Brother Charles experienced the Eucharist as the 'treasure' of the presence of Jesus and the center of his life. As priests, we also have come to experience the Paschal Mystery of Jesus as the rhythm and pulse of our own lives and ministry. While this is predominantly experienced while presiding over the celebration of the Eucharist. the prayer of Christ's Risen Body. and while ministering to God's people. the fraternity also invites us to rest in His Mysterious Presence in a quiet and contemplative way of Adoration. For Brother Charles the central Mystery of the Eucharist was uncomplicated and profound: Jesus handing over his life for His people This unrepeatable self- offering is powerfully and symbolically entered into and imitated in another simple way by our silent presence to Jesus. When a group spends an hour of watchful centered prayer in the Eucharistic presence, this prayer can radically and richly complement the communal Eucharistic Worship with God's people. As Rene Voillaume describes this reality: "To live by the Eucharist means handing oneself over to people, and becoming for them out of love and out of Eucharistic Contemplation. food that is worth eating." Some groups also choose to celebrate the Eucharist together as part of their day.

Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests -- An Overview of Spirituality and Method, (Fifth Edition, April 1987), sometimes called the 'American Experience'

The Fraternity Life stresses contemplative prayer and time devoted exclusively to it. The life of Fraternity, while not denying other forms of prayer or ruling them out a priori, points in the direction of a prolonged period of an hour each day spent in this type of prayer. As mentioned earlier, this prayer of adoration would be spent in the Eucharistic presence. Foucauld would describe it as "?that state in which the soul looks wordlessly on God, solely occupied with contemplating Him, telling Him with looks that it loves Him, while uttering no words, even in thought." For Brother Charles it was the experience of love, waiting on and with Jesus. "I live at the feet of my God, pouring our my heart in love of Him, telling Him I love Him, while He tells me I shall never love Him as much as He loves me, however great my love would be. They are hours of incomparable happiness." Members of Fraternity find themselves praying for this grace, allowing themselves to be drawn back to the Mystery of Eucharist celebrated in community, now nourishing them in the silence with Jesus given for us.

This prayer cannot be simply selfish, an exercise for its own sake, nor for "storing up" grace and energy for ministry. Primarily it is an act of love for Jesus. In the presence of Jesus we need to realize the authenticity of our ministry as we struggle with balancing our prayer and action. Above all we need a personal relationship with Jesus loved for His own sake.

This prayer time will not come easily or immediately to most priests. Often we did not learn to pray in the seminary and we have not prayed very much since. The main struggle in our prayer may well be making ourselves available to Jesus in the Eucharist without any sense of warmth or intimacy at all, "wasting time with Jesus." Perhaps this is the greatest gift we have to give to the Lord in these days. Perseverance has always marked prayer in all circumstances, waiting on Jesus even in the midst of anxiety and darkness. It requires faith and personal love for Jesus in order to pray, as well as a willingness to let Him take a look at our lives. It takes courage to say "no" to an activity or nervous drives. First we must come to a conviction about the need for this prayer in our lives.

The focus of this prayer time is not on "getting in the hour", nor is it even postulating the necessity of making formal prayer the center of our lives. Many priests today seem to find Christ more easily in their parish and in their ministry than in prolonged periods of reflection and prayer. If we develop a fixation about the "requirement" of an hour of adoration, we will become discouraged by the effort required or will react to the observance expected. Much more is at stake than being faithful to a rigid prayer schedule. It is a question of a living faith in Jesus that is difficult (though not impossible) to find by any other means. Because we are imperfect, it is almost impossible for us to live in the spirit of Adoration, seeking and seeing Jesus in that we do, unless we set special time aside for prayer in a daily, weekly, and monthly rhythm. We do need a prolonged time just to calm down and to be open to the Lord, to meet Jesus on personal terms.

We believe that Christ is present to the whole of our lives, in the world around us, in the people with whom we live and work. We know when we are truly present to others, that we likewise encounter Jesus. Yet, this Jesus-in-life we often miss. Prayer and contemplation are needed even to focus our hearts and minds to see Christ revealing and giving Himself to us in the rest of our life. This prayer also helps us detect the obstacles in ourselves which make us hesitate to give ourselves to Christ.

The Fraternity can be of great help in sustaining this practice. We are able to reflect upon our self-deception or excuses, assisting us to see that such prolonged daily prayer is possible for a priest who really desires it. We might explore with our brothers what might be a rhythm of prayer that can be sustained. Sometimes members of Fraternity might try to come together for the "hour" several times during the month if they can, as they find praying in Fraternity to be a great help. The Fraternity can also help in exploring and authenticating other forms of prayer as well. Above all, prayer must be tried to be found fruitful. A theoretical discussion on the appropriateness of one form of prayer or another will hardly convince anyone of it one way or another. The members of Fraternity seek to respond to the invitation of the Lord to come apart for awhile with Him. This too is a matter of growth in conviction and practice. Our starting point is right where we are at the moment. From time to time we allow our efforts at prayer to be the subject of our Review of Life so that we may be helped to respond ever more faithfully and generously, without guilt feelings, to the Lord who loves us.


Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests -- An Overview of Spirituality and Method, (Fifth Edition, April 1987), sometimes called the 'American Experience'