The term “prayer companion” is used throughout this handbook in a special sense.  It refers to ordinary members of the Church who have themselves benefited from daily prayer with Scripture for some time and feel called to help others receive similar gifts from God.  This desire takes them along paths of ministry running within the territory proper to spiritual direction.

             But their work remains upon the foothills of the holy mountain,  The program is intended for beginners in mental prayer and not for those who are more advanced.  The companions (in French, accompagnateurs, like piano accompanists for singers) are meant to provide a humble but valuable service to persons moving through the first stages of spiritual growth.

             A key assumption behind the whole program is that contemporary, Christians whose faith has come alive in new ways need to develop a deep personal relationship with the Lord.  Spiritual growth refers to a closer union with God in personal love, trust forgiveness, discipleship and service in the Church and in the world.  While this relationship will move forward in many different areas of life, the practice of personal prayer cannot be omitted.  For it is especially within the framework of a daily period of prayer that a one-to-One, person-to-Person relationship with God may grow.  Each individual should learn how to enter into that deeply personal exchange, that “I—Thou,” for its own sake. 

             On the other hand, the Lord who is known face-to-face in special moments of prayer is the same Lord who is met in ordinary happenings or in times of struggle, in achievements and in losses, as well as in every human relationship.

             In the busy world itself many kinds of prayer are possible.  At the centre of Catholic life, of course, comes liturgical prayer:  the Eucharist, other sacramental events, the Prayer of the Church, and shared moments in prayer groups, retreats, or special devotions.  All of these public or group methods combine vocal prayers with interior movements of the mind and heart.

             To those forms should be added the various ways of being united to God in the midst of daily actions.  In routine activities, for example recurrent chores at work or at home, this can often become fairly explicit.  It may be less so when performing tasks that require more careful attention, but even there the nearness of God to one’s inmost heart may be sensed or felt in the background.

             So powerful may this become in some instances that people even speak of actions themselves as a form of prayer:  laborare est orare (to work is to pray).  In the tradition of Ignatian spirituality we refer to contemplation amid the activities of apostolic life, of becoming contemplativus in actione.  It is the desire of St, Ignatius that each one should gradually learn how to “find God in all things,” to love all creatures in their Creator and to serve the Creator in every creature.

             Despite all that may be said and actually achieved in this area, however, a prayerful union with God in the midst of daily actions cannot on the long run become a substitute for regular periods of formal prayer.  This teaching can be found at the very centre of our Christian tradition.  It is supported by the full weight of experience and reflection over many centuries.  For those who desire a closer union with God (spiritual growth), while commitment to loving actions ought to complement formal times of prayer, it can never really replace them.

             This is true for those more advanced in the spiritual life and it even touches those who are searching for God without having found the Lord as yet.  But for beginners in the early stages of spiritual growth which follow closely upon a religious conversion or the reawakening of one’s childhood faith (“renewal”) the need for daily mental prayer as a means of coming to know the Lord is simply imperative.  And it should be emphasized that this refers to a key segment of the lay membership of the Church today.

             In former centuries there were always exceptional lay persons receiving the benefits of our spiritual tradition.  But personal direction and the formal training of beginners (“novices” and “juniors”) were made available mainly to members of religious orders and congregations or to candidates for the priesthood in diocesan seminaries.

            The desire to share the Church’s spiritual gifts with the laity was, of course, never forgotten.  Many great religious movements in our history began with lay Christians, even if they tended later on to evolve into a special order or congregation, which could then carry the movement forward in more stable fashion.  Stability and perseverance in cultivating the inner life require an organized effort and in particular a carefully designed program basic formation of new members.

            But for the vast majority of Catholics who “remain in the world” it was generally considered that keeping the commandments and frequenting the sacraments would suffice (a more detailed discussion of this point is given below, pp.145-148).  There have always been remarkable exceptions to this general rule, such as the third orders, the Marian Congregations and a variety of other groups but the rule itself may stand for the largest portion of the laity in recent times.

            Nevertheless, our cultural and religious situation today appears to call for a new step forward in this regard.  The deepening of subjective awareness, the intensification of personal consciousness that is the hallmark of Western culture in our day makes it necessary for every contemporary movement and institution to pay special attention to the interior growth and development of all its members.

            If this is important in the secular realm, how much more is it so for members of the Church?  It may be surmised that future believers in Christ, after most of us who grew up before Vatican II have passed on, will consist primarily of those who have come to know Christ as Lord in a movement of personal renewal and interior growth which then enables them to give themselves generously to his service.  It follows that the riches of our spiritual tradition must be made available to lay persons in our local communities.

            It is clear that a number of Catholic bodies (schools, parishes, apostolates are now in the process of adapting themselves to these realities, and various other movements, for example Cursillo, Marriage Encounter, charismatic prayer groups and Christian Life Communities have already been created expressly to meet them,  The Prayer Companion Program is a modest contribution of the latter sort, but it seeks to place itself amid the former and to co-operate with every other work of that sort undertaken in the Church today.

            It is designed, however, precisely to provide spiritual formation for beginners who are Christians living in the contemporary world and who desire to grow closer to God following upon an experience of personal conversion or renewal.  Because such people whatever their numerical are, are “novices” and “juniors” in spiritual growth, they will need a few years in which to lay foundations more securely and to put up at least the first storey of their religious dwelling.  Undoubtedly, new forms of lay community will be sought in coming decades by Christians whose interior life has developed this way.

The Arrangement Of Chapters In This Handbook:
            The focus of the book as a whole is on spiritual growth in its early stages soon after an experience of conversion or renewal.  Within this framework it tries to provide guidelines for companions who direct individuals in their first formal efforts at daily prayer with Scripture passages.  But the context mentioned is nonetheless a dynamic one.

             Some of the pray-ers who have made good progress in basic spiritual growth over the first year or more of this program may then begin to experience desires for further steps, other ministries or vocations.  Such desires will have to be discerned, and the decisions will have to be made at the proper time.

            In some cases pray-ers may begin to experience a desire to make the full Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, either in the daily life or thirty-day retreat format.  The more elementary growth described in this handbook has its own value and may suffice for the time being in the case of many who are going on to fruitful apostolates in the Church.  But it may also serve as a good general preparation for the more advanced program of the Exercises.

             This sense of a dynamic context will clarify the sequence of chapters in the handbook.  They have been divided into two main parts.  Part One, called  “Getting Started,” is meant to give practical guidelines to prayer companions for the externals of “how to do it.”  There are ten chapters in this first part, and each topic is treated very briefly.

            Part Two, called “Moving Forward,” takes up a series of factors that tend to arise after the companioning process has moved a little beyond the mechanics and details of first launching out.  As soon as those needs require less attention because they have become more habitual, attention can then be given to more substantial matters.  The eight chapters in this second part are treated at greater length and with fuller concern for the spiritual principles involved.  These principles will perhaps become more meaningful to each companion after more prolonged acquaintance with the struggles of individual Christians to give themselves to the service of Jesus Christ in today’s world.

Prayer Companion's Handbook, John Wickham, S.J., Ignatian Centre Publications, 1991, ISBN 0969524005 ---- can be purchased from the following:

The Ignatian Spirituality

Centre Of Montreal

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