The Value of Prayer

A Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS

The Liturgy of the Hours (the Office), is prayed by many Secular Franciscans, and is a must for priests, deacons and religious. Secular Franciscans are not obliged to pray the Office, but those who do so realize that this prayer is a jewel for many reasons:

• Prayer of the Church
• Prayer of special love (see Eph. 5:25-26), gives it a unique value.
• A prayer that extends our love to our sisters and brothers everywhere.
• Feeds, nourishes our vocal, meditative contemplative needs in prayer and periods of silence.
  … so we don’t race through this prayer, but give it the time it deserves, if we can.
• Popes have sung the glory of this form of prayer, as have bishops and priests.

Dom Hubert van Zeller&, in “Ideas for Prayer,” © 1966, Templegate Publishers, Para. 9, writes, “God rewards only his own works. So even if it were possible for man to compose his own prayers independently of grace, God would not look at them. What God looks for in man’s prayer is himself, God. Only when God sees himself reflected in man’s prayer is there any value to the exercise. We would accordingly do better in our prayer, and give greater glory to God, if we talked less about ourselves and made greater effort to reflect him.”

This is why it is so important to praise God for his glory and omnipotence, long before arriving at the exercise of asking for favors. This cannot be done right in one short sentence. “God, I love you, I praise you, but could you just …” that’s no prayer. That’s setting conditions and one doesn’t do that. What would you do if a Pope came to visit you (a concept absurd in itself), you wouldn’t go tell him what to do… but we do this to God, and then say ‘oh well, he understands,’ or, ‘he knows me.’ That’s insulting.

The Office takes care of this process in the way it is constructed. And if prayed with attention and devotion, it is a worthy prayer of great value to the Lord.

I’ve been a Secular Franciscan for 30+ years. I pray the Office daily, morning, evening and night, and during the Seasons of Advent and Lent, I often pray the Office of Readings. My love for this form of prayer began when I was a monk for four-and-a-half years; there it was a requirement. The Office fulfills my prayer life. I hope you will come to love it also, as it is getting more popular among lay people.

Peace and Good,

Fred Schaeffer, OFS
10/28/2023

& Born in Egypt in 1905, van Zeller entered the Benedictine novitiate at the age of nineteen. At one point, he left the Benedictines to join a Carthusian monastery, hoping to experience a deeper and more intense understanding of his faith. He later returned to the Benedictines. He resided at Downside Abbey during his monastic life. Dom Hubert lived at St. Walburga's in Colorado, USA and then the Little Sisters of the Poor house in Denver, Colorado in the 1970s-1983.