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If you pray, why do you pray?
If God told you: Ask me what you want, what would you ask?

The life of prayer is a matter of identity, it comes from our condition as children of God. It goes much further than the need or the problem of the moment.


Author: P. Evaristo Sada, L.C. | Source: la-oracion.com



If you pray, why do you pray?
If God told you: Ask me what you want, what would you ask?

By: P. Evaristo Sada, L.C. | Source: la-oracion.com


To live, you have to breathe, breathe pure, oxygenated air. If not, you drown, you suffocate.

A symphony orchestra, even when it has a program on the show every day, always starts by tuning the instruments. One might ask: but for what? If they are polished, valuable instruments and carefully cared for, is it really necessary to tune them every day, every time they are going to play? It is like that. If we want to live our spiritual life well, we need to refine love and breathe new air, the pure air of the Spirit, every day.

Jesus Christ could not live without praying, as we can not live without breathing.



What was the prayer for Jesus?

For Jesus Christ, prayer was a necessity. He sought solitude to find his Father (Lk 9,18 and Mt 14,23), went to the desert or to the mountain to talk with Him (Mt 4,1 and Mk 6,46), prayed at night when no one could interrupt him and when everything favored the climate of intimacy (Mc 1, 35).

For Jesus Christ, prayer was a priority. He prayed in the most difficult moments of his life, in Gethsemane and on Calvary. He prayed before making important decisions, as before choosing the twelve apostles (cf Lk 6,12). He prayed to thank the Father for the kindly revelation of his face to the little ones (Mt 11,25). He raised to heaven his spirit and his words sure to always be heard before raising Lazarus and performing many other miracles. (Jn 11,42)

He prayed in moments of special transcendence in his life, as when he transfigured himself on Mount Tabor (Lk 9, 29), before manifesting himself as Son of God (Lk 9,18), before reaching the Father of ours (Lk 11,1) and at the Last Supper (Jn 17). Although all sought him (Mk 1.37), he prayed. He said it and he fulfilled it first: it is necessary to pray at all times and not to faint (Lk 18,1). At the end of his short life, he devoted himself particularly to prayer: "He no longer walked in public among the Jews" (Jn 11)

Seeing him pray aroused in his disciples the desire to do the same (Lk 11,1)

Those who lived with him learned the lesson well: the first Christian community was praying (Acts 2.42). This fact shows how much Jesus Christ insisted on the importance and necessity of prayer. "We know well that prayer should not be taken for granted: it is necessary to learn to pray, almost always acquiring this art again; even those who are very advanced in the spiritual life always feel the need to enter the school of Jesus to learn to pray with authenticity. "(Benedict XVI, May 4, 2011)

Why did Jesus pray?

Because he had a deep awareness of his son-hood. Jesus teaches us that prayer, dealing with the Father, is the most proper act of our condition as children of God. It is not for convenience that he prays, or for fulfilling a commitment, or because something is missing, he prays because he is a son and a son deals with his father, he needs it. Nor Jesus Christ, being God, gave the prayer for granted. 

Much less we:

"The Son of God made Son of the Virgin learned to pray according to his heart as a man. And he did it from his mother who kept all the "wonders" of the Almighty and meditated on them in his heart (cf. Lk 1, 49; 2, 19; 2, 51). He learns it in the words and rhythms of the prayer of his people, in the synagogue of Nazareth and the Temple. But his prayer springs from a different secret source, as he lets it be known at the age of twelve: "I must be in the things of my Father" (Lk 2:49). Here begins to reveal the novelty of prayer in the fullness of time: filial prayer, which the Father expected of his children will be lived at last in the only Son in his Humanity, with men and in their favor " (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2599)

The life of prayer is a matter of identity, it comes from our condition as children of God. It goes much further than the need or the problem of the moment.

If God told us: Ask me what you want and I will grant it to you. Here is something of great value that we can ask of you. Furthermore, it is something that He will like us to ask of him: awaken in me the filial spirit, like that of your Son, Jesus Christ.

If you pray, why do you pray?

If you do not pray, why do not you pray?

It is mysterious to see how having the most wonderful Father, so many times we insist on living as orphans.








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