Mother Teresa | 3. Prayer
3. Prayer
"Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself."
I believe that politicians spent too little time on their knees. I am convinced that they would be better politicians if they were to do so.
There are some people who, in order not to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying.
This cannot be.
Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer.
It is not necessary to always be meditating, nor to consciously experience the sensation that we are talking to God, No matter how nice this would be:
What matters is being with him, living with him, in his will. To love with a pure heart, to love everybody, especially to love the poor, is a 24-hours prayer.
Prayer begets faith, faith begets love, and love begets service on behalf of the poor.
Saint Francis of Assisi wrote the following prayer, which I like very much. The missionaries of Charity pray it every day:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
Lord, may I not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understand as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
Because it is in giving that we receive,
in pardoning that we are pardoned.
The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.
My secret is a very simple one: I pray. To pray to Christ is to love him.
The apostles did not know how to pray, and they asked Jesus to teach them. He, then, taught them the Our Father.
I think that every time we say the Our Father, God looks at his hands, where we are etched. "See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..."(Isaiah 49:16).
What a beautiful description and also expressive of the personal love God feels for each one of us!
Make us, Lord, worthy to serve our brothers and sisters who are scattered all over the world, who live and die alone and poor. Give them today, using our hands, their daily bread. And using our love, give them peace and happiness. Amen.
Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice in the depth of our hearts
There is a prayer that the Missionaries of Charity pray every day.
Cardinal Newman wrote it:
Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I am.
Fill my heart with your spirit and your life.
Penetrate my being and take such hold of me
that my life becomes a radiation of your own life.
Give your light through me and remain in me such a way
that every soul I come in contact with can feel your presence in me.
Remain in me, so that I shine with your light,
and may others be illuminated by my light.
All light will come from you, Oh Jesus.
Not even smallest ray of light will be mine.
You will illuminate others through me.
Place on my lips your greatest praise, illuminating others around me.
May I preach you with actions more than with words,
with example of my actions,
with the visible light of the love that comes from you to my heart.
Amen.
I am asked - what is one to do be sure that one is following the way of salvation?!
I answer: "Love God. And, above all, pray."
Every day at communion time, I communicate two of my feelings to Jesus:
One is gratefulness, because he has helped me to persevere until today.
The other is a request: teach me to pray.
Praying the Our Father and living it will lead us toward saintliness. The Our Father contains everything: God, ourselves, our neighbours...
Silence will teach us a lot. It will teach us to speak with Christ and speak joyfully to our brothers and sisters.