Easter is a time of joy and gladness. And also for prayer sustained by faith, hope and charity. In addition, after praying the Angelus on Word Sunday, January 21, Pope Francis opened the Year of Prayer, which will be celebrated in 2024 in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025. The Pope hopes that this year will help everyone to “rediscover the great value and absolute necessity of prayer” and considers it “a privileged moment to rediscover the need for daily prayer”.
Therefore, in view of this Jubilee event, which will address the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”, we are invited to increase our relationship with God in order to water our souls and to look for appropriate moments for this, both individually and as a community.
As Francis wrote: “I am sure that bishops, priests, deacons and catechists will find during this Year the most appropriate ways to put prayer at the center of the proclamation of hope that the Jubilee 2025 intends to make resound in these troubled times”.
Thus, in the brief document “Praying with St. Augustine”, prepared by Fr. Fabian Martin Gomez OAR with the support of the Sacred Scriptures, we are offered advice on how to enter into it through a clear Augustinian pedagogy.
In this way, it is insisted that, for the practical exercise of prayer in the Augustinian style and to foster the encounter with God, it is necessary to place the three theological virtues – faith, hope and charity – at the center and to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, among the interior dispositions that facilitate prayer, the one that makes us feel beggars of God and poor before the Giver of all good stands out.
With regard to the attitudes that are necessary to put ourselves in prayer, it is explained that it is necessary to pray from within, in truth (humility) and open to the transformation of the heart (conversion).
On the means of prayer, Fr. Fabian stresses the need to dedicate regular times (method); to appreciate the value of silence to listen to the One who speaks to the heart, to bring into play all our affectivity (speaking from heart to heart) and to foster a corporal attitude that awakens devotion.
In addition, the document specifies the following steps for praying before a biblical text: Return to the heart; prepare the heart; open the heart; elevate the heart; and love from the heart.
Finally, we are warned that there must be harmony between the Scriptures and the heart, between prayer and life, so that we may always advance in the good.
Access the material by clicking on this link:
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