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Listening to the Word

by OAR

Prayer is realized in union with Christ and the life of the Church that offers us the Sacred Scripture, which is the Word of God:

"Your prayer is a dialogue with God, When you read, God speaks with you, when you pray, you speak with God". (2)

"Speak to us, O God, in the readings, let us speak to God with our prayers. If we listen to his words with an obedient attitude, in us dwells the one to whom we direct our prayer". (3)

Man is a social being, an open being. Knowing how to listen forms part of human education, and of Christian education as well. Welcoming the word means that I have allowed my heart to be touched, that I expose myself, that I break my isolation and self-protection. Saint Augustine has the assurance that praying with the Bible will make us conform with what we read, that it will bring about our identification with the mystery, of entering in Him. God himself facilitates even his very words to make prayer, He praised himself and praising himself, He made himself lovable.

This allows that the gift of prayer may be intensified and strengthened. God helps strengthen the desires, to have oneself corrected, to straighten one's life, to overcome oneself. Prayer is to put into action the virtues that come more from God, the virtues that have more of God and these are the theological virtues. The same prayer is an act of faith, hope and love, then, one believes in God, one hopes in God, God is loved with God Himself. Thus, faith, hope and love do not only inspire but they are that which make us pray:

"Call the Lord with your prayer with whom your family rests, ask, insist. He does not need to be overcome by your persistence, like that friend, in order to stand up and give you. He wants to give. Even if by calling, you have received nothing, continue calling, then desire to give. He puts off the giving of that which he desires in order that, by postponing it, you desire more ardently, lest, granting it to you, then, the thing may seem vile to you.

When you may have obtained three breads, that is, the nourishment, which is the knowledge of the Trinity, you will have by which to live and with which to nourish another...

But in order that that which is given may be able to be sweet to you, it is necessary that you possess charity, that you have faith, that you have hope. Likewise these things are three: faith, hope and charity. They are gifts of God as well. From Him, we have received faith, according to the word of the Apostle: In accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Also we receive faith from whom it is said: In whom you have given me hope. (Ps. 118:49) In the same manner, we receive charity from the world: The charity of God was diffused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:5)". (4)

³ Sermón 219, T. XXIV, p. 226.
⁴ Sermón 105, T. X, pp. 718.719-720.

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¿What is prayer?
Listening to the Word
Prayer of Christ
Returning to the heart
Contemplation and union with Christ
Life and Gratitude
Praying is loving
Praying Our Father I
Praying Our Father II