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September 14, 2024The meaning of the year of prayer in preparation for the jubilee
Dearest faithful, first of all I thank Father Stefano again for the invitation to address you today for a moment called: the voice of the bishop. This is the third session of the Bishop’s Voice, and the first after the summer holidays.
We are coming to the end of the jubilee year dedicated to Saint Arethas and his companions martyrs. They show us a radical testimony of fidelity to our Lord Jesus.
However, in a few months we will begin another jubilee, the jubilee of the Lord, the Holy Year in which we will remember the 2025 years since the incarnation of the Son of God. Pope Francis has invited us to prepare for this fundamental event for the whole Church with a time of prayer.
Why did the Pope invite everyone to pray with greater intensity and fidelity?
The invitation of Pope Francis is to rediscover the right place of prayer in our lives, considering it not just something spontaneous, momentary, or extraordinary, but constant. The invitation is to adopt the right rhythm of prayer in our daily life.
Certainly, having lived the extraordinary jubilee of Saint Arethas and his companion martyrs has already led us to intensify our prayer. During this year many faithful have visited the Cathedral of Saint Joseph to pass through the Holy Door and receive the plenary indulgence for the forgiveness of sins. Praying to God and praying through the holy martyrs of Najran, asking their intercession for us, leads us to recognize that we are part of a Church that lives in this part of the world. The Jubilee Prayer unites us as a Church. Even though we come from different nations, we recognize ourselves as part of this history of the Church which has its roots in the Apostolic preaching, as we read in the bible, Saint Paul himself came to Arabia, and in the testimony of the martyrs.
From this perspective I briefly recall the constitutive and inspiring elements of Christian prayer which should characterize every Christian, making them aware of their vocation to be a witness, more certainly qualifies in a particular way in those who intensely live an ecclesial experience.
Holiness and prayer
There are many references to the magisterial texts. All the recent Popes have emphasized the life of prayer, concretely inviting to practice various forms of prayer. For my part, I will refer to some passages found in a very important document of the pontificate of Pope Francis: Gaudete et Exultate.
This is not a text about prayer but about the vocation to holiness in the contemporary world. In fact, I think the original context of the discovery of prayer for our life is that of our vocation and in particular to the vocation to holiness that concerns every baptized person.
Also to grasp the connection between prayer and daily life, it is necessary to root prayer in the baptismal life itself, which constitutes the original call to holiness. Only by rediscovering this fundamental call, we can grasp the connection with the specific Christian vocations namely: to marriage, to the consecrated life and to the ministerial priesthood. If we lose the awareness of being baptized, everything else becomes dry and functional.
Among the many statements of Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exultate, I would like to recall in n.147 where it says: "holiness is made of habitual openness to transcendence, which is expressed in prayer and adoration. The saint is a person with a prayerful spirit, who needs to communicate with God. He is someone who cannot bear to suffocate in the closed immanence of this world, and in the midst of his efforts and his giving of himself he sighs for God, he comes out of himself in praise and broadens one's boundaries in contemplation of the Lord. I don't believe in holiness without prayer, even if it doesn't necessarily involve long moments or intense feelings."
The saints cannot accept to live as if God did not exist, the saints cannot accept to have God excluded from their life or made merely private. For a saint, the question of God is the human question par excellence.
Using the language of monastic and religious life, which is so dear to Benedict XVI, it must be said that man experiences freedom when he/she can live the search for the face of God. A saint cannot reduce his/her desire to happiness and fulfillment: a saint is a person who wants to be free to seek God. In our hearts there is an infinite desire for fullness, joy and happiness, which only God can give. For this reason, every authentic human person is a seeker of God, an indomitable seeker of the infinite and of eternity.
Now, what is the most expressive sign of this human yearning? Pope Francis places this openness to transcendence in the prayerful dimension of Christian life: prayer and adoration.
The desire for transcendence is not a part of a saint's life, it is rather a tension that characterizes every breath of his day. For this reason, the Pope does not only speak generically about prayer, but about constant prayer, which needs explicit gestures of prayer but lives above all from its permanent character, like a karst river (subterranean river which flows at least partially under the bed of the earth) that fills with water in the depths of the earth and then emerges into life at the right time.
In this regard, it is impossible not to refer to sacred scriptures, those passages where this constant dimension of prayer is affirmed. I would like to refer first of all to the Pauline context, to two passages of his letters: first to 1Tess 5:15-21, his context is eschatological:
"See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always seek good among yourselves and with everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise the prophecies. Sift everything and keep what is good.”
Here the invitation of the apostle to the Gentiles is precisely that of praying uninterruptedly, without stopping. It is a request to have prayer as the cornerstone of Christian life, which allows us to live charity with everyone, to be happy, and enables us to live the great discernment in reality: sifting everything and keeping what is good.
Furthermore, St. Paul makes a profound connection between prayer and joy. Those who pray experience a profound joy that no adversity can stifle.
The second Pauline text is Rom 12:9-13: here too the context is that of a holy life in love:
"Let not charity be hypocritical: hate evil, be attached to good; love one another with brotherly affection, compete in esteeming one another. Do not be lazy in doing good, but be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord. Be joyful in hope, constant in tribulation, persevering in prayer."
