c.)  PRAYER NOURISHES FAITH

"'Prayer is God poured into our hearts"

Without doubt, prayer is the most noble, the most glorious function a human being can perform in this world.  Prayer confers on us a sublime grandeur.  Not only does prayer put us in touch with all that is true, beautiful and holy in heaven and on earth, but it also makes us enjoy God's friendship, God's most tender effusions, God's most intimate secrets.  Prayer is God coming down to us when invoked; it is God poured forth, infused into our hearts, to use St. Augustine's beautiful expression; it is God, our Creator, our Father, our Redeemer, our friend, our brother, who sees us and listens to us, who smiles graciously at our homage and our love.²⁰

"When we pray, the whole universe prays in us and with us"

In the midst of this hushed and silent universe, a tongue with which to bless the Lord was missing, a heart with which to love him.  When God created human beings, he gave them speech and wanted all nature to find, in them, a voice that could be a canticle of adoration and thanksgiving.  This voice rising up to God in the name of the whole universe ‑- of which human beings are, as it were, the spokespersons and representatives ‑- is precisely the voice of prayer.

Yes, dearly beloved, when we pray, it is the whole universe that prays in us and with us, the whole universe, of which we are a compendium.  In us and with us, all creatures, with a borrowed voice and soul, praise, bless, thank, glorify and exalt him who brought them out of nothingness: "Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord."²¹

"Will the human being alone be silent in the midst of such sublime harmony?"

As soon as the sun sheds its rays on the wilting flower in the morning, the flower opens its calyx and, with a charming movement, rises toward that benevolent celestial body as if to express to it, in its own way, its joy and gratitude.  The grass that pushes up, the drop that falls, the wind that blows, the bird that flies, the sea that roars, the star that twinkles, in a word, creation is -- in the language of the Holy Books -- simply an immense canticle of benediction and praise to the supreme Maker.  And shall the human being, the king of creation, who has received everything from the hand of God -- sovereignty, power, intelligence and life -- shall the human being alone be silent in the midst of such sublime harmony?  Will he end up being the most ungrateful of all creatures, given that he is the most privileged?  Since he was placed so near the throne of the Almighty -- and this without any prior merit of his own -- should he not be the first to acknowledge his supreme dominion?  Will he not command his head to bow, his tongue to pour out praises, his whole being to prostrate itself and give God the homage and submission due to him?  Yes, dearly beloved, also our body, which is the masterpiece of creation and has been destined for glory together with the soul, also our body, I repeat, following its inner instincts, should, in its own way, glorify the

supreme Creator.  "My heart and also my flesh exult in the living God," the Prophet exclaims.  Jesus Christ himself, as man, prayed to his Father on bended knee and with head bowed to the ground.²²

"Prayer is the bond of the whole community"

Prayer makes a person greater than he is, transfigures him, elevates him, divinizes him.  In the history of souls, nothing is more common than conversions granted because of the prayer of saints.  Prayer turned Saul the persecutor into an apostle.  How many Augustines are children of the prayers and tears of their mothers!

Prayer is what binds the whole community together.  Though the distances separating us from each other may be enormous and the barriers keeping us apart insurmountable, prayer, nonetheless, has the power to draw everybody together, to unite all things.  It is prayer that joins the living with each other and the living with the departed.  It is prayer that unites the earthly family with the heavenly one, that creates among the Church Militant, Church Suffering and Church Triumphant that ebb and flow of supplications and intercessions that theologians call the "Communion of Saints." Notwithstanding obstacles, prayer sets up an electric current of sorts that moves from brothers and sisters to brothers and sisters and, passing through the heart of God, the center and hearth of love, unites, one might say, all hearts into one single heart, all families into one single family.²³

"The Word of God himself prayed"

Since the Word of God became man to teach us not only by precept but also by example, he himself prayed to the Father, he who was one thing with the Father, he to whom the Father had given power over all things.  In the desert, he was absorbed in prayer.  On the mountain, he prayed all by himself, watching through the whole night.  He prayed at the tomb of Lazarus and at the entrance to Jerusalem.  He prayed before beginning his mission.  He prayed in the temple, in the Cenacle, in the Garden of Gethsemani, and on Calvary.  He prayed until his very last breath in order to snatch from eternal torments humanity which, in his person, trembled with fear, sweat blood and fell under the blows of death (...).

Therefore, St. Cyprian exclaims, if Jesus, the Saint of saints, prayed, with much more reason should sinners pray.  If the Head prays, how can the members not pray?  And if the divine Teacher felt such a great need to pray, how can his followers not feel the same way?

