PRAYER

 

       prayer, indeed, has many forms and expressions. Our love of Liturgical Prayer, the visible expression of the mystery of salvation coming to man, with which the Church surrounds the sacramental liturgy, is the foundation of our spirituality. Along with this, it is our personal prayer that brings the soul into close communication with God. The intimacy in personal prayer is an ever-deepening process that transforms us into the image of Christ.

 

Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel at the Dom Gréa House.

 

      Our personal prayer is a true dialogue between the Spirit who speaks and the soul that listens. It is precisely this vital link of contemplation and loving communion with God that enables us to accomplish the task given to us by the Church, not merely one of a human and worldly enterprise, but rather a task of sanctification and of salvation. We will only be true workers in the kingdom if we have a spirit deeply rooted in a life of personal prayer, one that is properly nourished, and a holiness that is always developing and advancing.

 

 

Moment of prayer before Vespers at Saint Sebastian Church.

 

 

        In our spiritual reading we give first place to the Holy Scriptures and to the Fathers of the Church who are its primary commentators. By giving ourselves to the reading of the Holy Scriptures we acquire the knowledge of Christ, which is evident in our celebration of the Sacred Liturgy and in our preaching. This requires of us an effort of silence and reflection after the example of Mary, the teacher of the interior life and of contemplation, who treasured and meditated upon the words spoken by her Son. This personal prayer brings us peace, strength, fidelity to grace and the ability to give ourselves.

 

 

 

 

PENANCE

 

       our life of prayer and fidelity to the vows and their spirit also implies the need for asceticism. In order to walk in the footsteps of Christ we must deny ourselves and take up our cross every day, for the servant is not greater than the Master.  Our asceticism does not seek to be other than that of the penitent Church unceasingly in communion with the death of her Lord. It is also an integral part of our religious state, by means of our poverty, chastity and our obedience, all authentically lived out.

 

     Along with our personal and community acts of penance such as abstinence, fasting and other acts, which vary during the liturgical year, it is living in a spirit of penance that enables us to accept, with all the love that our religious state requires of us, those physical and moral sufferings, the uncertainties of all sorts that form part of our human condition, our real sharing in the sufferings of all mankind, even old age and death itself make us take a very active part in the mystery of our Lord’s Cross.

 

      The presence of evil which spoils and destroys the world enables us to feel the anguish of the Lord “I have pity on this multitude” (Mark 6:34), and experience his infinite mercy. We draw from it a new desire to offer our life, for the salvation of many.

 

 

 

“You will have to suffer only for a little while;

the God of all grace who called you to eternal glory in Christ

will see that all is well again;

He will confirm, strengthen and support you. His power lasts forever and ever. Amen.”
(1 Peter 5:10 11)