The Direction of Intention. This simple prayer is, for those in the Salesian family, a most powerful prayer for advancing in holiness. In this prayer we essentially do three things. We OFFER our action to God. We ASK for His grace and we ACCEPT whatever good or difficulty may come our way in a way that is pleasing to God. In so doing, we change the secular to sacred and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. In a sense, each action becomes a sacrament for in it we encounter Christ.
Our founder, Blessed Father Louis Brisson, OSFS, exhorted us to never forget the practice of this Direction of Intention. He urged us to make a new one with each new and successive action for we may need a different grace than the one required previously. I used to tell students that if the previous class did not go well, the next one is a new opportunity, a new beginning, a new Direction of Intention. At the same time, I mentioned that is was not magical. They couldn’t pray this prayer before a chemistry test they had not prepared for thinking they would do very well. Yet, on the other hand, they could accept the difficulty from not studying and resolve to do better. I begged them to pray this before all activities: a student council session, a play rehearsal, an audition, a sporting activity, at the beginning of the day and at its conclusion.
One of my favorite memories of this prayer was when 1100 male voices would pray it in a gym before a pep rally against our rival. Prayer recited, then they would cheer “Beat St. Mark’s” (or maybe it was kill?)! You get the idea. A brother of a parishioner asked if we were going to recite it prior to leaving the sacristy for his brother’s wedding. To this day, when I celebrate a former student’s wedding, we gather all the alumni together just prior to the wedding to recite the Direction of Intention. They all smile and proudly recite something that became second nature, instinctual. A graduate told me that at boot camp when his military academy was trying to emasculate him, get him to quit, he would pray the Direction of Intention as if to say “Bring it on; I’m ready.”
Another alum, years after being graduated, recalled that his first child was born with every malady and dressed with so many tubes on his body it would be very difficult to visit him. When he approached the gates of the hospital, he prayed the Direction of Intention and things went well. It put him in the Presence of God in the Present Moment (two more key concepts of Salesian Spirituality). Many are those who tell me that they continue to pray it as it is so helpful. To those who have heard about this prayer, they keep a copy of it in their office, on the mirror or wherever needed.
Whether it is doing the dishes, cutting the lawn, meeting with a less-than-pleasant client, sitting down to study, we dedicate the action to God. We GIVE it to God, ASK for God’s grace (“my grace is sufficient for you”) and ACCEPT everything as coming from God’s providential hands.
Not only did Father Brisson ask us never to forget this, but he begged us to teach this powerful means of sanctification to all those we serve. Anecdotally, the more I am faithful to this devotion, the better things progress. When I forget, difficulty has a chance of entering the picture accompanied by such vices as pride or anxiety. We do so many things over and over again (getting dressed, driving to work, getting vested to preside at Mass) that they can become routine, mindless and perhaps with little meaning. When beginning with the Direction of Intention, we can make the profane incredibly holy.
Father John Fisher, OSFS
Pastor
Our Mother of Consolation Parish, Philadelphia, PA
