Jesus offers us opportunities to help him

"In the crosses of life that come to us, Jesus offers us opportunities to help him redeem the world. Let us profit by his generosity."

-- Ven Solanus Casey, OFM Cap

Reverence permits us to experience the sacred

"Reverence gives being the opportunity to speak to us: The ultimate grandeur of man is to be capax Dei. Reverence is of capital importance to all the fundamental domains of man's life. It can be rightly called "the mother of all virtues," for it is the basic attitude that all virtues presuppose. The most elementary gesture of reverence is a response to being itself. It distinguishes the autonomous majesty of being from mere illusion or fiction; it is a recognition of the inner consistency and positiveness of being-of its independence of our arbitrary moods. Reverence gives being the opportunity to unfold itself, to, as it were, speak to us; to fecundate our minds. Therefore reverence is indispensable to any adequate knowledge of being. The depth and plenitude of being, and above all its mysteries, will never be revealed to any but the reverent mind. Remember that reverence is a constitutive element of the capacity to "wonder," which Plato and Aristotle claimed to be the indispensable condition for philosophy. Indeed, irreverence is a chief source of philosophical error. But if reverence is the necessary basis for all reliable knowledge of being, it is, beyond that, indispensable for grasping and assessing the values grounded in being. Only the reverent man who is ready to admit the existence of something greater than himself, who is willing to be silent and let the object speak to him- who opens himself-is capable of entering the sublime world of values. Moreover, once a gradation of values has been recognized, a new kind of reverence is in order-a reverence that responds not only to the majesty of being as such, but to the specific value of a specific being and to its rank in the hierarchy of values. And this new reverence permits the discovery of still other values.

Man reflects his essentially receptive character as a created person solely in the reverent attitude; the ultimate grandeur of man is to be capax Dei. Man has the capacity, in other words, to grasp something greater than himself, to be affected and fecundated by it, to abandon himself to it for its own sake - in a pure response to its value. This ability to transcend himself distinguishes man from a plant or an animal; these latter strive only to unfold their own entelechy. Now: it is only the reverent man who can consciously transcend himself and thus conform to his fundamental human condition and to his metaphysical situation.

Do we better meet Christ by soaring up to Him, or by dragging Him down into our workaday world?

The irreverent man by contrast, approaches being either in an attitude of arrogant superiority or of tactless, smug familiarity. In either case he is crippled; he is the man who comes so near a tree or building he can no longer see it. Instead of remaining at the proper spiritual distance, and maintaining a reverent silence so that being may speak its word, he obtrudes himself and thereby, in effect, silences being. In no domain is reverence more important than religion. As we have seen, it profoundly affects the relation of man to God. But beyond that it pervades the entire religion, especially the worship of God. There is an intimate link between reverence and sacredness: reverence permits us to experience the sacred, to rise above the profane; irreverence blinds us to the entire world of the sacred. Reverence, including awe-indeed, fear and trembling-is the specific response to the sacred."

-- The Case for the Latin Mass by Dietrich von Hildebrand

Surrender is always a work of love

"Surrender is always a work of love. We may be brought in to a kind of service, an unwilling service, as so many are in the world, but this is not surrender. Surrender is something  that I  myself decide upon. When an army surrenders to the enemy it is because they have decided this is the best thing to do. Our surrender is never to an enemy unless we would choose it to be so. But it is to God. It is something that we decide upon. One can never force surrender. And so sometimes in war, forces that see they are outnumbered will not surrender. They would rather die than surrender. We would rather die than not surrender. It is a free choice, a free gift, and it must be complete. Now in the secular sense there are usually terms of surrender, so that armed forces will say through their generals, “We will surrender to you if and if and if.” Lifting this to the spiritual plane we see that sometimes our surrender is like this. “Yes, I will surrender my will, I will surrender my heart, I will surrender my spirit, if and if and if.” This is not what our holy Mother [Clare] is talking about. “Love him in complete surrender.” Complete. And when love’s surrender is complete it is immensely rewarding, it is the fountain of happiness within us. When there is anything grudging or anything that demands terms in spiritual surrender it is already doomed. In time we will chafe at a surrender which has never been true because it is not complete."


