Prayer

Prayer of Luis Espinal, S.J. (Bolivian Martyr)

[Jesus has said:

"He who wants to save his life, will lose it, and he who spends it for me, will gain eternal life." But we feel frightened to spend our life, and give it out completely, without keeping anything for ourselves. A very powerful instinct of preservation leads to egoism, and enslaves us when we want to give out our life. Everywhere we find hooks and pegs to prevent losing it. Above all, we are downright cowards.

Lord Jesus, we feel frightened to spend our life. But you have given it to us in order to spend it. We cannot keep it save in sterile egoism.

To spend one's life means to work for others, even if they do not pay us back; to do a favour to him who will not reciprocate. To spend one's life is to expose oneself to failure, if necessary, without any false prudence. It is to burn one's boats for the sake of the neighbour.

We are torches meant to be burnt. Only then we give out light. Free us from the cowardly prudence that makes us avoid the sacrifice and seek for security.

We can spend our life without fanfare and false popularity. One gives one's life most simply, without any publicity, like the water in the spring, like the mother who gives her breast to the baby, like the plain sweat of the farmer.

Teach us, Lord, to plunge ourselves into the impossible, because behind the impossible lies your grace and your perseverance. We shall not fall into a vacuum.

The future is a mystery, our path gets lost in the mist. But we want to continue giving ourselves, because you are awaiting in the night, with a thousand eyes, shedding tears. "]

Courtsy:

Hedwig Lewis, S.J., At Home with God (Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1991), p.228.

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