Dr. John Borelli, Special Assistant to the President at Georgetown University

     Our Ignatian prayer group at Woodstock Theological Center currently has 16 members. A prayer group of any size and in any setting, even meeting as seldom as ours, is a luxury. If even half the names on the list attend our sessions, held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, the group is still sizably supportive of this style of praying. Our band of companions in prayer, drawn from several sectors of Georgetown University, owes its existence almost entirely to the decision of Father Tim Brown, SJ, to call A Year of Prayer. He gave us a compelling reason to stop our busy lives for a concerted effort at prayer in groups and individually throughout the Maryland Province.

     When the sequence of themes wraps up on June 20, our group will have met 16 times. We will be 16 times richer than if we not had this occasion to organize, and eight times more graced than if we met only once a month. We will have prayed in gratitude five times, twice in entreaty and reflection for healing, six Tuesdays to discern the call of God through prayer, and three times to meditate on our co-laboring.

     We held our organizational meeting last fall on October 18, praying in gratitude for the glory of the created universe. Then we divided the weeks ahead according to the themes outlined in the Guide Book and marked off every other theme or so for a meeting. We all try to pray the recommended themes individually each week, especially the weeks that fill the gaps between our Tuesday sessions. Sometimes participants mention their individual prayer when time comes each session for sharing.

     We begin at 12:15 p.m. remain in prayer until almost 1:00 p.m. The most helpful feature is that the role of leader of prayer shifts each time. We guide one another through the themes in creative and surprising ways. The change of themes and distinctive gifts for discernment of each leader are occasions of grace. We have scriptural readings and recitations, psalms, poems and readings from spiritual writings, pictures and images, stretches of silence, opportunities for sharing, music and song, and prayers that gather the fragments. Sometimes there are many fragments to gather; other times, a handful. The juxtaposition of readings and flow of prayer make every occasion a new experience.

     Most of us were friends in one way or another before our group was organized, but it is wondrous how prayer draws us closer. Praying together opens hearts to the words of scripture and to one another’s words. Sitting comfortably with one another in silence and in sharing releases what we hold in secret.