-- Peace in complete surrender by Mother Mary Francis, PCC

A friend of the Cross

"A Friend of the Cross is one chosen by God, from among thousands who live only according to their reason and senses, to be wholly divine, raised above mere reason and completely opposed to material things, living in the light of pure faith, and inspired by a deep love of the Cross.

A Friend of the Cross is an all-powerful king, a champion who triumphs over the devil, the world and the flesh in their three-fold concupiscence. He crushes the pride of Satan by his love of humiliations; he overcomes the greed of the world by his love of poverty; he retrains the sensuality of the flesh by his love of suffering.

A Friend of the Cross is one who is holy and set apart from the things that are visible, for his heart is raised above all that is transient and perishable, and his homeland is in heaven; he travels through this world like a visitor and a pilgrim, and, far from setting his heart on it, he looks on it with indifference and tramples it underfoot with contempt.

A Friend of the Cross is a glorious trophy gained by the crucified Christ on Calvary, in union with his holy Mother. He is a Benoni or Benjamin, a child of sorrow and of the right hand, conceived in the suffering heart of Jesus, born from his pierced side, and baptised in his blood. True to his origin, his life embraces the cross, and death to the world, the flesh, and sin, so as to live here below a life hidden with Christ in God.

In short, a perfect Friend of the Cross is a true Christ-bearer, or rather another Christ, so that he can truly say, 'I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.'"

-- Letter to the Friends of the Cross by St Louis de Montfort

The supernatural life is essential for every man

"The supernatural life of grace is the great reality in the history of the soul and in the history of God's dealing with mankind. It explains the Fall and the Redemption, the old dispensation and the new, the tremendous importance of the sacraments, the policies and ideals of the Church, the ardors of martyrs and confessors, and the phenomena of our own spiritual experience. Every Catholic is taught to believe that above his physical life and intellectual life, immeasurably above, there is another life which he must life under the severest sanctions. We call that life the supernatural life of the soul, the life of divine grace.

The presence of the supernatural life is so essential for every man that without it the soul, in a most important sense, must be considered dead. In its absence all corporal, mental, and even moral endowments are so many dead men's bones. Physical strength and beauty are good; genius and intellectual accomplishments are good; moral excellence, as far as it can go in the natural order, is good. Why not? God made them. They are His gifts. He gave them to us to serve and to be transfigured by the higher life of grace. That is the divine purpose. If they do not minister to that purpose, if they thwart it, they cease to be admirable. A beautiful corpse is a phrase full of shudders, and it describes exactly the gentle and refined excellence and charm of a world which thinks it can get along for itself without divine interferences.

That is why Christ and the world, the Church and the world, have always been at odds with each other. Each despises what the other values. The world worships mere natural excellence; the Church, like Christ, attaches no importance to mere natural excellence. The world and the Church exist on different planets, in different dimensions, using different modes of thought and speech. While the Church can understand the language of the world, the world finds the language and usages of the Church simply unintelligible. To the ordinary Catholic the Church, in her speech and in her aims, is as simple and as clear as Christ. If there is mystery about her as a halo, it is the mystery that was about Christ; and that was mystery which never confounded hearts fixed in rectitude. The modern unbeliever, though he belong to the cultivated class, regards the Church, if he adverts to her at all, as a sinister and inscrutable portent, analogous to the dark and hideous worship of ancient nations, and full of menace to the intellectual and moral progress of the race. The Church canonizes saints; the world canonizes poets, philosophers, soldiers, and statesmen. While the world ignores most of the saints, the Church attaches a minor value to the characteristic excellence of the poets, philosophers, soldiers, and statesmen. The world and the Church seldom agree; and when they do, it is for different reasons."