The invitation is specifically to persevere in prayer. Prayer intertwines the hope for good in tribulation, with the fatigue of existence. Here we also find a deep connection between love and prayer. Prayer leads to love without pretense. Loving sincerely leads to praying to God the source of eternal love.
Finally, the evangelical parable of Luke 18:1-8, where in order to instruct his disciples on the need to always pray and never get tired, Jesus uses the parable of the poor widow and the dishonest judge. Here the widowed woman asks the dishonest judge with extraordinary insistence to do justice against her adversary, until she manages to shake his resistance, thanks to her persistent asking:
And the Lord added: "Listen to what the dishonest judge says. And will not God do justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he make them wait a long time? I tell you that he will do justice to them promptly. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
Persevering prayer is effective, it wraps daily tribulation in the beneficial cloak of hope. However, from Jesus' conclusion there seems to be a decisive assumption: prayer must be done with faith, with hope in the one who completes what he has begun.
When faith is lacking, prayer dies out. While Jesus emphasizes the power of prayer that can transform lives, he wonders if there will still be faith on earth when he returns. For this reason, we must ask in prayer that God increase our faith.
So, what does it mean for us to pray always, continuously? How is it possible?
We have so many things to do in the course of the day: work, school, taking care of the family. How can we pray always, as Jesus asks us?
Saint Augustine says our desire is the prayer that never stops: "Your desire is your prayer; if the desire is continuous, the prayer is continuous. ... [in fact] there is another interior prayer that knows no interruption and that is desire. Whatever you do ... If you do not want to interrupt prayer, never stop desiring. Your continuous desire will be your continuous voice" (En. Ps. 37,14).
So, we are called to desire God and seek Jesus in all the circumstances of life. We can seek God in all things because he has made himself present.
The desire for God is like the beating of the heart. Our heart always beats, even when we are distracted and do not think about it. Thus, the desire for God should always accompany us, like the beating of the heart.
Finally, concretely, praying always for us means praying as much as possible! We can fill our day with small and short prayers, which help us to live united with Christ throughout the day.
The enemies of prayer: Pelagianism and Gnosticism
Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exultate also talks about two enemies of prayer that can block our spiritual path. The Pope refers to two temptations, which were present also during the first centuries of Christianity: Pelagianism and Gnosticism. They influence negatively our spiritual life and our personal relationship with God, even today.
Pelagianism is a heresy of a monk who lived in the time of Saint Augustine; it is the temptation to rely on one's moral abilities without taking into account that we are all wounded by original sin and are always sinners, in need of grace and mercy. When we are convinced that we are spiritually self-sufficient and rely on our moral abilities, we stop praying because we expect strength from ourselves and no longer from God. We may continue to pray but we don't expect anything from God. St. Augustine accused him saying: for you Jesus is only an example to imitate and not the savior who offers you salvation and reconciliation.
The other temptation is that of Gnosticism, that is, to rely on our strategies: our pastoral strategies, our perfect theories on the poor and on the world to be evangelized. We trust our own thoughts and forget about Christ. Even the Gnostic does not pray, does not beg, does not ask because they rely on their own thoughts and not on the grace of God. The strength of the gnostic seems to be his own projects and theories rather than the encounter with Christ that renews life.
The center of prayer: filial prayer
What can overcome these two temptations that block prayer? Recognize that we are creatures and that we are sinners, recognize that we are chosen by God, and we are not authors of our own life. Life is a gift from God. For this reason, the Christian image of prayer is centered on Jesus and is characterized by identifying ourselves with Jesus in his relationship with the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.
True Christian prayer is Trinitarian: we are called to be sons and daughters of God, made participants in the relationship of Jesus with the Father. Our Christian life is a participation in the mission of Jesus that he received from his Father and in which He himself makes us a participants: as the Father loved me, so I have loved you; as the Father sent me, so I send you, receive the Holy Spirit.
Here is a summary of the structure of Christian prayer. Participate in the feelings of Jesus towards the Father in the vibrant breath of the Spirit.
a) Eucharist
And how do we participate in this unique relationship that Jesus has with the Father? Jesus himself established the way: first of all, we are incorporated into Christ through baptism and animated by the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.
But above all it is the celebration of the Eucharist that is at the center of Christian prayer. The Eucharist is the true Christian worship of God, because it is participation in the offering that Christ makes of himself to the Father for the salvation of the world.
Every other Christian prayer must find its model and its form in the Eucharist. What is not directly or indirectly related to the Eucharist can hardly be considered Christian prayer. Through constant participation in the Eucharist, Christ conforms us to himself and makes us participants in his prayer towards the heavenly Father.
As Saint Augustine said: by nourishing ourselves with the Eucharist we ourselves are transformed into the body of Christ, we become the Eucharist, we ourselves become bread broken for the world.
