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UID:13206-1741824000-1741910399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE DRIVING FORCE \nOF THE WORLD \nBy Pope Benedict XVI \n◊◊◊ \nLent renews in us the hope in the God who made us pass from death to \nlife. Lent\, fully oriented to the mystery of Redemption\, is defined the “path of \ntrue conversion”… Prayer nourishes hope because nothing expresses the reality \nof our God in our life better than praying with faith. Even in the loneliness of the \nmost severe trial\, nothing and no one can prevent me from addressing the \nFather “in the secret” of my heart\, where He alone sees\, as Jesus says in the \ngospel… Thus\, prayer proves to be the first and principal “weapon” with which \nto win the victory in our struggle against the spirit of evil. \nChrist’s prayer reaches its culmination on the Cross. It is expressed in \nthose last words which the Evangelists have recorded. Where he seems to utter a \ncry of despair: “My God\, my God\, why have you forsaken me?” Christ was \nactually making his own the invocation of someone beset by enemies with no \nescape\, who has no other than God to turn to and\, over and above any human \npossibilities\, experiences his grace and salvation. \nWith these words of the Psalm\, first of a man who is suffering\, then of the \nPeople of God in their suffering\, caused by God’s apparent absence\, Jesus made \nhis own this cry of humanity that suffers from God’s apparent absence\, and \ncarried this cry to the Father’s heart. So\, by praying in this ultimate solitude \ntogether with the whole of humanity\, he opens the heart of God to us… \nThe prayer of supplication full of hope is consequently the leitmotif of \nLent and enables us to experience God as the only anchor of salvation. Indeed \nwhen it is collective\, the prayer of the People of God is a voice of one heart and \nsoul\, it is a “heart to heart” dialogue\, like Queen Esther’s moving plea when her \npeople were about to be exterminated: “O my Lord\, you only are our King; help \nme\, who am alone and have no helper but you.” … “for a great danger \novershadows me”. In the face of a “great danger” greater hope is needed: only \nthe hope that can count on God. \nPrayer is a crucible in which our expectations and aspirations are exposed \nin the light of God’s Word\, immersed in dialogue with the One who is Truth\, and \nfrom which they emerge free from hidden lies and compromises with various \nforms of selfishness. Without the dimension of prayer\, the human “I” ends by \nwithdrawing into himself\, and the conscience\, which should be an echo of God’s \nvoice\, risks being reduced to a mirror of the self\, so that the inner conversation \nbecomes a monologue\, giving rise to self-justifications by the thousands. \nTherefore\, prayer is a guarantee of openness to others: whoever frees \nhimself for God and his needs simultaneously opens himself to the other\, to the \nbrother or sister who knocks at the door of his heart and asks to be heard\, asks \nfor attention\, forgiveness\, at times correction\, but always in fraternal charity. \nThus prayer is never self-centered\, it is always centered on the other. As such\, it \nopens the person praying to the “ecstasy” of charity\, to the capacity to go out of \noneself to draw close to the other in humble\, neighborly service. True prayer is \nthe driving force of the world\, since it keeps it open to God. For this reason \nwithout prayer there is no hope but only illusion.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-273/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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