-- The Road to Peace by James J Daly, SJ

Glorify God the Father

"To glorify God the Father, in making Him known, loved and served, such was the object of all the affections of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the motive power of all Its actions, the end of all Its sufferings. Not only at His entrance into the world, but in the accomplishment of each mystery, in each step of His career, our divine Lord repeated constantly: 'Behold me, O my Father, behold me: what wouldst Thou that I should do to glorify Thee? I have engraven this law in the depths of my heart, it shall always be my rule.' He was not troubled about Himself, nor His concerns, nor His own personal glory. 'I seek not my own glory. My glory is nothing.' John, viii. 50-54. Oh! what admirable zeal and what purity of love! In truth, the Heart of Jesus seeks for Itself only contempt, humiliations and shame. He imposes silence on those who praise Him, hides Himself from those who seek to make Him king, whilst He hastens to meet the executioners who, on the day of His passion, bring Him chains and a cross. It was by accepting humiliations, a thorny crown, and an infamous gibbet that He honoured His Father, and that the bleeding royalty of Calvary, which He so ardently desired, will establish the glory of God throughout the world. Then will He exclaim on the last day: 'I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.' Opus consummavi.

Consider, Christians, that it is impossible to love God and not to feel an interest in His glory. Thousands of apostles, missionaries and heroic women, have made the sacrifice of their country, their families, their possessions, their lives even, in order that God should be known, loved and served in childhood, youth and all ages of life. It was because these noble souls knew how to love, because each day they said, with hearts filled with a holy jealousy for the honour and glory of God: 'Our Father, who art in heaven, may Thy name be hallowed, exalted and praised. May Thy kingdom come in all hearts and command all affections. May Thy will be everywhere venerated and loved over the whole earth, as it is in heaven.' Let us examine ourselves and see if these are also our sentiments; if we have not too often preferred our repose and our interests to the greater glory of God; if in our hearts we feel for the evils which oppress the Church and religion, so as to be able to say with the Psalmist: 'The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me.' Psal. lxviii. 10.

-o-

Grant, O Lord! that Thy glory may be the end of all our thoughts, words, and works, and that we may take as our motto these sublime words: 'All for the greater glory of God.' O Jesus, kindle in us this divine zeal, that it may consume us as victims and holocausts entirely sacrificed to the fire of Thy love. Amen."

-- Month of the Sacred Heart by Abbé Berlioux

He is a beggar of love

"Are you afraid of the eyes of God? Pay attention! How can you stop just like that and fool yourself uttering pretexts and reservations in your own solitude? You stay there, calmed, with all the excuses you invent, putting before you I don't know what obligations that seem more urgent than the Love of God?

Look, the Lord calls your your door. He is a beggar of love. And don't [let] these words scandalize you. The truest [thing] is that He has come before you, calling your silence and your intimacy... You leave Him alone instead of your occupations?"

-- En Presencia de la eternidad by Alberto Justo, OP
translated by ocdsister

** Painting by Greg Olsen

You have a function as a member of the Body of Christ

"Your elevation remains in the secret of God; undoubtedly, He will not tell you anything. Do what is in your hand[s]. Love, offer often to God the unrivaled sanctity of Jesus, of Mary, and of the living and departed saints: all of that belongs to you, beneficiary of the Communion of Saints. Offer Him the global sanctity of the Mystical Body of Christ: this is what glorifies God. You are a member of that Body, perhaps the least noble, but not without a function. Say with conviction and serenity: 'Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner.' And live in peace under the protecting wings of the God that loves you."


-- Carthusian writings

Seven themes found in the Lenten liturgy

"In the next six weeks there are seven themes that continually emerge in the prayers and readings for Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. Lent is a time for penance. We need to be prepared to what we do not feel like doing. There are certain features of our lives, of our personalities that we would be better without; there are aspects of our personalities that are not beautiful or helpful for ourselves and others. Some of these are quite simply sins. Sin? Not an in-word today. At penitential services in Lent and before Christmas I frequently hear people say, “It’s six months—or even several years—since my last confession. I do not have any sins.” I feel like saying, ask your husband, wife, children, parents, or work colleagues if you are really without sin. The person may not have committed murder of adultery, but they will probably have many features of their lives which are not adding to the sum of human happiness or indeed to their own well-being. So there is firstly a need for penance, which is a matter of seeing what road we are on. We go astray in many ways, and strangely the smaller the faults, the more difficult it can be to eliminate them. Penance is being alert to our failings and a willingness to do something about them. The second theme is conversion. This means turning away from what is sinful or dangerous. The other side of conversion is a third theme of returning to God. We should view our behaviour and our lives in the mirror of the teaching of Jesus. Fourthly, we have to have an attitude to our failings and sin. This is sorrow. A feature of contemporary society is the lack of sorrow for evil-doing. Politicians and Church leaders hate saying sorry we know, but many people go around doing harm, even if in small ways, without any regrets. Sorrow for sin and for the evil in our lives is essential for spiritual health.

