Tobit and St. Francis of Assisi

Yesterday was full of activities to help a friend acquire his driver’s license.  So I didn’t get the chance to write in my blog.  However, as soon as I read the first reading of yesterday’s liturgy, I made an association that has always been one my favorites.

The reading opens with these words: “Grief-stricken in spirit, I, Tobit, groaned and wept aloud.  Then with sobs I began to pray.”  (Tobit 3:1)  This verse immediately reminded me of a passage in The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul, the second life of St. Francis of Assisi by Brother Thomas.  He wrote: “But when praying in the woods or solitary places he would fill the forest with groans, water the places with tears, strike his breast with his hand, and, as if finding a more secret hiding place, he often conversed out loud with his Lord.  There he replied to the Judge, there he entreated the Father; there he conversed with the Friend, there he played with the Bridegroom. . . Thus he would direct all his attention and affection toward the one thing he asked of the Lord, not so much praying as becoming totally prayer.”  (2 Celano, no. 95)

Obviously the quote from the biography of St. Francis is far more explicit.  However, I could not help but sense that Tobit’s groaning and weeping before he began to pray was similar to St. Francis’.  These two seem to have a need to express that which is tormenting them before they can move ahead with their prayer. 

There are many different ways to approach prayer.  Sometimes we hear that we should make an attempt to set aside all the cares of the day before we pray so that our minds can center on God.  It seems to me that some people might not be able to follow that path to prayer, people like Tobit and St. Francis, both of whom seem to have to “get it out of their system” before they can approach God in prayer.  The first time I heard the passage from the second biography of St. Francis, I remember thinking that St. Francis was “letting it all hang out” so that he could then quiet himself and “become a prayer.” 

The way that Tobit and St. Francis “prepare” for prayer appeals to me.  My personality seems to dictate that I put all my concerns and emotions on the table as I turn to the Lord in prayer.  I don’t seem to be able to distance myself from these concerns until they have been expressed.  Sometimes that takes the form of simply breaking out in a song.  Other times it may mean let God know exactly how I am feeling.  Once expressed, these emotions or feelings don’t interfere with prayer.  They have had their moment, their time in the sun.  Then it is possible to turn to other considerations in prayer.

Each human personality expresses itself in different ways.  There are those who link different styles of prayer to the Myers-Briggs tool for identifying personality traits.  Such tools can be helpful in determining the best way for an individual to approach God in prayer.  Each individual must find the best way to express human needs in prayer.  Then they, like Tobit and St. Francis, can “become a prayer.”

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator