Sisters Today - February 1970 Volume 41 Number 6 - A Pilgrimage Through Prayer

Sep 29, 2026

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February 1970 issue of Sisters Today (Vol. 41, No. 6) exploring the role of the religious woman in the Church and presenting articles focused on prayer. The included feature, “A Pilgrimage Through Prayer,” frames prayer as a journey requiring guidance, maps, and a broad view of prayer’s development. It contrasts mental prayer’s paved roads of meditation and contemplation, explaining their distinct processes, aims, and outcomes, including unified vision, commitment, and loving grasp of spiritual realities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages76

Reading Time3 h 12 min

AccessFree to download

A Pilgrimage Through Prayer

Paved Roads and Cross-Country Walks

Meditation as Discursive Reasoning

Contemplation as Understanding Gaze

10 FEBRUARY,1970 2wmhat-007大wiItistot 2ah L wiread hta 6 0态 wereath 花大ahie aiian SISTERS TODAY TO EXPLORE THE ROLE OF THE RELIGIOUS WOMANIN THE CHURCH IN OUR TIME FEBRUARY 1970 VOLUME 41 NUMBER 6 A Pilgrimage Through Prayer 317Herbert F.Smith,S.J. The Art of Prayer 334Richard S.Hanson Spontaneous Prayer Groups 342 J.Massingberd Ford The Problems of Contemporary Worship 348Sister Carol Frances Jegen A Place and Time for Prayer 354Sister Mary Finn,H.V.M. Wonder and Woman 362Thomas Dubay,S.M. Poem 371Sister Alla Renee Bozarth Bulletin Board 372 Announcements 347,377 Letters to the Editor 379 Book Reviews 381 Published monthly except July and September by monks of Saint John’s Abbey,Collegeville,Minnesota.Editor:Father Daniel Durken,O.S.B.Book ReviewEditor:Father Roger Kasprick,O.S.B.Cover Design:Sister Mary CharlesMcGough,O.S.B.,College of Saint Scholastica,Duluth,Minnesota.Indexed inthe Catholic Periodical Index. Address all correspondence to Sisters Today,Saint John's Abbey,Collegeville,Minnesota,56321.(Checks payable to Sisters Today.)All manuscripts shouldbe accompanied by a self-addressed envelope and postage.Poetry will notbe accepted until further notice. 1 year $4.00;2 years $7.00;single copy 50 cents.Foreign subscriptions(out-side U.S.A.):1 year $4.50;2 years $8.00.All subscriptions are payable inUnited States currency or check or International Money Order.Please allowsix weeks to two months for the filling of a subscription. Printed by Sentinel Publishing Company,Hiway 10 South,Sauk Rapids,Minnesota.(Do not send mail to this address.)Second Class postage paid atSaint Cloud,Minnesota. A Pilgrimage Through Prayer Every person serious about God sooner or later is lured by his yearninginto the journey of prayer.The pilgrim of prayer,like every epic traveller,consigns himself to danger and disaster unless he has a map to guidehim.Without one,he can hardly avoid wrong directions,poorly timedstops,and false withdrawals.His fears will call the foggy mountaincrags impassable,and he will turn back just when one last stubborneffort,guided by the savants and the saints who preceded him,wouldhave carried him across the great divide into the land of God whichhis prayer had promised. We do not lack fine roadmaps for the journey of prayer.Too often,however,they are so complicated by the fine lines of localized com-plexities that the pilgrim who is lost without the roadmap is soon lostin the roadmap.Before he can be helped by the plans of city streets,he must find out what city of prayer he has come upon. Our preliminary need is a kind of space-eye view of the wholejourney of prayer,analogous to the picture of the whole earth whichthe astronauts snapped from a hundred thousand mile perspective.Thatis the view of prayer I venture to present here. The journey of prayer set down here is inevitably a distortion ofthe reality of prayer.No analysis of life can be without falsifying lifeto a degree,and certainly no verbal description of man's prayerful lifewith God can be expected to capture more than a hint of its wonderand passion and volatility and unchartableness.Still,just as there arecertain very common blood types,there are certain main arteries onthe journey of developing prayer which are trafficked by the majorityof the pilgrims of prayer.They are really the fortunate ones,for theymore easily find help.They may be startled to discover here in rudi-mentary form the secret autobiography of their prayer growth whichthey have never revealed and only half remember.The less fortunatewill recognize a familiar landmark only here or there.They are thepeople who for years have wandered the hinterlands of prayer,findinglittle help from anyone.I would like to attempt a future article directedto them,but in any case they can have recourse to the incomparablelittle book of Leonard Boase,S.J.,The Prayer of Faith(B.Herder Co.). PAVED ROADS AND CROSS-COUNTRY WALKS Before setting out,we fix in o

FAQs

What is the central metaphor used to explain prayer in the article?

Prayer is described as a pilgrimage where serious people feel drawn into a journey that can be navigated only with the right guidance and map.

How does the article distinguish mental prayer from vocal prayer?

Mental prayer is presented as cross-country walking, distinct from vocal prayer’s paved roads; the article focuses only on mental prayer.

What are the key differences between meditation and contemplation?

Meditation emphasizes discursive reasoning and moves from idea to idea, while contemplation emphasizes an understanding gaze—finding and resting in deep truths already grasped.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by Riley