However, these four themes of penance, conversion, returning to God and sorrow for sin are not fully within our power. The Christian view is that we cannot really do much that is of value except with God’s help. Our spiritual health depends on God’s gift. Hence the fifth theme is redemption: God saves us. He will not do it without our co-operation. To recall a earlier text, we have to be willing to allow God to recreate our hearts and cleanse our inner being. The redemption we need arises from the sixth Lenten theme, the passion of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save us; he taught and healed, before dying for us. The passion of Jesus is a truth that teaches God’s love for us, the reality of sin. Contemporary spirituality neglects too much the Cross of Christ; the Stations of the Cross are not nearly so popular today. The seventh Lenten theme is baptism. The weeks of Lent are a final preparation for the sacrament. They are also a time when we should reflect on our own baptism. What does the sacrament mean to us? Three ideas might be noted: baptism brings us into the family of God, with relationships to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptism then brings us into the Church, the Christian community, with an obligation to love and serve. Thirdly, baptism draws us in imitation and discipleship of Jesus.

These seven themes found in the Lenten liturgy can give us a new vision of ourselves. Once they are pointed out, then we can hear them with new ears: penance, conversion, returning to God, sorrow for sin, redemption, the passion of Jesus and baptism will feature in the prayers and readings, with ever new lights and insights. But we will not plumb their depths without reflection. A lot of teaching is about facts; we can with more or less difficulty process information. There were two world wars in the 20th century: 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. Anyone who does not know this is ill-informed. Anyone denying them is plain wrong. But a lot of education is about attitudes and values. Generosity and open-mindedness have to be communicated in education, but these involve owning and valuing them, similarly with the values of Lent. You could have a page for noting these themes as we hear them at Masses during Lent. They could be the subject of prayer and reflection so that we have a new acceptance and esteem for them."

-- The meaning of Lent with some Carmelite insights by Christopher O'Donnell, OCarm

We must be simple in spirit and action

"God is a simple Being in Whom there are no parts. Hence, if we want to become as much like Him as possible, we must strive to become by virtue, what He is by nature, that is, we must be simple in spirit and action, natural in speech and behavior, without sham or deception. Our exterior must always be in conformity with our interior and only and always we must have no other intentions in mind than to please God."


-- St Vincent de Paul

Sorrow for sin is consoling

"Sorrow for sin is consoling. But the fretting of soul that arises because we have not come up to our own expectations is not true sorrow for sin. Sorrow for sin arises from a conviction that we have not come up to God’s expectations. Remorse is indeed painful, but remorse is merely the clamor of conscience scolding the soul for its failures; it may lead to sorrow for the past, or the rebuke may be silenced by the new and repeated excesses.

But true sorrow for sin is consoling. Pride may chafe us, because we are not as good as we thought we were; right reason may torture us, because we have acted through passion and wrong reason. Sorrow for sin, however, is humble and is submissive and obedient to right reason. Penitence is healing of the contrite in heart."

-- How to love as Jesus loves: unlocking the treasures of Christ’s Sacred Heart by Fr Francis P Donnelly, SJ

Let us accomplish in our soul the interior emptiness that allows Him to communicate eternal life

“The holy time of Advent is going to begin. It is the most suitable time for interior souls, for those souls who constantly and through all things live hidden with Christ in God in the depths of themselves. During the waiting [period] of the great mystery, I like to meditate on that beautiful psalm 18 that we frequently pray during Matins and, above all, these verses: In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens […] and there is nothing hid from its heat.

