Prayer as paying attention

By Amy Frykholm

When I was in college, I encountered French existentialist philosopher Simone Weil’s awkwardly titled essay “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies With a View to the Love of God.” It stirred up in me a strong interest in focused and concentrated study. I was fascinated by her suggestion that the right use of study was cultivating attention, an attention that paved the way for prayer. Weil argues this is the “real object and almost the sole interest of studies.” Whatever the success of the studies themselves and whatever the subject studied, the pursuit is attention, a quality that leads eventually to compassion and to love of God. “Quite apart from explicit religious belief,” Weil writes, “every time that a human being succeeds in making an effort of attention with the sole idea of increasing his grasp of truth, he acquires a greater aptitude for grasping it, even if his effort produces no visible fruit.” As we desire the light, we increase our capacity for perceiving it.

After college I spent a dark, lonely year as an English teacher in Tallinn, Estonia.

I was able to put Weil’s essay to use during long evenings spent studying Russian and Estonian verb structure, reading any and all philosophy and fiction I could get my hands on and writing letters. I remember feeling utterly cut off from the world, but I learned the power of studying without interruption, of absorption created by circumstance. I had no phone, no email and lived on the far edge of the city in a large apartment building.

A friend who has taught in universities for more than 30 years says that one of the most difficult issues that he faces with his students is their inability or unwillingness to concentrate. They are constantly interrupted by cell phones and emails. They are accustomed to always being available to one another and are willing to be called out of whatever they are doing to think about or talk about or chat about something else.

Even as I write this, my attention is interrupted by the sudden ping and a red flag that signals a new email message coming in. I can’t help my curiosity. Who is trying to reach me? Like my friend’s students, I also no longer know the benefit of prolonged and intense study. A quality of attention has gone out of my work habits and succumbed to the pings and flags of the world I live in. But let’s be honest: it’s not so much a problem of technology as it is a problem of mind. Weil writes, “Something in our soul has far more violent repugnance for true attention than the flesh has for bodily fatigue. This is something much more closely connected with evil than is the flesh.” The problem is not technological so much as it is human. But technology doesn’t exactly help.

I know what steps would change this for myself. I know how to press Quit on my Mail program, how to turn down the volume on my computer. I know where the Ringer Off button is on my phone. But interruption and distraction are so much easier than prayer. Weil reminds me that the payoff for the cultivation of attention is not better work or even better prayer. We will know the benefit of our labor when we encounter a person who is suffering. “The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle.” But it is not a miracle that comes automatically. It is cultivated by daily practice.

Comments

[John Santic]

Great article, I hear echoes or can make a connection to the spirituality of St Ignatius and his work in discernment. paying attention is a huge issue and the simple practice of Examen can help to cultivate an attitude of discernment, unceasing prayer and concentration of self and the world around. Ignatian spirituality is based on the premise that God is constantly speaking and inviting us to greater freedom and is working through our experiences. I am leading our congregation through the practice of Examen and paying attention and it is no easy task. There are distractions galore from the exact things you point out in your great post....thanks.

[Tanvir]

Being an English teacher in Tallinn, Estonia must have been interesting. I recently came across a website, about the Singing Revolution. And it’s amazing how far Estonia has come since their independence. Check out this powerful and courageous trailer about The Singing Revolution if you get a chance – http://singingrevolution.com.

[Ted Michael Morgan]

Thank you for your helpful article.

[Andy]

Good article! I spent a lonely dark year once in Glasgow, Scotland, and I know exactly what you mean. I don't miss being lonely, cold, and in the dark, but I did feel much closer to God in all of that . . .

[carla]

How many times are we capable of really focusing on the plight of another individual? And although I am fairly competent on focusing my attention into the life of another person, I question my ability to form the long-term commitment worthy of “Well done, thy good and faithful servant”. For one thing, a distraction to attention is the conversations and interactions that impinge upon a focused encounter – friendships if you will. So if we are to focus our attention, as Christ would have us, do not these objects of our focus become friends, or even brothers? But our family becomes large and seemingly unmanageable, for when I focus on one brother, another goes lacking. And before I know it, I am spent, sorrowing for forgetting an important event for one of my sisters. So my friend, acquaintance or chance encounter, expect me to give you what I can at the moment of my attention and redirect me as I falter. I depend on you, my Savior, to use your mighty prevenient grace to call me back to prayer and to a life dedicated toward grasping your truths.

[Sam]

Great essay - thanks. You point out a real problem with the culture within which we live. How can we commune with our Creator if we never stop and listen? I fear that the pursuit of the American Dream has cost us a great deal more than most are willing to imagine.