Dearly beloved, the example of Holy Mother Church should also convince us of the need to pray.  One might say that her whole life, like her Founder's, is one continuous prayer. She prays every day, at all hours of the day.  She prays for herself.  She prays for her children struggling in this world.  She prays for her children who have left this life and are suffering in Purgatory.  She prays for the conversion of sinners, for the perseverance of the just, for the final victory of the dying, and for the grace of eternal salvation for all.  She prays for the uprooting of errors and for the triumph of truth and justice.  Day and night her churches ring out with the sound of prayer.²⁴

"Even in heaven the Church prays"

The Catholic Church prays not only here on earth but also in heaven.  A pious and learned writer says: I have never recited the Litany of the Saints or heard others reciting it without admiring the mysterious depths and the sublime heights of the great law of prayer.  We soar on the wings of faith and enter the glorious sanctuary of the Lord.  There we look around with tearful eyes and on bended knee we pray: Holy Mary, pray for us; holy angels and archangels, pray for us; holy apostles, pray for us; holy patriarchs and prophets, pray for us; holy martyrs, holy confessors, holy virgins, pray for us; all the saints of heaven, pray for us.  So, in heaven there is prayer: everybody prays.  The virgins pray, the confessors pray, the martyrs, the apostles, the prophets and the patriarchs pray, all brothers and sisters of ours who preceded us on the road to a blessed eternity.  There is more!  The angels and archangels, the thrones and dominations, the principalities and powers, the cherubim and seraphim, all the angelic choirs also pray.  What more can we say?  The Queen of the angels and saints, the coredemptrix of the human race, the Blessed Virgin Mary, also prays.  And you, 0 my Jesus, you too pray, even in heaven.  You pray with your voice, with the scars of your wounds and with the august display of your glorified humanity.  You live forever at the right

hand of the Father to pray unceasingly for us: "He lives forever to make intercession for them."²⁵

"People speak and God listens; they command and God obeys"

In a word, what is prayer?  Prayer is the lifting of the spirit to God, the source of life.  In the marvelous give-and-take that exists between human beings and their Maker, prayer is the mysterious bridge uniting the two sides.  Prayer gives wings to our soul, lifts it up above this valley of tears, and brings it into the bosom of the divinity.  The body is on earth but the soul is in heaven.  People speak and God listens.  They command and God grants their requests.  Let us say it boldly: people command and God obeys.  "He does the will of those who fear him and he listens to their prayers."²⁶

"Who can stand up to God?  Prayer"

In heaven, this conversation is called praise, ecstasy, love, beatitude, and eternal happiness.  On earth, it is a combination of all this, and we call it prayer.  Hence, prayer on earth is a foretaste of immortal life.

It is precisely from this contact with the Divinity that people draw their strength.  Two things I admire in heaven and on earth: in heaven, the power of the Creator; on earth, the power of prayer.  A human being can be as weak as you wish.  But if he prays, he becomes strong with the very power of God: "there is nothing more powerful than a man who prays." Listen to the Apostle: I can do everything, he says, absolutely everything: "Omnia possum."  How so?  I can do everything with prayer.  I can do everything in him who -- whenever I invoke him and pray to him -- strengthens me, comforts me, and consoles me. "I can do everything in him who gives me strength."

When prayer is humble, it not only equals but, I would dare say, surpasses the very power of God: "God is omnipotent," the Prophet says, "and who can stand up against him?" Prayer, I answer.²⁷

"The heavenly lightning rods"

As they watch the appalling increase of crime, many people are wondering why the Lord is being so patient and does not send down his thunderbolts.  Dearly beloved, raise your eyes to the heights of the spiritual world.  There you will find the heavenly lightning rods.  Lightning comes crashing down with a roar, but, on the brink of exploding, finds itself harnessed and channeled into electric wires, quite surprised to see its force smothered in an instant.  Let us set aside the metaphors: you have seen good people praying, God's ministers praying, many souls, secluded from the world, praying.  Here is the answer to the mystery: those people are humanity's vanguards.  They are the voluntary victims that, with their sighs and prayers, made even more precious by penance, appease the justice of God and help put back the avenging sword into the sheathe.  If only we could pierce the mysterious depths of God, we would be amazed at seeing what an important place the prayer of good people has in the plan of divine Providence and what a beneficial influence prayer has in the life of nations and on the fate of empires.²⁸

"No one is dispensed from the law of prayer"