Let us accomplish in our soul that interior emptiness that allows Him to cast Himself over it and communicate to it His own eternal life. The Father has given Him for this end every power as the Gospel tells us. So… let us listen to Him in the silence of prayer. He is the Beginning that speaks within us. He tells us Himself: He who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from Him.

Let us ask Him to make us sincere in our love, that is, to make us sacrificed souls because sacrifice is love put into action. He loved me and gave Himself for me.

This thought enthuses me; ‘The life of the priest and [that of] the Carmelite is an Advent the prepares the Incarnation in souls.’

The prophet David sings in a psalm: Fire goes before the Lord. That fire, is it not love? And our mission, does it not consist also in preparing the ways of the Lord uniting ourselves with Him who, according to the Apostle, is consuming Fire? At its touch, our soul will be transformed in a flame of love that diffuses itself through all the members of the body of Christ that is the Church. In this way, we will console the Heart of our divine Master {Teacher}, who presenting us to His Father will be able to say: I am glorified in them.”

-- Elisabeth de la Trinité: Œuvres complètes translated by ocdister

The most sublime grace: transformation into God through charity

"Ordinary graces make up the essential factor in the development of the spiritual life right up to its full maturity. Passive purifications and the partial progressive transformations, which mark the development of the soul, are ordinary graces, that is to say, normal and to be expected in the process of sanctification. From this point of view, the most sublime grace, of transformation into God through charity, remains an ordinary grace.

Those graces can be called extraordinary which, strictly speaking, are not necessary, because they do not concern the substance of the soul's progress. You could call them accessories. They are useful helps for its growth, acting sometimes like signposts or messages which bear a mission, or exist at other times in order to encourage the soul in its simple ascent or, again, to bring it acknowledgement in the eyes of the people of God. In the past, attention was focused almost entirely upon this kind of grace, especially when it assumed perceptible mnifestations, that is to say everything which is understood by mystical phenomena, such as visions, locutions, levitations, etc."

-- Thérèse, The Little Child of God's Mercy by Angel de les Gavarres

Cast yourself into His arms like a child

"...Without a doubt, we must resolve again and again to unite ourselves to God in order that we may keep such resolutions. But in your fervors, I do not want you to desire temptations or occasions for mortification. Since, by the grace of God they will not be lacking to you, there is no need to occupy your heart in desiring them. Instead you should occupy your heart in preparing and readying itself to receive them - not when you wish, but when God wishes to give them to you...

But as for the complaint that you are miserable and unfortunate, my dear daughter, one must guard against this in every way. For beside the fact that such words are dishonorable for a servant of God, they come from a heart that is too dispirited and arise not so much from impatience as from anger.

Look here, my dear daughter, make a particular exercise of gentleness and acquiescence in the will of God, not only concerning extraordinary things, but chiefly in these little daily irritations. Prepare yourself for in in the morning, after dinner, in saying grace before supper, after supper, and in the evening; and make it your standard practice for a time. But do these exercises with a tranquil and joyous spirit; and if distractions arise, humble yourself and start again.

It is a good thing to aspire in a general way to the highest perfection of the Christian life, but we do not need to know its nature in detail, except insofar as it concerns our improvement and advancement in daily affairs. From day to day, refer the progress of your general wish for perfection to the Providence of God; in this matter, cast yourself into His arms like a child who, in order to grow, eats from day to day what his father gives to him, confident that his father will give to him in proportion to his appetite and his necessity.

Regarding your temptations to envy, practice what I advise in my book concerning these [Introduction to the Devout Life, part 2, chapters 45 & 52]. Because Holy Communion is profitable to you, receive it with spiritual fervor and a clear conscience. Live always joyously even amid your temptations. Do not do any other penance for the time being, and resolve yourselve in a spirit of gentleness to bear lovingly with your neighbor, to visit the sick, and to have good courage..."

