Under your eyes is the first bulletin « He is here » in order to support and help the brothers and sisters of the Community of Beatitudes in their prayer life. Today, it seems a priority. All these last years, the Community has generously given itself in services and apostolates. This generosity will keep on, in a right and fruitful way, without wearing out, only if it is rooted in prayer life, « central vocation of the Community » ‘Book of Life of the Comunity of the Beatitudes), and especially in each brother and sister’s faithfulness in personal life of orison. The Book of Life states that « the community acknowledg-es as the main grace the life of orison » and asks us to give, every day if possible, one hour of our time to this practice, with a great resoluteness and faithfulness.

The life of orison, the real possibility to enter, deeper and deeper into the divine intimacy, is the greatest gift that we have received from the Holy Spirit and the treasure we desire most to share through our apostolates.

In his «Treaty about orison and meditation» St Peter of Alcantara, one of the most faithful support of Thérèse of Avila» writes: Through the orison, the soul is cleansed of sin, charity is nurtured, faith is rooted, hope is strengthened, the spirit rejoices, the soul melts with tenderness, the heart is purified and truth is discov-ered, temptation is defeated, sadness flees, senses are renewed, lukewarmness disappears, the rust of vices is burnt , and from this relationship, glowing sparks are born, earnest desires, and among these sparks, the flame of divine love is burning.» Maybe we do not taste this every day but in the end, these words are really true. «Our life will be worth what our life our orison is worth» says Marthe Robin.

In the holy impatience of love, and ac-cording to the first rule of the Carmel, we want to «taste, in a certain way, in our heart, experience in our spirit, the strength of the divine presence and the sweetness of the heavenly glory, not only after death, but even in this mortal life».

It is clear that there is no faithfulness in prayer without painful periods with bar-renness, poverty and confronting our own radical misery. This belongs to our path. Orison is a path to transfiguration, but also a path of humility and poverty. Faith-fulness in searching union with God is expensive and sometimes barren, but whatever is the cost, though, we do not want to give up, first because God is ask-ing it to us, and then, because it is there, and nowhere else, that we shall find peace, real happiness, consolations that give us courage in the hardness of the battle, and fruits for our apostolate.

We also want to acknowledge with humility, that, wherever we are in our path, we always «need to learn to pray, receiving as always new this art from our divine Master’s very lips, as the first disciples asked « Lord, teach us to pray» (Jean Paul II, Novo Millenio Ineunte).

«Continuous formation » is a necessity in all fields of our life but especially indeed for prayer «soul of Christian life and condition for all real pastoral life » (id). We shall never finish to learn praying. We must always hold the desire to pray better, that our prayer becomes more pure, more earnest, more able to reach out and touch God, and to give us the « new heart » that Scriptures promises.

This bulletin should like to answer this essential need and keep alive, in each brother and sister’s heart, the thirst for prayer and the resolution to persevere, without disheartening, according to the Lord’s words. (cf.Luke 18,1).

Topics and Headings

Various topics will be tackled in this bulle-tin. We do not try to be exhaustive or to settle everything beforehand; we have made a list that we shall complete as we go along. Different contributors belonging to the community will handle these top-ics:

• What does « life united with God » mean today in the Community?
• What makes orison the main grace of the Community?
• What do we mean when we say we are « schooled in » the Carmel?

We will deal with the essential attitudes that make the prayer fruitful, the difficul-ties we might meet, we will talk about lectio divina, of our relationship with Mary,…

The purpose is not to impose to everyone the same style or the same methods for prayer. Everybody’s freedom must be re-spected in this matter, as well as the normal evolution in spiritual life: orison is not lived in the same way during all the ages of life. The purpose is to give some nourishment, to recall essential land-marks, to clear the unavoidable obstacles, to kindle the desire and to stimulate the faithfulness to our vocation.

The team that composes this bulletin is expecting from you reactions, sugges-tions, opinions, so that this bulletin answers the real needs of the brothers and sisters today. Don’t waver and partic-ipate, suggest topics, offer contributions, so this bulletin is not the work of some of us but that of all the community.

In addition to the feature article dealing with the main topic, you will find a heading « To go further », with suggestions for some readings or other ressources in order to deepen the topic. There will be quotations as well, brief testimonies, or anything that can be useful to serve the purpose of this bulletin.
We commit this work to your prayer.

Quotation
« I want to be faithful, very faithful in orison every day, in spite of barrenness, of boredom, and disgusts I might have, in spite the unkind, disheartening, threatening words the Devil will repeat to me. In the days of trouble and in the great tor-ments, I shall tell myself ; « God wants it, my vocation wants it, it is enough for me ». Marthe Robin