There is nothing more powerful to live the Christian life in the world than living the Eucharist intensely. All the other sacraments also find their meaning around the Eucharist.
b) The Word of God
In the Eucharistic celebration we also find reference to the word of God which is proclaimed and celebrated. The word of God in the Eucharistic celebration is understood as a word that becomes flesh and nourishment. In the Eucharistic celebration, as the Sacrosanctum concilium reminds us in n. 7, when the word of God is proclaimed, it is Christ himself who addresses us in the present. It is not a word from the past, but a present word that moves us and enables us to carry out our Christian testimony.
c) Our Father
Furthermore, in the Eucharist we find the prayer of the children of God that Jesus has given us and it becomes evident that only as children can we be missionaries and evangelizers.
The "Our Father" expresses our deepest nature: to exist means to be children, to recognize ourselves as loved and wanted by God, chosen for a task, called for a mission.
The fundamental feeling of life for every person is being wanted. Nothing can replace the awareness of being loved, chosen and sent. If we lack the certainty of being loved, we cannot live in peace.
For this reason, Christian prayer continually tends to provoke us for a change of mentality, a new way of understanding and feeling life. Prayer helps us learn to have in ourselves the same feelings that were in Christ Jesus. Jesus' fundamental feeling is that of being the son of the Father: the heavenly father for him was everything.
d) Meditation and Adoration
Here we discover the fundamental meaning of meditation on the word of God and the Eucharistic adoration. When we meditate on the word of God, we prolong the experience of the celebration of the proclamation of the word, so that this word takes root in us as a word that mobilizes and calls to mission.
In the same way, Eucharistic adoration is the personal and community extension of the Eucharistic celebration. In particular I would like to invite you to consider adoration as the extension of the final doxology when the priest sings: "through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father forever and ever". This is the synthesis of our missionary vocation: in fact, we are called to live for Christ, with Christ, and in Christ: this is the form of Christian life.
e) The prayer of the Church
Do not forget that the Eucharist is not celebrated alone, it needs a minister, and it needs the Church. The Church is always from the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Church.
For this reason, I invite you to give great value to a fundamental prayer that has accompanied the Church since the beginning, and which is rightly called the prayer of the Church: I am referring to the Liturgy of the Hours. It is no coincidence that this is the prayer that is recited by all priests and all consecrated people as part of their mission.
The Liturgy of the Hours marks the time of our day. There are 7 moments of prayer that accompany the unfolding of the day: the Office of Readings that leads us to meditate on the word of God and the Fathers of the Church; the Morning Prayer, with which we begin each day, thanking God for the gift of life. The Third, the Sixth and the Ninth hour are short prayers that accompany the unfolding of the day. Then, there is the prayer of Vespers, or Evening Prayer. Finally, there is the Compline that leads us to the sleep of the night, abandoning us trustingly in the hands of God. This prayer makes us experience the sense of time as a gift that comes from God and that returns to God.
There is a book called the Liturgy of the Hours, which I recommend you have at home, in which we find these prayers composed of ancient hymns, readings from the Bible, especially psalms, which are the prayers of the people of the ancient covenant, which the Church felt as its own prayer.
The Fathers of the Church recommended the recitation of the psalms, to read them from a Christological perspective, as the word of Christ and of the Church. In the psalms you find all types of possible feelings, you find joy and lament, questioning and thanksgiving, in the form of prayer. I invite you to make the prayer of the Church as your own, at least the Morning and Evening Prayer.
Conclusion: Prayer and the Holy Spirit
I conclude with a decisive reference to the gift of the Holy Spirit: to live Christian prayer we need to be moved by the Holy Spirit. He is the secret director of the history of salvation, the one who implements the Father's plan in history. Everything happens through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He is the Spirit of children, He is the unity between Father and Son, He makes us sons and daughters with equal dignity, he purifies us, guides us and makes us docile to the will of the Father. In the Holy Spirit we can cry “Abba Father”. It is the Spirit that makes us witnesses of Jesus.
This is the same Spirit who acts in the sacraments of the Church; this is the same Spirit that inspired the sacred Scriptures, this is the same Spirit that allows us to understand the Scriptures, this is the same Spirit that distributes the charisms among the people of God so that they can always be ready to live the mission of the Church at every moment of history in different cultures and nations.
Charisms allow us to bear more fruit from the grace of the Sacraments because they move our lives towards cordial adherence to the Gospel.
And for this reason, there is nothing better than deeply experiencing the prayer of the Church in all its aspects. Only those who pray can be missionaries and bring Christ to others and contribute with all men of good will to the construction of a more fraternal world.
At the midnight mass on Christmas the Holy Father will open the Holy Door in Saint Peter Basilica in Rome, beginning the Holy Year in memory of the incarnation of the Lord. In our Churches as in the whole world we will open the Jubilee on December 29th. I invite you to prepare for that moment by faithfully committing yourselves every day to prayer. May prayer become our breath, the breath of our souls to always be united with God and to be witnesses of the Gospel in the world.
I entrust you to the Most Holy Virgin, to Mary, Mother of Jesus, and mother of the Church. She knew how to be docile to the Spirit, she knew how to welcome the word of God and offer it to the whole world.
+ Paolo Martinelli OFM Cap.
Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia
