‘ Creed. (…) Above all, Philothea, you must be careful to retain the resolutions to which you have come through meditation, on your return to active duties. Without this chief fruit of meditation it becomes not only useless but positively hurtful, for our mind is apt to rest satisfied with the consideration instead of the practice of virtues, till we persuade ourselves that we are what we have resolved to be – this is all very well if our resolutions are active and solid, but if not, it is a vain and dangerous error – therefore we should always endeavor to put them in practice, and seek every occasion for so doing.“
Saint Francis de Sales, Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 61-75
“Honor, reverence, and love the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, for she is the Mother of Our Lord, and therefore our Mother also. Fly to her as her child, and cast yourself at her knees with a perfect confidence at all times, and on all occasions. Call on this dear Mother, appeal to her maternal love, and strive to imitate her virtues. Familiarize yourself with the thought of the holy angels, and honor especially the angel guardian of the diocese in which you live, and those of your neighbors, and above all your own. Call on them and honor them frequently, and ask their help in all your affairs, temporal as well as spiritual. (…) Choose as your patrons some saints in particular, to whose life and imitation you feel most drawn, and in whose intercession you feel an especial confidence. The Saint whose name you bear is already assigned you from your Baptism.“
Saint Francis de Sales, Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 97-98
Saint Daniel, Saint Judith, and Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us!