Prayer and Mission

Web Posted: September 14, 2004

The language of “desires” – discovering God’s hope for us in our own interior longings –is a recurring theme of Ignatian spirituality. This brief essay by Fr. Frank Houdek, S.J., stresses the importance of reflecting on our desires as a natural first step in living our mission to the fullest.

Generally speaking, people do best what they really want to do. They bring their best talent and energies to the projects and activities which respond to and activate their deep personal desires. Therefore, for fruitful and effective mission, it is of paramount importance that people bring to conscious awareness their deepest desires, particularly those developing in and around their images in their prayer.

It is here, then, that prayer and mission are most closely integrated. The images that occur in prayer, in contemplation and in quiet reflection give birth to deep and strong personal desires. These images nurture creativity, generosity and abide in consciousness. They shape the sense of personal vocation and mission and the mission, in turn, intensifies and animates the desires. Mission becomes the deep satisfaction of the strong personal desires developing out of prayer and contemplation and desires become the underpinning and vital élan for mission.

Thus, it is essential for contemporary Christians to enter prayerfully into the inner world of their desires. Exploration of this inner world of desires deepens prayer and sustains mission. The bridge between prayer and mission is fashioned by the desires which flow from both and sustain both. It is, thus, this arena of desires that is the contemporary locus for discernment of spirits and examination of consciousness. Such discernment and self-examination develops a powerful nexus between desires, prayer and mission and resolves in an integrated fashion the tension and/or polarity between prayer and mission.