Excerpt of a homily given on the anniversary of the death of Cardinal Hume, 17 June, 2015, at a Mass of thanksgiving at Westminster Cathedral.
‘When you pray,’ says the Lord, ‘Go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place.’ It is one of the mysterious things about being human that it is hidden from us how others pray: it is something known only to God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that ‘there are as many ways of praying as there are people who pray.’ Part of Cardinal Hume’s generosity was that he did, when pressed, tell people a little about his prayer life.
Significantly, he believed he was a poor pray-er. The story is told of how he once found himself at a gathering of bishops when the discussion turned to prayer. One of the bishops looked at him and said, “Cardinal Basil, you’re a monk; tell us how you pray!” With a bashful expression, the Cardinal replied, “When it comes to prayer, I feel I’m a total failure!” And yet he helped so many of us, by what he wrote and preached about prayer, to persevere in our own inadequate prayer life. I do believe it was the very fact that he found it a struggle that made him such a good companion to everyone else as they struggled in prayer.
Cardinal Nichols reminded us recently that Cardinal Hume used to say, ‘The Catechism tells us, “Prayer is the raising up of the heart and mind to God.” That’s wrong! Prayer is trying to raise the heart and mind to God!’ Like many a holy commentator on prayer, Cardinal Hume used to say the most important thing is to get yourself there. But the key, he would then add, is, when you come before God, always to acknowledge your sin. He liked to quote the story of the Pharisee and the publican going to pray in the synagogue; and how the publican, so conscious of his sinfulness, could only pray, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ‘That prayer,’ he said, ‘is one of the few prayers we can pray with total sincerity.’
A friend of his told me he was staying once with Cardinal Hume in Archbishop’s House. He came down to the chapel to pray in the morning and found the Cardinal surrounded by sheets of paper. Every few minutes, the Cardinal would write something down and drop another sheet to the floor. My friend asked him at breakfast what the paper was for. ‘I don’t mind telling you,’ replied the Cardinal, ‘they were to keep me focused.’ ‘What were you writing?’ persevered my friend. ‘Lord, have mercy on me a sinner,’ responded the humble Cardinal.