MONSIGNOR Paul McPartlan won’t mind foregoing the northern summer for a winter in the southern hemisphere.
On the day we spoke, Washington DC was enduring its worst snowstorm on record so a mild Brisbane July holds precious little fear for him.
Msgr McPartlan will be in Australia as part of Pray 2010, the archdiocesan gathering focusing on prayer and spirituality in the Catholic tradition.
Always a compelling speaker, you can almost feel your knowledge level rising as he speaks.
Whilst at first glance his special areas of expertise – the Eucharist, ecclesiology, ecumenism and Vatican II – might appear somewhat out of place at a prayer gathering, Msgr McPartlan is confident that’s not the case.
“I think prayer really is the core of the various subjects that I teach,” Msgr McPartlan said.
“I suppose when we first hear the word ‘prayer’ we tend to think of mystics or contemplatives; the experts who give their lives to that very particular form of prayer.
“We imagine it’s something they do very well but the rest of us are really just apprentices, but then on a moment’s thought, I realised that in fact all of those subjects I teach relate very much to prayer.
“The Church is the community that’s gathered by the Holy Spirit, the one who engenders prayer within us, and the Eucharist, which is the place where the Spirit gathers us most of all, is the great centre for the whole prayer life of the Church,” he said.
The topic of Eucharist is one that first brought him to Brisbane.
Archbishop John Bathersby, having met him through the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM), invited Msgr McPartlan to present seminars as a direct result of the Archdiocesan Synod’s call for more adult faith education opportunities.
“I think one of the main teachings of Vatican II, which we are still digesting, is the fact that the Mass is really the whole body of Christ at prayer,” Msgr McPartlan said.
“Yes, Christ is the head and the priest represents Christ the head to his people, but the whole body of Christ is drawn into the prayer of Christ in the Mass so we are all actually in dynamic action when Mass is celebrated.
“Christ is drawing us into his prayer and we are never just spectators or bystanders, we are intensely involved.
“The whole idea of active participation that came out of Vatican II I think needs to be understood in this light.
“It’s not necessarily doing lots of things in a very visible way, it’s actually being engaged in our hearts, in our souls, in our mind with the action that’s taking place, and realising that we’re members of the body of Christ and the whole body of Christ is at prayer.”
In a busy Pray 2010 schedule, Msgr McPartlan will present keynote addresses and workshops on “Eucharist makes the Church”, “Praying with Creation – The Cosmic Aspects of Eucharist”, “Praying the Mass” and “Reclaiming Sunday as a Day of Prayer”.
He would certainly like the opportunity to visit other presentations during the gathering and laughs when I ask if his study of mathematics at Cambridge would benefit him in navigating the schedule.
“It is like a tapestry with many riches but, yes, there is also something mathematical about it,” he said.
“The more I think of what is being planned the more exciting I find the whole prospect.
“It’s the first time that I have ever taken part in a gathering that has been specifically focused on prayer and it’s going to be a wonderful experience that reveals the many kinds of prayer, the many circumstances of prayer and the many traditions of prayer.”
Aside from teaching, Msgr McPartlan is writing a book on Vatican II and still contributes to documents of both the Catholic-Methodist Dialogue and the Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue.
In the midst of this busy work life does he find room for his own prayer life?
“It’s always a challenge to give sufficient time to prayer but I think it’s a vital part of our Christian life, and certainly a very essential part of a priest’s life.
“It’s crucial to begin and end the day with prayer. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are the two hinges of the day in the Office, and those prayer points help us to begin the day in the right way and to end the day in the right way.
“If we don’t make sufficient space for prayer then we soon begin to realise that something is missing and that we haven’t got the resources, vitality and strength in our Christian lives that we ought to have, so prayer is a priority.”
Msgr McPartlan says he is not beholden to a particular style of prayer.
“I find that verse about prayer from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8:26 very encouraging; when he says frankly that we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that the Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us.
“When we pray we are trying to address God, and really, when you think about that for a moment, it’s a bit overwhelming.
“Surely we would falter and think ‘What shall I say?’, ‘How do I know what to say?’
“St Paul teaches that prayer is actually given to us by the gift of the Holy Spirit. What the Spirit does in us is pray, so in fact we are the host for the Holy Spirit praying and there is no better prayer than the prayer that the Spirit makes to God!
“By the amazing grace of God we have become temples of the Spirit, in which the Spirit is praying.
“So there’s a wonderful sense that if we still ourselves, put aside all the rush of the day and just settle, it’s possible to become aware of the Holy Spirit praying within us,” he said, “and to let ourselves be carried upward in that prayer”.