Yes, pray!  No one is dispensed from this law of prayer.  If you are god-fearing, pray that you remain so.  If you are sinners, pray that you rise from this pitiful state.  You all must pray to be saved, since it is written: "The prayer of the just man can do much." Pray with humility, trust, and perseverance.  Pray in your home, pray in church.  Pray especially that holy and sublime prayer that Jesus Christ himself taught us, the prayer in which we ask our Father who is in heaven for the glorification of his name, for the coming of his kingdom, for the fulfillment of his will, for our daily bread, for the forgiveness of our trespasses, for protection and help in every one of our needs.²⁹

"For us prayer is an innate, instinctive, and irresistible need"

God is the supreme and wise author of all things, and everything is in his hands.  Who could deny this without forfeiting his very reason?  "In him we live and move and have our being," the Apostle tells us.  He has given us existence and preserves it at every moment.  So, if our life here on earth is his gift, if we do not belong to ourselves but to God, it is clear that we owe him the eternal homage of our gratitude, the offering of our subjection, the tribute of our praise, the worship and adoration of our hearts, the sacrifice of our whole self.  Sacrifice is prayer, worship is prayer, praise is prayer, thanksgiving is prayer (...).

For us rational creatures, prayer is an innate, instinctive, and irresistible need.³⁰

"The person who prays well lives well"

The person who prays well lives well, says St. Augustine: Recte novit vivere, qui recte novit orare.  Prayer is the credentials of the true believer.  Prayer is the complete profession of Christianity.  Prayer incorporates in itself the exercise of all the highest virtues: the exercise of faith, hope, love, humility, sorrow, adoration, and submission to the will of God.  And, as such, prayer will always have its reward.  When prayer lifts up our hearts to God, it detaches us from the deceptive goods of this miserable life.  In this way, it nourishes the life of the spirit in us, accustoms us to the things of eternity and gives us, here on earth, a foretaste of the joy and peace of the elect.

Prayer is the light, the warmth, the nourishment, the consolation, the life of the human soul.  The soul suffers and weakens if it does not breathe this air of heaven.  St. John Chrysostom says that, just as a fish out of water struggles and dies, in the same way does the soul die if it is deprived of this vital element, namely God's grace which a person breathes during prayer.³¹

"Whoever does not pray has no soul"

Whoever does not pray has no soul.  He either does not understand or does not have feelings or does not love.

Prayer is the source of good and sometimes great thoughts.  Ask believers: in prayer they found the insights of faith.  Ask the saints: in prayer they found the help of grace.  Ask the geniuses: in prayer they found the insights of science.³²

"God's plans will infallibly come true"

Dearly beloved, do not get discouraged by the fact that evils linger on.  For an all-powerful God nothing is hard, and in his hands everything serves his purposes.  Even the towering and imposing giants that human pride raised up were dashed to the ground by God with no effort at all.  But we must pray, we must pray constantly and trustingly to obtain the victory of the Church and of its illustrious Head.  If miracles are necessary, God will perform them.

The early Church prayed trustingly and unceasingly when the Prince of the Apostles was in jail.  Because of the trusting and persevering prayer of the Christians, an angel was sent to Peter.  The angel woke Peter up from sleep, broke the chains with which he was bound, and said to him: Wake up and come after me. Whereupon the angel brought him out of jail to the immense consolation of everyone.

At the beginning of this century, when the Church was immersed in great tribulation because of the sad events afflicting her Head, she prayed with confidence and constancy.  But when everything seemed desperate and when godless people, with diabolical glee, were about to strike up the victory song and were preparing the grave in which to bury the Church of Jesus Christ, behold, as if by magic, all this formidable power came crashing down.  Pius VII went back to his beloved Rome to sit peacefully on the glorious throne of Peter.  The Pope returned to Rome in the midst of the acclamations of jubilant peoples and of the indescribable joy of the people of Piacenza, who so touched the venerable old man that he kept praising the piety and faith of your ancestors, especially of the aristocracy.

Even today, the situation is deplorable: the faith is bitterly attacked by its enemies, religion is mocked, the day of the Lord and the sacred period of Lent is desecrated (...).

You can see for yourselves that the Church is drained of all human resources, that the rabble, throbbing with frenzy, and the wicked in their diabolical secret meetings continue to wage war against it.  But if all human resources have disappeared and if the Church no longer has arms with which to defend herself, she still has a weapon that never loses its power, namely, prayer.  This is our weapon, this is our glory.³³