Learning To Pray

"Don't speak: listen to Him." (St Josemaria's spiritual director.)

"We give to others not because we are better but because we have received first." (Joel-Isaiah McIntyre)

"Octave of all Saints – Tuesday – 8 November 1932: This morning, not yet an hour ago, my Fr Sanchez revealed to me ‘another Mediterranean.’ He told me: ‘Make friends with the Holy Spirit. Don’t speak: listen to him.’ And while I was praying on my way home from Leganitos, my prayer was both gentle and filled with light. And I saw how the life of childhood, by making me aware that I was a son of God, had brought me to love the Father; that, even before that, I had gone through Mary to reach Jesus, whom I adore as a friend, as a brother, as his lover, for that is what I am. Up until now, I knew that the Holy Spirit was dwelling in my soul to sanctify it… but I hadn’t grasped the truth of his presence. Fr Sanchez’s words were what I needed. I feel Love within me, and I want to get to know him, to become his friend, his confidant. I want to facilitate his work of polishing, uprooting, enkindling. I won’t know how to… but He will give me the strength. He will do everything, if I want him to… and I do! Divine Guest, Master, Light, Guide, Love: may this poor donkey make you welcome and listen to your lessons, and be set aflame, and follow you and love you. Resolution: foster, uninterruptedly if possible, friendship and a loving, docile conversation with the Holy Spirit. Veni Sancte Spiritus!” (St Josemaria)

“In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.” (St John of the Cross.)

"Grace breaks the chains of guilt, freeing us from the oppression of sin and allowing us to live victoriously in Christ." (St Augustine).

"I tell you something very beautiful: It is no longer me, it is Jesus himself who is looking at you in this moment, he is looking at you, He knows you, he knows the heart of each one of you, he knows the life of each one of you, he knows the joys, he knows the sadness, the successes and the failures. Jesus knows your hearts. He sees our hearts. And he tells you today here in Lisbon, on this World Youth Day: 'Be not afraid, be not afraid, take heart, be not afraid." (Pope Francis, at WYD Lisbon 2023).

"Jesus, you are within me. I want to encounter you every day. You are a Person, you are not an idea; you are a travelling companion, you are not a programme. You are the love that solves many problems. You are the beginning of evangelization. You, Jesus, are the source of Joy!" (Pope Francis).

Why is it good to stick to a daily prayer plan?

"So also when He says, The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep, He is not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For He was able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart from Him, who Himself had said, Without me you can do nothing? But from the same source we can show what others also have done, for the apostle John himself, who preached the very gospel you have been hearing, has said in his epistle, Just as Christ laid down His life for us, so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren." (St Agostine)

Devotion to the Holy Spirit reveals itself as a key for evangelization.