13 March, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

Prayer

1. What is prayer? It is not simply a request for some favour or grace. It is much more than this. It is a raising of the mind and heart to God in order to adore, praise, love and appease Him. It is an intimate conversation with God, or with Our Lady, or with any of the Saints. It is wonderfully consoling to be able to place ourselves quietly in the presence of God and open our hearts to Him. We can make known to Him our weaknesses, our desires and our resolutions. We can tell Him how much we long to love Him and to do His will in all things. We can tell Him how much we need His grace, because we are incapable of achieving anything without Him. We can tell Him that we long to love, adore and serve Him and to lead others to do likewise. If we pray in this fashion, we can be sure that God will hear us. If He obliges us to wait for an answer, it is because He wishes to test our faith and love. Even during such a period of trial, our prayers will still reach the throne of God.

2. The Saints loved to pray. Prayer was the source of their strength and consolation. They prayed with enthusiasm and for as long as they were able. They would have liked to spend their lives in intimate conversation with Jesus. They loved God so much that they lived and worked only for Him. For this reason they regarded prayer as a pleasure. The hours of prayer passed like seconds because love does not feel the passing of time, nor does it notice discomfort. Our Lord gave us an example of this in His own life. When He prayed to His Heavenly Father, “He continued all night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12) In spite of the fact that He was God, He gave Himself in prayer to His Heavenly Father before He worked any of His miracles, and in Gethsemane before He went to His Passion. It must be the same with us. A man who does not love prayer does not love God. If anyone works without praying, his work is useless. We should feel the need to pray just as much as we feel the need of God’s assistance. The happiest hours of our lives should be those which we spend in prayer.

3. The saints had their failings and temptations like everybody else. Some experienced continual spiritual aridity. Others, like St. Anthony and St. Benedict, were often tempted against purity, while St. Francis de Sales was strongly inclined towards impatience. Others, like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, were even tempted to despair. But they all conquered by means of prayer. If we wish to conquer in the same way, we must pray, too. Let us never tire of praying. Sooner or later the Father of goodness and mercy will answer us.