-- From a letter from St Francis de Sales to Madame de la Fléchère (February 1609)

The efficacy of the word of God in us depends on our faith

"The Carmelite tradition is sometimes contrasted with that of the Benedictines and even set in opposition to it: as if Benedictine piety were liturgical and objective and Carmelite spirituality individualistic and subjective. On the basis of this oversimplified distinction, partisans can line up in opposing factions and argue with one another about the relative merits of the two 'schools.' It is inevitable that such divisions should spring into existence but we must regret them, for they diminish the horizons of the Christian spirit. In actual fact, both the Carmelites and the Benedictines of our day can and should appeal to a common monastic tradition with its roots in the Oriental Desert spirituality. If the Benedictines have maintained the emphasis on community and liturgy, the Carmelites are no less traditional in their emphasis on solitude and contemplative prayer. These two trends, far from being opposed to one another, actually complement one another. Without both these emphases the monastic spiritual tradition is incomplete.
-o-
One who seeks God seeks the supreme, though invisible Reality. He therefore exposes his whole life to anguish and to risk. He seeks supreme security in what seems to the world supremely insecure. How can he ever be 'sure' that he is seeking God, and much more, how can he ever be sure that he has 'found' Him?

Christ prayed at the Last Supper that His Apostles might be 'santified in truth.' The word of God is truth, the highest reality, planted in the depths of our being by our Creator and Redeemer. This word must grow in us like a seed. It must awaken to life, to knowledge, to love, to experience. Our whole interior life is centered on the spiritual 'activity' and 'dynamism' of this word which St Paul calls 'living and efficacious.' The efficacy of the word of God in us depends on faith, and out faith is itself a gift of God. The 'living and efficacious' word of God, received by faith, fully embraced by loving acceptance in the depths of our being, flowers into an experience of God as present to us. We come, in this experience of presence, to an inexplicable, yet utterly real, personal awareness of the Almighty Who loves us and dwells in our inmost heart.

To reach this spiritual awareness of God, this 'knowledge' of God in the obscurity of faith, we must first of all awaken to a knowledge of our true selves. And so we must pray, as did Saint Augustine: 'Lord, let me know myself and let me know Thee' If we do not know ourselves, we cannot know God either. But we must know ourselves rightly, as images of God. And so we must avoid a twofold danger. On one hand we tend to indulge in unhealthy instropection, analyzing ourselves without end. On the other, ignoring the reality both of ourselves and God, we tend to take God for granted and to assume that He is simply what we want Him to be. Instead of knowing ourselves as images of God, we contemplate a god who is the image of ourselves. That means our 'god' is an idol - the justification of our own illusion about ourselves. Under such conditions, the interior life is anything but real.
-o-
The combination of austerity and kindness, detachment and good humor, mysticism and common sense, is one of the characteristics of Carmel."

-- Fr Mary Louis, ocso, (Thomas Merton) in his introduction to The Simple Steps to God by Fr François of St Mary, ocd

Don't pass the buck! -respond to the call to holiness

"We all probably know in some way that we're called to holiness bur perhaps struggle to respond. Feeling the challenge of the call and yet seeing the obstacles, it is easy to rationalize delaying or compromising and avoid a wholehearted and immediate response.

It is not uncommon, for examole, to 'pass the buck' to others whom we deem in a better position to respond wholeheartedly. Those of us who are Catholic lay people often look at our busy lives and sluggish hearts and suppose that priests and nuns are in a better position to respond to the call. After all, we may think to ourselves, that's what we pay them for! We may think that when our kids are grown, or when we retire, or after a business crisis passes, or when we don't have to care for ailing parents, or when we get a better job, or when we get married, or ... that then we'll be in a better position to respond.

Unfortunately, being a priest or nun doesn't eliminate temptations to also 'pass the buck.' With the reduction in numbers, it is understandably easy for priests and nuns to feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and have such a busy pace of life that they might suppose that it's the cloistered orders who are truly in a good position to respond wholeheartedly to the call to holiness.

But even in cloistered orders, it's possible to rationalize and 'pass the buck.' What with caring for guests, overseeing building renovations, attending monastic conferences, or making cheese, bread, or jams, it's possible to suppose that it's the hermit who really can respond wholeheartedly.

But even being a hermit doesn't guarantee such a response. After all, hermits need to work out a rule of life, have meetings with superiors to review it, make sure their medical insurance is covering them properly, deal with internal and external distractions and temptations, and maybe even contribute to a newsletter for hermits!

