As you grow in holiness, you may find yourself having small conversations with God throughout the day, or perhaps you call out to Him in times of trouble. These small prayers are called Aspirations. They are wonderful devotions and please God tremendously. These prayers are very important, however there is an insidious temptation to believe these small but heartfelt prayers are not efficacious. They are not the lengthy and beautiful prayers of the rosary or litanies, and because of that we believe they are unimportant. My hope in this article is to show how important these prayers are.
Why Do We Need Aspirations?
We make our retreat in God, because we aspire after Him, and we long for Him in order that we may so retire. Therefore a longing after God and spiritual retreat mutually advance one another, and both arise from holy thoughts: do not fail therefore to long frequently for God by short but ardent efforts of your heart.
St Francis de Sales, “An Introduction to the Devout Life”
To be a Catholic means to grow and develop a relationship with Our Lord. One of most effective ways to do this is through frequent small prayers to Him. As St Francis de Sales says, these short aspirations are retreats to God. These longings toward God, which take the form of short prayers are exactly what we need throughout the day to unite our hearts with God more fully and completely.
A good sign of a holy life in Christ is frequently making these small prayers, whether they are words you come up with on the spot or are actual written prayers. When you frequently make these prayers, you are frequently in conversation with Our Savior. This a great place to find yourself in, because just as frequent conversation with people draws you closer to them and makes you friends, frequent conversation with God brings you closer to Him, who loves you tremendously.
Aspirations for Spiritual Battle
Throughout the day we are constantly assailed by the attacks and temptations of Satan and his minions. This can be incredibly draining for those who resist them and demoralizing for those who find themselves not strong enough to resist. Prayer and Faith in God is the greatest weapon we have against these attacks. The only problem is these attacks tend to hit us when we are distracted or busy. We can’t just pull out a Rosary every single time we see an annoying coworker, or say an entire St Michael prayer every time we are tempted to lustful thoughts.
In the 1977 film, “A Bridge Too Far,” Robert Redford plays a character named Major Julian Cook, who was a real person and a very devout Catholic. In a momentous scene in the movie, Major Cook must lead his men across the Waal River so they can take the bridge from the German forces. This river crossing was intense, and the American forces all were packed into flimsy boats and not enough paddles. As Major Cook is paddling his boat with the butt of his rifle, he keeps repeating the prayer “Hail Mary, Full of Grace.” The scene lasts for a few minutes, and throughout that scene, Major Cook keeps repeating that short prayer. Meanwhile, boats are exploding and machine guns are gunning down his fellow soldiers. Surrounded by death and fear in the heat of battle, he turned to Our Lady in a short and constant prayer. The real Major Cook, remarked after the battle that “full of grace” was too long and he needed to match the rhythm of the paddling in the boat.
As Catholics, we are engaged in a constant spiritual war for our souls. We often find ourselves in spiritual battles as intense as the physical battle Major Cook found himself in. We need these short prayers when we can’t pray the long ones, they could save us when we are surrounded by death and sin! Saying a short prayer or repeating that same prayer could mean the difference between making it through the barrage of temptations or falling into spiritual death.
How do I develop my own?
There are many useful collections of vocal aspirations, but I would advise you not to confine yourself to any formal words; rather use those which are prompted by the feelings of your heart, as you need them: they will never fail you. Undoubtedly, there are some sentences which surpass all others and satisfy the heart, such as the ejaculations found throughout the Psalms of David, the various invocations of the Name of Jesus, and the ardent expressions of love in the Canticle of Canticles: sacred hymns have a similar effect if they are devoutly used.
St Francis de Sales, “An Introduction to the Devout Life”
Aspirations can be taken from other prayers, like Major Cook’s example with the Hail Mary above. Or they could be actual prayers that are short, like the prayer at the bottom of the Divine Mercy image, “Jesus I trust in You.” Or you could even come up with your own prayers. You can choose whatever prayers you want to be a part of your arsenal.
St Catherine of Siena would say the beginning prayer of the Divine Office, “O God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me!” Which is a fantastic addition to your prayers. But she only started using this aspiration after she had learned how to say the Divine Office. So look at your common prayers and devotions, and choose a phrase that can be said quickly and is easy to memorize.
But the most important thing is that these prayers speak from your heart. They must direct your mind to God, whether imploring for help and safety or asking to be closer. Like a small child running to their father, aspirations don’t need lofty or lengthy words to convey what you need. The Father knows what you run to Him for.
Examples of Aspiration Prayers
In order to help you develop your own collection of prayers, here is a list of short prayers that might help you. Remember though, even though having a collection of prayers may be useful, it is the movement of your heart that is most important. You may end up just saying what needs to be said, rather than being contrained to any of these.
- Jesus I Trust In You
- Give me the strength to carry my cross Lord
- Oh God, come to my assistance, make hast to help me!
- Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner
- Jesus Christ save me!
- Jesus be with me now
- He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken (Psalm 62:2)
- My Lord and my God!
- Holy Spirit, guide me now!
- Holy Spirit, help me say what I need to say
- Thank you Jesus
- Lord help me
- Lord help them
- You are greater than everything Lord
- I fear no evil, for You are with me (Psalm 23:4)
- Lord hold me and comfort me
- Lord Jesus, clean me with your precious blood
- Hail Mary, full of grace!
- Mary, hold me in your arms
- Mother Mary, be a mother to me now!
- O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you (Miraculous Medal prayer)
- Mary my queen, bring me closer to your Son
- Mary protect me!
- Guardian angel protect me!
- St Michael protect me!
- (patron or favorite saint) pray for me!
Start Praying With Aspirations
Aspirations are very important for bringing us closer to God. Remember that these prayers may seem small, but because they are a movement of our hearts, have great effect when we pray them. Sometimes we are tempted to believe that these small prayers don’t mean anything, because they are not big prayers like the rosary or St Michael prayer. This is false, and these prayers actually mean quite a bit. the Holy Spirit inspires us to pray, and we would not feel these inspirations to pray if God did not want us to. So don’t ignore these little prayers. Pray them often!