LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY

Gal 2,1-2.7-14; Ps 116; Lk 11,1-4
10 OCTOBER

Prayer is the fruit of two truths. In the absence of even one truth, our prayer either is false or it is not perfectly true. For his prayer to be true, man must know both God and himself according to truth. Who is God? It is the source of the truth of man. What is the man? He is a person who can be true only by the truth of his God. Here is then prayer: request from God for every truth so that we may come into possession of the truth that makes us true in order to fulfil our truth which is in the image and likeness of the truth of our Creator and Lord. Man is not. This is his truth. God is. This is his truth. Man asks his being to God. God gives it to him. Man begins to live according to the true being received from God. Since being is not given once and for all, but is drawn in the same way that the tree draws its life from the earth and the sun, man must always ask his Creator to feed him with his eternal and divine truth. Only in this way he might live according to purity and fullness of truth. He moves away from his God, he enters into falsehood and death. The Old Testament reveals to us some prayer intentions. It shows us that there is a prayer of intercession. But never is the people taught a special, particular prayer to be raised to the Lord for every moment of his life.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my subjects, and I will let the people go to offer sacrifice to the Lord” (Ex 8, 4). “Well, then,” said Pharaoh, “I will let you go to offer sacrifice to the Lord, your God, in the desert, provided that you do not go too far away and that you pray for me” (Ex 8, 24). Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough of God’s thunder and hail. Then I will let you go; you need stay no longer” (Ex 9, 28). But now, do forgive me my sin once more, and pray the LORD, your God, to take at least this deadly pest from me” (Ex 10, 17). Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the Lord, for upon its welfare depends your own (Jer 29, 7). Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and that of Belshazzar, his son, that their lifetimes may equal the duration of the heavens above the earth (Bar 1, 11). Pray that the Lord may give us strength, and light to our eyes, that we may live under the protective shadow of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and that of Belshazzar, his son, and serve them long, finding favour in their sight (Bar 1, 12). “Pray for us also to the Lord, our God; for we have sinned against the Lord, our God, and the wrath and anger of the Lord have not yet been withdrawn from us at the present day (Bar 1, 13).

This is the extraordinary beauty and simplicity of the prayer taught by Lord Jesus. It is a complete and perfect prayer, valid for every moment of our life. Because of its extreme simplicity everyone can put it in the heart. It requires neither science nor great intelligence to understand what the Lord is asked for it: every true good for the soul, the spirit, the body, time, eternity, the present, the future, for us and for the others. In very few, brief words there is the whole truth of God and of man. For it to be heard, man must raise it to the Lord in fullness of faith, in a state of grace, with the heart and hands engaged in the service of charity to God and to men.

He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

We can define the Christian as the curator of three great interests: of God, of himself and of neighbour. He will take care of himself and his neighbour, only if he will be able to cure the interests of his God at the height of his strength. If he cures the interests of God, God will cure his interests and those of his neighbour through him. The Lord does all things for him that cures the interests of the Lord. But who is the true man according to Jesus? He who asks God to make him an instrument to cure divine interests.

Most pure Mother, Angels and Saints ensure that God can take care of his every interest through us.