Pray is to make one's heart available for God's visit

Last updated: Thu 31 Mar 2022 PM

During the general audience on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, held in the library of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope continued his cycle of catechesis on prayer.

"Prayer belongs to everyone, to men of every religion, and probably also to those who profess none," the Pope explained at the outset, on the eve of the day of 14 May, during which believers of all the religions of the world will be invited to pray in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, before returning to the specifics of Christian prayer.

"Prayer is born in the secret of ourselves, in that inner place which spiritual authors often call "the heart"," explained Francis, using words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Prayer therefore links all the dimensions of our deepest being. "Emotions pray, but we cannot say that prayer is only an emotion. Intelligence prays, but praying is not only an intellectual act. The body prays, but one can speak with God even in the most severe disability. It is therefore the whole man who prays, if he prays with his "heart,"" insisted the Pope.

A relational and loving dynamic

Prayer is an impulse that evokes "nostalgia for an encounter" and a dynamic of connection between the "I" and the "You". This dilation of the heart that the Christian experiences when he prays thus opens up to a relationship, and not to a withdrawal into oneself. God wanted to enter into a relationship with each one of us, and "Christianity is the religion that continually celebrates the "manifestation" of God, that is, his epiphany. The first feasts of the liturgical year are the celebration of that God who does not remain hidden, but who offers his friendship to men", through the inscription of Jesus in human history.

"Christianity has banished from the bond with God any "feudal" type of relationship", explained Francis, recalling that the relationship between God and men must never be "subjection", "slavery" or "vassalization", but that, on the contrary, the Christian spiritual patrimony evokes sweet words to evoke this relationship: "covenant", "friendship", "promise", "communion", or "closeness".

God loves us without preconditions

"God is the friend, the ally, the spouse", and in the "Our Father" Jesus taught us to address a whole series of requests to the Father. So we can ask God for everything, tell Him everything. Even if we feel faulty, even if we have been unfaithful, "He continues to love us well". Jesus demonstrated this in His unconditional love for His disciples on the evening of the Last Supper, even though He knew He would be betrayed.

So God is waiting for us to open the door of our hearts to Him. "Sometimes he knocks at the door of the heart but he is not invasive: he waits", he has the tenderness and patience "of a father and a mother". The "incandescent nucleus" of Christian prayer is therefore turned towards a "God of love, our Father who awaits and accompanies us", concluded Francis.

Source: Vatican News