Father Chet, July 1983
Prayer and the Redemption of the Shadow
Prayer is not the only way to become aware of our shadow and to work at its redemption. We can become conscious of our shadow through psychotherapy, dream interpretation, spiritual direction, and common sense.
Freudian slips of the tongue and actions; criticisms and opposition from others; sudden, uncontrolled outbursts of emotion, anger and envy; and dislike for others as well as admiration for them — are forceful eruptions of the shadow demanding recognition.
The Twelve Steps of AA are wonderful ways of recognizing not only the shadow of alcoholism but also our other shadows and then doing something constructive about them. Frequently all or most of those things which we blame on the devil or label as temptations from Satan are actually elements of repression which we have built up between our conscious lives and our unconscious shadow.
Prayer as Quiet Reflection/Recollection
Prayer is one of the most effective and most easily available methods whereby we can become conscious of our shadow and its store of psychic energy.
lnstead of calling it prayer-time, we might think of this time of our day as that hour of quiet reflection which we give ourselves in order to make contact with our inner being. If only we could convince ourselves that such an hour of quiet recollection is not a waste of time or a neglect of other duties in life!
If we are ever to attain wholeness, we must find the time to turn off our involvement in conscious activities and try to make contact with the life forces that lay below the level of our consciousness. This introspection needs to be done every day and not just on rare occasions when we are alone on vacation or elsewhere.
We need to make a conscious effort to use our will and ego-strength to shut out distractions and then listen attentively to whatever intuitions, insights, inspirations, images, pictures, and ideas that come into our mind during this hour of quiet and reflection. Frequently it helps to have a notebook or pad by our side and to jot down any new thoughts or images that emerge for future reference.
Dreamwork
One way of using this time of silence is to reflect upon the meaning of any dreams that we can remember, perhaps trying to fantasize with them by continuing the dream sequence from where it ended to whatever fanciful solution that comes to us.
Another way to use the time is to reflect on those things that most disturb and upset us in other people or other groups, races, or nations. Try to discern the presence of similar tendencies, desires, or even actions in one’s own life, or reflect quietly on any of the ways given in the previous paragraph by which the unconscious shadow erupts into consciousness.
“When our prayer is authentic, it can be a major instrument that God uses to help us uncover our repressed shadow and accept it as part of our God-given endowment of grace. “
During our daily period of formal prayer we need to try to discover the aspect of our unconscious shadow which the providence of God wishes to activate at this particular moment. When our prayer is authentic, it can be a major instrument that God uses to help us uncover our repressed shadow and accept it as part of our God-given endowment of grace.
When we make the effort to discover our shadow, relate to it and enlist its help, the undeveloped, unintegrated unconscious psychic energy becomes a divine grace, an aid that comes to us from God, the work of the Holy Spirit leading us to the wholeness of the Kingdom of God. Whereas, when we repress and neglect or refuse to integrate our shadow into conscious life, this same psychic energy can work against us and even destroy us.
In the Gospel, Jesus compares the shadow to an unclean spirit that roams aimlessly through the desert searching for a place to rest. If it finds no useful purpose for its energy, it goes off and brings back other repressed psychic energies from our past. ”They move in and settle there and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (Matt 12:43-45).
The psychic energy of the shadow can become either the Holy Spirit at work for good in our lives or an evil spirit bent upon wreaking havoc. It all depends upon whether we integrate and use it, or neglect it and allow it to grow wild.
For those of us who believe that the Holy Spirit is present within the depths of our inner being, this hour of silent reflection will be seen as that time each day when we seek to make contact with the Spirit of God and discover what messages God may have for us.
God is vitally interested in the success and welfare of each of us, as well as in the happiness and fulfillment of the needs of every nation, community, family, group, institution, and of the whole human race. God is always ready to tell us what we need to do to fulfill our destiny. We need to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and invite that Spirit to reveal God’s will to us. This is the primary purpose of prayer.
Prayer is not only us speaking to God, but making ourselves open and listening to God speaking to us., To do this we have to become quiet, to listen patiently and prayerfully for the voice of God to come to us.
“We need to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and invite that Spirit to reveal God’s will to us. This is the primary purpose of prayer.“
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth of seven installments of Fathers Chet’s writings on wholeness and the shadow. The first four were published in April , June, August, October, respectively.