52. January 7

Meditations no. 46 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Our life of prayer is an unbroken and loving conversation with God.

He has become so small - you see, a Child! - so that you can come close to him with confidence.

Jesus wants us to approach him. He doesn’t want the thought of his greatness to stop us from being daring and tender in the love we show him. It is true that he is the Son of the living God, and that we profess him to be God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Nevertheless, his love for us has inspired him to share our impoverished human condition. Through his incarnation and birth he has made himself present to us, so that we in turn might come to love him. Jesus’ whole life is a wonderful dialogue, my children. It is a marvellous conversation with mankind.

Throughout the Gospels we discover that wonderful dialogue which our Founder refers to: the dialogue of our Lord with Mary, with the Apostles, and with everyone he meets. Jesus is ready to speak to everyone. And his words heal, console and enlighten. How often I have meditated personally, and have had others meditate, on Christ’s apostolic manner, which is so human and so divine, built as it is upon friendship and confidence!

For each of us, that dialogue with Christ acquires a very definite form in our prayer each morning and afternoon: that is why it is important to take good care of those periods of personal prayer. To pray is not a difficult task, since Jesus doesn’t make us wait for him. There is no waiting room: he is the one who waits for us. You only have to say: “Lord, I want to pray! I want to get to know you!” - and you are already in God’s presence, speaking to him. What is more, he doesn’t set any time limits: he leaves it up to you. He’s there for you, not just for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. No! He’s there for hours, for the whole day! And he is who he is: the Almighty, the All-Wise.

My children, our Father insists, if you mull over these things, your soul will overflow with joy. You can and you should talk to God our Lord, who waits for you, who dedicates to you all the time you desire, who will give you inspirations, and who will also make use of your Directors to help you, whenever a doubt assails you, or when you want assurance on an idea or some supernatural inspiration you have had.

We learn from Jesus how to befriend and love everyone. But to do so we must first speak to him in intimate prayer, learning how to return the trust he shows us, and how to respond to his desire that we should draw near him and get to know him better.

Purity of soul is needed for this dialogue.

My children, Jesus sets us an example and teaches us how to pray. He would sometimes withdraw from those who were following him - on one occasion he even withdrew for forty consecutive days - and he would call upon his Father. That was always his way: before the great miracles and during his rapid journeys from village to village; before the sufferings of his Passion and during all the torments of his Death. Do you see how he makes sure that the Evangelists tell us of his prayer to God the Father?

You and I want to achieve holiness: that is why we have come to Opus Dei. And to do so, we need to identify ourselves with Christ, to put on Jesus Christ: induimini Dominum Iesum Christum. My dear children, we must all be ipse Christus, Christ himself. But we must each discover for ourselves how to put on that clothing which the Apostle speaks of; each one, personally, has to enter into dialogue with our Lord.

For an apostle, prayer is absolutely essential. There is no other way. At the start of each new day, as we prepare to work at Christ’s side and to seek ways of helping souls who are searching for him, there is no other way than to turn to God. Only in prayer will we learn to be of service to souls.

So what are you and I to do? We will get to know our Lord very well, seeking him out, as Peter did, in order to have an intimate conversation with him. Note that I say “conversation”. It is a dialogue between two people, face to face; we can’t take refuge in anonymity. We need personal prayer, intimacy, direct contact with our God.

But progress in prayer depends above all on the purity of our soul, on our upright intention. We need a pure conscience, because if there were to be habitual insensitivity to God, or deliberate venial sin, then that would always be a hindrance to close contact with God. We need a pure heart. If our hearts were divided or attached to creatures, how could we pray sincerely? We need a pure mind, one that is not stained by thoughts stemming from selfishness or pride, or ideas or fantasies that make us forget about God’s presence. And we also need purified senses. If we haven’t been vigilant during the rest of the day, we can’t expect to be properly recollected when the time comes for our mental prayer. Let your will exact from your senses, by means of atonement, what your other faculties deny your will in prayer.

Such purity of soul, which is the fruit of constant struggle, permits us to talk to God with a child’s trust and a friend’s affection. Prayer depends on love. Prayer - divine dialogue - requires a determination on our part to love; it also requires an upright intention, and a clean life.

Our weaknesses and imperfections should not keep us from praying.

Nothing should interrupt our continuous conversation with God. Don’t let your imperfections and defects, nor even your more serious falls, separate you from God. A weak child, if he is wise, tries to keep near his father. Prayer is the best way to rectify. Dialogue follows on from love, but it can also be the start of love. Therefore, prayer is the way to start again after every fall. The discouragement produced by your repeated lack of generosity, your lapses, your falls -which perhaps are only apparent - often makes you feel as if you had broken something of exceptional value (your sanctification).

Don’t worry: apply to your supernatural life the wise way simple children have of solving such a conflict.

They have broken, nearly always because of its fragility, something their father values greatly. They are sorry, they may even shed tears, but… they go to seek consolation from the owner of what has been damaged by their awkwardness, and their father forgets the value of the broken object, great though it may be, and filled with tenderness, he not only pardons, but consoles and encourages the little one. Learn.

Our Father adds that dialogue with God does not consist of making pretty speeches. Prayer, at times, will consist of a glance at a picture of our Lord or his Mother. Sometimes it will be a request we express in words. At other times it will take the form of good deeds, the results of fidelity. Like a soldier on guard duty, so should we be at the door of our Lord God. That is prayer. Or it is like being a little dog at its master’s feet. Don’t be too shy to tell him sometimes: “Lord, here I am before you, like a faithful little dog”; or better still: “Lord, like a little donkey who will not kick out at the person who loves hint”.

We ask our Lady and St Joseph, our Father and Lord, to teach us how to talk to Jesus, to find him in the countless ordinary circumstances of our lives, to say sweet and loving things to him, and to keep up an uninterrupted dialogue with him. This is what will bring love to our souls and cleanse them, freeing them from the stifling air of selfishness; and it will pave the way to our union with God.