http://agustinosrecoletos.com

Prayer of Christ

by OAR

We pray with the psalmist and it is Christ who prays also, He assumes our voice. To listen to Christ and to pray to Him, one must belong to His body, to be one of His, to be in harmony, vouching that we belong to Christ, to His body, to His Church, to His permanent presence in the world. Without this recognized identity, our prayers are lost, they do not know where they are made and what they must do to live. The voice of Christ and ours are only one voice.

"If it is true that we belong to his members and to his body, as we dare to believe, saying it to ourselves, we must recognize our voice, not that of a stranger. And I did not say "ours," as if it would only be that of those of us who are actually here, but "ours," as referring to all of us in the entire world. All of us are one man in Christ; He is the head of this one man, who is in heaven, but his members suffers on the earth". (5)

"Sometimes, the psalms, and not only the psalms, but also the prophecies, speak of Christ in such a way that they recommend only the Head: others pass from the head to the body, that is, Church, without appearing to have changed in person. This happens because the Head is not separated from the body, but how it is one, is said." (6)

Thus, sometimes Christ speaks in his behalf, on other times, He does it with us or in our behalf, and in this way, he springs up like in a cordial effusion the expression of an experienced faith: He can speak about things without us, but we cannot say, present, affirm, pray without Him; “O Lord, without you I have nothing, with You I have everything. He can do everything much; even more without us; we cannot do anything without Him:

"As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, form only one body, in the way Christ has many members and is only one body as well. Then, all of us, united to Christ, our Head, we are vigorous, but without our Head, we are worth nothing... O Lord, with you, we have nothing, with you we have everything. He can do everything much; even more without us; we cannot do anything without Him." (7)

From this perspective, the prayer of Christ with us and we with Christ is made very rich and expressive in the Augustinian language. Prayer then is to pray to Christ, to pray in Christ, to pray beginning from Christ, to pray through Christ, to pray with Christ.

"God cannot give any gift to men greater than His Word, through whom He created all things, he would be their head and adapted the as his members that He might be the Son of God and Son of man: only one God with the Father and only one man with men. Therefore, when we speak to God beseeching, we do not separate the Son from the prayer; and when the Body of the Son prays, it does not separate from itself to the head; and this is how the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of his Body, He who also asks for us and in us; and when we pray as well. He prays for us like a priest; He prays in us as our head: and we pray to him as our God; therefore, we recognize in Him our voice and his in ours." (8)

"As the total Christ is the head and the body, for this reason, in the entire psalms, upon hearing the voice of the Head, we hear the voice of the Body. Then, the one who did not wish to have himself separated, did not wish to speak separately, as attested: And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (Mt 28: 20). If he is with us, he speaks with us, of us and for us; as we also speak in Him, and for this reason, we speak the truth, because be speak in Him. If we would desire to speak in us and of us, we would be liars." (9)

---

⁵ Enarraciones sobre los Salmos 60, 2, T. XX, p. 518.
⁶ Enarraciones sobre los Salmos 90, II, 1, T. XXI, p. 371.
⁷ Enarraciones sobre los Salmos 30, II, s. 1, 4, T. XIX, 332-333.
⁸ Enarraciones sobre los Salmos 85, 1, T. XXI, p. 216.
⁹ Enarraciones sobre los Salmos 56, 1, T. XX, pp. 394-395.

---

¿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