What really holds us back from a wholehearted response to the call of Jesus, of Vatican II, of the repeated urgings of the Spirit, is not really the external cirumstances of our lives, but the interior sluggishness of our hearts. We need to be clear that there will never be a better time or a better set of circumstances than now to respond wholeheartedly to the call to holiness. Who knows how much longer we'll be alive on this earth? We don't know how long we'll live or what the future holds. Now is the acceptable time. The very things we think are obstacles are the very means God is giving us to draw us to depend more deeply on Him."

-- The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin

Open your heart to the love of God: the gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized

"It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness. When this principle is not respected, is it any wonder that pastoral plans come to nothing and leave us with a disheartening sense of frustration? We then share the experience of the disciples in the Gospel story of the miraculous catch of fish: "We have toiled all night and caught nothing" (Lk 5:5). This is the moment of faith, of prayer, of conversation with God, in order to open our hearts to the tide of grace and allow the word of Christ to pass through us in all its power: Duc in altum! On that occasion, it was Peter who spoke the word of faith: "At your word I will let down the nets" (ibid.). As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith, which expresses itself in a renewed commitment to prayer."

-- Novo Millennio Ineunte by Pope John Paul II

-o-

Read the entire Apostolic Letter here.

Have confidence in the efficacy of prayer

"Prayer is not, in fact, a force having its first principle in us; it is not an effort of the human soul, trying to do violence to God in order to make Him change His providential dispositions. Such a manner of speaking, which is used occasionally, is a metaphorical, human way of expressing oneself. In reality, the will of God is absolutely immutable, but this superior immutability is precisely the source of the infallible efficacy of prayer.

Fundamentally it is very simple in spite of the mystery of grace involved in it. We have here a combination of the clear and the obscure that is most captivating and beautiful. First of all, we shall consider what is clear: true prayer is infallibly efficacious because God, who cannot contradict Himself, has decreed that it should be. This is what the contemplation of the saints examines profoundly.

Prayer is precisely a cause ordained to produce this effect: the obtaining of the gifts of God. All creatures exist only by the gifts of God, but the intellectual creature alone can realize this. Existence, health, physical strength, the light of the intellect, moral energy, success in our enterprises, all is the gift of God; but especially is this true of grace which leads to salutary good, causes it to be accomplished, and gives strength to persevere. Grace and, even more, the Holy Ghost who has been sent to us and who is the source of living water, is the gift par excellence which Christ spoke of to the Samaritan woman: 'If thou didst know the gift of God, and who He is that saith to thee: Give Me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. . . . Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever. But the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting.'

Therefore prayer is necessary to obtain the help of God, as seed is necessary for the harvest. Even more, though the best seed, for lack of favorable exterior conditions, can produce nothing, though thousands of seeds are lost, true, humble, trusting prayer, by which we ask for ourselves what is necessary for salvation, is never lost. It is heard in this sense, that it obtains for us the grace to continue praying.

The efficacy of prayer well made is infallibly assured by Christ: 'Ask, and it shall be given you: seek and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. . . . And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? . . . If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?' To the apostles He also says: 'Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name.' Prayerful souls ought more than all others to live by this doctrine, which is elementary for every Christian; by living it, one discovers its depths.

Let us, therefore, have confidence in the efficacy of prayer. It is not only a human force which has its first principle in us; the source of its efficacy is in God and in the infinite merits of Christ. It descends from an eternal decree of love, it reascends to divine mercy. A fountain of water rises only if the water descends from an equal height. Likewise when we pray, it is not a question of persuading God, of inclining Him to change His providential dispositions; rather we have only to lift our will to the height of His in order to will with Him in time what He has'decided from all eternity to grant us. Far from tending to bring the Most High down toward us, "prayer is a lifting up of the soul toward God,' as the fathers say. When we pray and are heard, it seems to us that the will of God inclines toward us; on the contrary, it is ours which rises; we begin to will in time what God willed for us from all eternity."

-- The Three Ages of the Interior Life by Fr Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP