Lord, teach us to pray

8 OCTOBER (Lk 11,1-4)

The man is poor, rather devoid of everything. His life is from the others, it is wholly from the Other, that is, from God, from his Lord and Creator,from his Redeemer and Saviour, from his Inspirer and Sanctifier. Man is not life, he is not a source of life, he has not in himself the roots of his being, of his working, of his becoming, of his time and of his eternity. God is the one who is. “I am who I am.” The man is one who is not, becauseif he wants to be, he must always be from God and from his brothers.

Man can be defined with one word: “An eternal beggar of life.” On earth and in Heaven, in time and in eternity he must always beg for his life, or else he falls today and tomorrow, in an eternal death. Like every tree if it wants to live must be well planted in the ground, so every man if he wants to live, he must be firmly planted in God and the brothers. Not only in God but also in the brothers, that are the means by which the life of God comes down and pours on him.

Today the man has lost this truth. He thinks he is from himself and for himself. He is hard of heart and late of mind. He severed his tie with both the divine source of his being and with the human one. It is as if he were locked in a inviolable tower of selfishness. Only from himself. Only for himself. This is the real death. This is the sin of sins. This is pride that poisons the human living together. If the real link with the historical andeternal Source of his life is not resumed, the man will sink more and more into the lake of fire and sulphur of his eternal death.

Who can help the man get out of this fire death is only the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. She can help him, on one condition: that she herself renews according to the fullness of truth her bonds of love and grace with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. If she like men to be redeemed, becomes from herself and no longer from the Lord and Creator, from her Redeemer and Saviour, from her Inspirer andSanctifier, never might she give life. She too has none and never might she be of any help to others.

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.”

Prayer is the uninterrupted request of life to God who is the eternal source of true life. It is everlasting communion with the Source of our being and ourbecoming. It is the unbreakable bond with the Creator of our daily existence. For this we must clothe ourselves with holy humility, prostrate before Him, confess him as the sole Author of our lives and ask him all grace, all help and all assistance so that we can be what He established that we are in hiseternal decree. This prayer must mark the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years. Never a single moment must we remain without our profound prostration before the God of life.

To God we must ask that he descends unto us and becomes our one and only breath of life. That He is our breath, our soul and our spirit. That He is our truth, grace, goodness, mercy, perfect justice, authentic and true holiness. That He is our daily bread, our forgiveness and deliverance from all evil. That he is the one to guard us so that we do not fall into temptation. That He is not the non life of our life, but our very life. He can pray who possesses thismost pure faith in his spirit and in his soul. The faith is received from others. It is every disciple of Jesus that must be a true giver of faith. From the faith is the salvation of every man, is the redemption of the world, is the life of the earth. If we, Church, do not clothe ourselves of a most pure faith, the world will forever remain lifeless. It does not know the Lord and does not know that its life is all from Him and through Him, in Him and with Him. He helps life who gives the true faith.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us of a strong and solid faith.