The Feast of Pentecost
Holy Spirit prays within us
with sighs too deep for words...!
What Makes Prayer Work...
It is not we ourselves who pray but the Holy Spirit who prays in us (Rom 8:26). Our prayer is good in so far as the Holy Spirit informs it.
1) Our prayer has to be attentive…
2) Our prayer has to be humble…
3) Our prayer has to be reverent…
4) Our prayer has to be loving…
5) Our prayer has to be confident…
6) Our prayer has to be persevering….
Continual Prayer
“Men ought always to pray, and not faint” (Lk 18:1)
St. Paul instructs us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17)…
It is the prayer of the heart… Actual prayer is charity in practice… Habitual prayer is the disposition prepared for the practice…
It is as easy and natural to the heart to pray always as to love always…
A person can love God always, without always thinking of him and telling him of one’s love. It is enough if he is determined not only to do nothing contrary to the love of God at any time, but also to take every opportunity of proving one’s love and to make acts of love, whenever grace prompts one to do so.
Surely it is in this way that mother loves her children, a wife her husband, and friend love friend.
It would be to misunderstand the whole matter if we supposed that the occupations of life are a hindrance to this sort of prayer… Every action performed in the sight of God because it is the will of God, and in the manner that God wills, is a prayer. Nor is it necessary that the action should be good and holy in itself; it may be quite indifferent and yet one the less a prayer, in virtue of the intention with which it is performed.
“Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col 3:17)
“whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1Cor 10: 31)
If there is a prayer of action, there is also a prayer of suffering… Let your suffering be borne for God; suffer with submission and patience and suffer in union with Jesus Christ and you will be offering a most excellent prayer.
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Cfr. Jean-Nicholas Grou, How to Pray (Cambridge, James Clarke & Co, 1982)
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