Jesus invites his disciples to a prayer that is not long-winded, but lean, essential; as sons.
Although in different paradigms, Clare and Francis of Assisi were aware that in the depths of their being lurked a secret to be found in order to be reborn and healed.
To the point that, distancing himself from his earthly father, before the local bishop, the Poverello expressed himself thus:
«Hitherto I have called you, my Father on earth; from now on I can say with all confidence: OUR FATHER, WHO IS IN HEAVEN, because in Him I have placed all my Treasure and placed all my Trust and Hope» (FF 1043).
To his brothers who asked him to teach them how to pray, he replied:
«When you pray, say: Our Father, and [...] We adore you, O Christ, in all your churches throughout the world, and we bless you, because through your holy Cross you have redeemed the world» (FF 1068).
And in the paraphrase of the 'Our Father':
«Hallowed be thy Name: let the knowledge of Thee be made bright in us, that we may know the breadth of thy benefits, the extent of thy promises, the sublimity of thy majesty and the depth of thy judgments» (FF 268).
A prayer, therefore, attested by life, by the capacity for forgiveness, in Listening.
All in the cell of one's own body, Francis maintained - as the Perugina Legend reminds us:
«Wherever we are or move, we take our cell with us: brother body; the soul is the hermit who lives in it praying to God and meditating.
And if the soul does not live serenely and solitarily in its cell, it is of little use to the religious to have a cell erected by the hand of man» (FF 1636).
And in the Legend, Clare herself:
"How much strength and support she received in the furnace of ardent prayer [...] she brought back from the fire of the altar of the Lord burning words, such as to inflame the hearts of the sisters" (FF 3199).
A prayer not marked by the multiplication of words, but by an authentic and profound relationship with God, who knows everything.
«In praying, do not babble like the pagans, for they think they are heard because of their wordiness» (Mt 6:7)
Thursday of the 11th wk. in O.T. (Mt 6,7-15)
