The Holy Hour Readings and Prayers for a Daily Hour of Meditation

THE HOLY HOUR R eadings and Prayers for a Daily H our of Meditation Compiled by RT. REV. MONSIGNOR HI LTONI . SHEEN for THE CATHOLICHOUR Sunday evening broadcast produced by the National Council of Catholic Men for the Nation al B ro adcasting Company Firs t P rinting S econd P rinting NATIONAL COUNCIL OFCATHOLICMEN M h v n | 3 l2 assac usefi A e ue N. W. s . WA SH I NGT O N D C . DE DI C A T E D T o MARY MOT HER I M M AC U L ATE GL ORI OU S PA T R O N E ss O F THE U N I TED STATES O U R I N TERC ESSOR AT THE T HRON E O F GO D O U R ! U EEN O F R I GHTEOU S PEAC E W H O V K FOREV ER FAI THFU L T o A L L I N O E THEE . IN TR ODU CTION Why Make a Holy Hour ! H E purpose of this book is to aid souls i n securing an inner peace by meditating one continuous hour a day on God and our im r mortal destiny . Whether o not one uses this p articular book of meditations does not matter P in the least . Some Jews , some rotestants , and some Catholics may find it very unsatisfactory. If, however , they rej ect this book because they h wish to make the Holy Hour in t eir own way , the book will have achieved its purpose . What i a s vital is not that these medit tions be used , but that there be meditation . But why spend an hour a day in meditation ! Because we are living on the surface of our souls , knowing little either of God or our inner thin s self . Our knowledge is mostly about g , not about destiny . Most of our difficulties and disappointments in life are due to mistakes in f - our li e plans . Having forgotten the purpose of living , we have doubted even the value of living . A broken bone gives pain because it is not where it ought to be ; our souls are in agony because we are not tending to the full ness of Life , Truth , and Love which is God . H O W T O MA KE T H E H O L Y H O U R 5 E T nothing hinder thee from praying always, and be not afraid to be Justified even to death : for the reward of God contmueth th forever . Before prayer prepare y ! soul : and be not as a man that tempteth God (E colesias ticns 18 : 22 -23 ) Prayer is the lifting of our soul to God unto ‘ theend of perfectly corresponding to His Holy W111 . i Our Divine Lord , describing H is M s “ s10n : , said For I have come down from h eaven , not to do my own will, but the will of h him who sent me the Fat er , that I should ha lose nothing of what he s given me, but that ! I should raise it up on the last day (John “ My food is to do the will of him ! l o v sent me, to accomplish his work (John Z é4 To correspond to the Divine Will , we must first of all know it, and secondly, have the r g acemnd strength to correspond with it , once i it s known . But to attain these two gifts of h lig t for our minds and power for our wills , we must live on terms of intimate friendship with God . This is done through prayer . A prayerful life is therefore one lived in con formity with the Holy Will of God as a prayer 1ess f - li e is a life of self will and selfishness . There is an element of prayer common to P a a Jews , rotestants , and C tholics , n mely, be in lief God . Above half of the prayers , for example, which a priest says in his Divine f O fice are taken from the Old Testament . In h relation to all three, t at is Jews , Protestants, and h f Cat olics , a Holy Hour will there ore be understood as one Hour a day Spent in medi a t ting on God and our eternal salvation . This Holy Hour can be made anywhere . 4 F r ! has o Catholics , however , the Holy Hour a very special significance . It means a con . t1nuous and unbroken Hour spent i n the pres ence of Our Divine Lord in the Eucharist ; for which reason a meditation on the Blessed Eu charist has been included. This Holy Hour will be Spent in prayer and meditation . A distinction is here made between the two , with the emphasis on the latter . By prayer we here understand the recitation of formal prayers , generally composed by a per: f son dif erent from him who prays . The Psalms represent one of the highest forms of vocal prayer , and are common to a Jews , Protestants , and Catholics . Other voc l a prayers include the Our Father , H il Mary , onfiteor Creed , C , Acts of Faith , Hope , and an Charity , d thousands of other prayers found h in religious books . There are t ree kinds of a : ttention in vocal prayer ( 1 ) to the words , lest we say them wrong ; ( 2 ) to their sense and meaning ; and ( 3 ) to God and the intention f or h whic we pray . The last kind of attention is essential to vocal prayer . But the principal purpose of this Holy Hour booklet is the cultivation of mental prayer or meditation . Very few souls ever meditate ; they are either frightened by the word , or else never taught its existence . In the human order a person in love is always conscious of the one loved , lives in the presence of the other , re solves to do the will of the other , and regards as his greatest j ealousy being outdone in the - i least advantage of self g ving . Apply this to a love soul in with God, and you have the rudi m ments of editation . Meditation is therefore a kind of communing of Spirit with spirit , with God as its object . Without attempting to set down the formal aspects of meditation , but to make it as intel I t is s ugg ested that priests and relig ious make this H oly H our in addition to their us ual recitation of the D v ne O ffi d H ol s s i i ce an y M a . 5 i ligible as possible to beginners , the techn que of meditation is as follows : 0 ( 1 ) We speak to God : We begin by puttl ng ourselves in the presence of God . For those who make the Holy Hour before the Blessed S acrament , there must be a consciousness of our presence before the Body , Blood , Soul , and Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ . N aturally, there are varying degrees of intimacy with persons . In a theatre there are hundreds present, but little or no intimacy between them . The intimacy deepens to the degree that we establish conversation with one or more of them , and according as this con versation springs from a common interest . So it is with God . Prayer , then , is not a mere asking for things , but an aiming at a transformation ; that is , “ a becoming conformed to the image of his ! Son (R omans We pray not to dispose God to give us something, but to dispose our selves to receive something from Him : the fullness of Divine Life . ( 2 ) God speaks to a s : Activity is not only on human Side , but also on the Divine . A n co versation is an exchange , not a monologue . A S the soul willed to draw near God, God wills a to dr w near the soul . It would be wrong to monopolize the conversation with friends ; it is more wrong to do so in our relations with God . We must not do all the talking ; we must also “ be good listeners . Speak Lord, for thy ser ! vant heareth ( 1 Kings 3 The soul now experiences the truth of the “ words Draw near to God , and he will draw ! near to you (James All during the meditation it will conceive devout affections of a doration , petition , sacrifice , and reparation to t God , but par icularly at the close of the medi tation f . These af ections or colloquies are to be f of ered preferably in our own language, for every soul must make its own love to God , and God loves each soul in a particular manner . “ In the beginning the soul, attracted to G H im Jesus by some impulse of grace , comes to , filled with natural thoughts and aspirations , and very ignorant of the supernatural . It h understands neit er God nor itself . It has few intimate relations with the Divinity out side of itself and within itself ; but it begins to re converse with Jesus . If it persists in the f quentation of H is company the Lord gradually takes an ever-increasing share in the conversa tion , and begins to enlighten the soul . In its contemplation of the mysteries of faith, He aids it to penetrate beneath the words and facts and symbols , hitherto known but super ciall fi y, and to grasp the inner sense of the supernatural truths contained in these facts or words or symbols . The Scriptures are grad all - u y opened to the soul .

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