Sebastian Fricke’s Reviews > Interior Prayer: Carthusian Novice Conferences (Cistercian Studies) by A Carthusian > Status Update

St. John of the Cross said something similar about a state where the soul doesn't ask anything in particular and does the prayer of Our Lady in Cana: "They have no wine," that is, "I don't have this," or "They don't have that," implying necessity. But in both cases, it seems to be something transient. Even the contemplative will eventually leave prayer to manual labour and will experience hunger or remember people in need. And it's still virtuous to pray for food or healing or material goods, when they are well-ordered.

Ah interesting, maybe I am framing this incorrectly, to me not asking for something particular implied, that if I see, for example, my neighbor having a heart attack, that I wouldn't pray for his health and recovery, but would instead abandon to the will of God. With that framing, prayer seems to me like something very depersonalized, where what I experience in life would have no big value.
And I think stating a necessity is a question from my point of view, like if I say to God: "He is very ill!", that implies to my ears that I would like him to be healthy, whether I say "He is very ill, please heal him!" or say the former doesn't make a big difference to me.

I think this topic in general really challenges my current view on prayer in general, especially with my attraction to very contemplative monastic communities. In the current stage of my prayer life, my prayers are tightly connected to the needs I see around me and to the people that I feel like God has entrusted to me.
Thus, the concept of praying for the whole world, is, for now, a quite abstract concept for me, like it is hard enough to pray in a "real" way for my family, where I know a bit about the personal struggles, the ups and downs and whatnot.
An example for this are the typical petition prayers in the liturgy, like: "You are the first and the last; you were dead and you live;- preserve your life in the newly baptized." (from today's German Vespers in the breviary) , are quite abstract to me, if I do not know a newly baptized person and the request that is stated is so obvious, that I am not sure it is worth mentioning. That would be to me like if I would go to my mother, who is a elementary school teacher, and tell her: "Mom please take care of all the first graders at your school", as I don't know the kids, she knows them, I have no connection to the kids whatsoever and what I ask is blatantly obvious. If however she tells me, that there is a little boy called Ben in her class, whose mother just committed suicide, then praying feels a lot more purposeful and personal, like there is a specific need.

Another similar thing for me is the difference between: "All saints and angels pray for us" and actually stating who I am asking for help, the former feels depersonalized to me, while in the second I actually make a connection to a specific saint. Would be like instead of asking my neighbor to help me change the tires of my car, I would take a megaphone and scream through the streets: "All neighbors please help me change my tires". (You can maybe see that I like analogies :P And they sometimes don't fit perfectly ...)

Thanks a lot for my comment!

I think I understand. Actually, I may experience the same thing. We always pray more eagerly for a particular thing or person. But the Church and the saints always offered universal prayers, so it must have some efficacy, even if it's harder for us. Even the Scripture says God wants everyone to be saved, but things can get quite messy when we come to particular people. So we pray for everyone to be saved, and maybe God uses this to guide us to pray for people we never knew before, or He may even save people we will never know in this life. I think this universal prayer is even more important for a contemplative religious, like a Carmelite or Cartusian, for they know few people outside their monasteries. But this question seems to be more of our psychology. It's truly easier to pray for people we know and love.