When many Catholics hear the word contemplative, they think of silent monks or nuns. But at All Saints Friary at Ganado, Arizona, Brother Paul O’Brien has discovered a path to contemplation over years of service, solitude and ritual. “The whole experience of contemplation has always been central to my vocation,” he says, defining that experience simply as “listening to the Word, and asking, ‘Am I called to something in this moment.’” “This moment,” for Br. Paul—as for other friars ministering with the Navajo people—has been defined over the past year by the strict pandemic lock-down imposed by the Navajo Nation. “Being alone this year in Ganado has given me a lot of time for contemplation," he explains.

Br. Paul discovered this kind of prayer long ago. “It’s been my whole religious life,” he says. He cred-its a slow, careful reading of the Story of a Soul, the autobi-ography of the Little Flower, St. Therésè, —falling asleep reading a few pages each night, early in life. He also learned the technique of “centering prayer,” from the Trappist monk who popularized it, Father Thomas Keating, in a month-long stay in 1984 at St. Benedict's Abbey in Snowmass, Colorado.

Br. Paul considered the life of a Trappist, but eventually found his prayer life could be lived in active ministry, a style of life which the Franciscan Order today calls contemplative fraternity in mission (“friar-talk” for combining community life and prayer, which in turn inspire service to others). Or, as Br. Paul says about his contemplative vocation: “What I was looking for, I found in my Navajo experience.” In 22 years of ministry at Greasewood, Arizona, and now 19 years at Ganado, Br. Paul has learned from the people he serves: “The Navajo are just a very prayerful people,” he explains. He adds that, without consciously expressing, “They probably pray off and on all day. They live in the presence of the Lord." The Native American prayer experience of the sweat lodge has also taught Br. Paul about contemplation. When asked how long a sweat lodge session must last, he passes on the advice of an elder: “as long as it needs to!”

Community feeds Br. Paul’s prayer life: In addition to regular gatherings with the other friars in Nav- ajo ministry, at Ganado, his “Franciscan Partner,” Mike Sandoval, joins him daily for morning prayer. “We have a prayer and sharing time which is fruitful.” It's been “such a blessing” to share this daily prayer, he admits. “I don’t think I could do it alone anymore.” Br. Paul takes the fruits of that contemplative time into service. Currently, the only formal liturgical prayer with Navajo families has been at the many funerals during the pandemic. “I spend a lot of enriching time with the families, and with their cultural expressions, with catechesis at the graveside.” Many people come with feelings of anxiety, and so the friars and their collaborators try to be available: The people “just want reassurance that we’re here,” he explains, calling it “the ‘sacrament of presence.’”

Br. Paul O’Brien has very simple advice for anyone wishing to make contemplation a part of his or her life: “Stay with the Gospels, the sayings of Jesus.” As an example, he offers the phrase, “the Kingdom of God is within you,” to take into silence, recalling, he concludes, the promise of Jesus of “the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to stay with us.”