Prayer in Distress

Throughout the world, at every moment, an army of men--tens of thousands of priests--begin their prayer of every hour (The Liturgy of the Hours) with an urgent plea to God for immediate rescue from imminent danger: Deus, in adiutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adiuvanda mea festina. (God, come to help me. Lord, hurry to my help. [Psalm 70:2; cf. Psalm 69 for the prayer of the drowning man, which is the context for this ejaculation.])

This prayer of the man in distress is a constant and required prayer for the Catholic priest. It is a personal S.O.S. In requiring each priest to begin his prayer this way, at every hour of the day and night, the Church presumes a constant crisis. There is a constant crisis in the world, in the Church, and in every man! We are battling the forces of darkness which are terrible; and we are striving for holiness, to be like God-- like God in the world--Christ, which is greater than any terror. So we must pray with urgency and constantly.

But our prayer in distress has nothing to do with despair because we have confidence in Him. This prayer in distress, with which the Church begins her hourly prayer, is a prayer of confidence. We must exercise our personal confidence in the Lord--naming Him "God...", "Lord...", "Jesus...", "Christ..."; we know Him and must call Him by name. We must look directly at Him and ask Him personally.

And we must pray for personal help--I must pray for "my" help! O God come to my assistance is what it says. Come to help me personally! I personally need You! I am lost without you. I pray for the Church and for the world, that is my priestly life, but my first prayer, the first words of my prayer as set out by the Church, are directly to you for me! I need you. I need to pray first of all because I myself am always in mortal danger. I am always over my head and need You to constantly save me with your powerful arm.

This attitude in prayer is very instructive. There is no elite class of men in the world who have an automatic pass to security and goodness, but all men must go to God and beg Him constantly for His indispensible help in the tumultuous world, especially His priests. Even His priests, especially His priests, must pray for themselves in order to be pulled out of this constant drowning! And, themselves being constantly held up by the Lord, they can show others how to go personally to the Lord for the help they also need in their distress.