Oct 1, 2025 Written by 

Keeping Friendship alive

The Gospel [...] presents Jesus to us absorbed in prayer, a little apart from his disciples. When he had finished, one of them said to him: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk 11: 1). Jesus had no objection, he did not speak of strange or esoteric formulas but very simply said: "When you pray, say: "Father' ", and he taught the Our Father (cf. Lk 11: 2-4), taking it from his own prayer in which he himself spoke to God, his Father. St Luke passes the Our Father on to us in a shorter form than that found in the Gospel according to St Matthew, which has entered into common usage. We have before us the first words of Sacred Scripture that we learn in childhood. They are impressed in our memory, mould our life and accompany us to our last breath. They reveal that "we are not ready-made children of God from the start, but that we are meant to become so increasingly by growing more and more deeply in communion with Jesus. Our sonship turns out to be identical with following Christ" (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth [English translation], Doubleday, 2007, p. 138). 

This prayer also accepts and expresses human material and spiritual needs: "Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins" (Lk 11: 3-4). It is precisely because of the needs and difficulties of every day that Jesus exhorts us forcefully: "I tell you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Lk 11: 9-10). It is not so much asking in order to satisfy our own desires as, rather, to keep a lively friendship with God who, the Gospel continues, "will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk 11: 13). The ancient "Desert Fathers" experienced this, as did contemplatives of all epochs who became, through prayer, friends of God, like Abraham who begged the Lord to spare the few righteous from the destruction of the city of Sodom (cf. Gen 18: 21-32). St Teresa of Avila addressed an invitation to her sisters with the words: we must "beseech God to deliver us from these perils for ever and to keep us from all evil! And although our desire for this may not be perfect, let us strive to make the petition. What does it cost us to ask it, since we ask it of One who is so powerful?" (Cammino, 60 (34), 4, in Opere complete, Milan 1998, p. 846) [title in English: The Way of Perfection]. Every time we say the Our Father our voices mingle with the voice of the Church, for those who pray are never alone. "From the rich variety of Christian prayer as proposed by the Church, each member of the faithful should seek and find his own way, his own form of prayer... each person will, therefore, let himself be led... by the Holy Spirit, who guides him, through Christ, to the Father" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian meditation, 15 October 1989, n. 29; ore, 2 Jan. 1990, p. 10).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 25 July 2010]

24 Last modified on Wednesday, 01 October 2025 05:18
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

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Those living beside us, who may be scorned and sidelined because they are foreigners, can instead teach us how to walk on the path that the Lord wishes (Pope Francis)
Chi vive accanto a noi, forse disprezzato ed emarginato perché straniero, può insegnarci invece come camminare sulla via che il Signore vuole (Papa Francesco)
Many saints experienced the night of faith and God’s silence — when we knock and God does not respond — and these saints were persevering (Pope Francis)
Tanti santi e sante hanno sperimentato la notte della fede e il silenzio di Dio – quando noi bussiamo e Dio non risponde – e questi santi sono stati perseveranti (Papa Francesco)
In some passages of Scripture it seems to be first and foremost Jesus’ prayer, his intimacy with the Father, that governs everything (Pope Francis)
In qualche pagina della Scrittura sembra essere anzitutto la preghiera di Gesù, la sua intimità con il Padre, a governare tutto (Papa Francesco)
It is necessary to know how to be silent, to create spaces of solitude or, better still, of meeting reserved for intimacy with the Lord. It is necessary to know how to contemplate. Today's man feels a great need not to limit himself to pure material concerns, and instead to supplement his technical culture with superior and detoxifying inputs from the world of the spirit [John Paul II]
Occorre saper fare silenzio, creare spazi di solitudine o, meglio, di incontro riservato ad un’intimità col Signore. Occorre saper contemplare. L’uomo d’oggi sente molto il bisogno di non limitarsi alle pure preoccupazioni materiali, e di integrare invece la propria cultura tecnica con superiori e disintossicanti apporti provenienti dal mondo dello spirito [Giovanni Paolo II]
This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings (Pope Benedict)
Questo può realizzarsi solo a partire dall'intimo incontro con Dio, un incontro che è diventato comunione di volontà arrivando fino a toccare il sentimento (Papa Benedetto)
We come to bless him because of what he revealed, eight centuries ago, to a "Little", to the Poor Man of Assisi; - things in heaven and on earth, that philosophers "had not even dreamed"; - things hidden to those who are "wise" only humanly, and only humanly "intelligent"; - these "things" the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, revealed to Francis and through Francis (Pope John Paul II)
Veniamo per benedirlo a motivo di ciò che egli ha rivelato, otto secoli fa, a un “Piccolo”, al Poverello d’Assisi; – le cose in cielo e sulla terra, che i filosofi “non avevano nemmeno sognato”; – le cose nascoste a coloro che sono “sapienti” soltanto umanamente, e soltanto umanamente “intelligenti”; – queste “cose” il Padre, il Signore del cielo e della terra, ha rivelato a Francesco e mediante Francesco (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
We are faced with the «drama of the resistance to become saved persons» (Pope Francis)
Siamo davanti al «dramma della resistenza a essere salvati» (Papa Francesco)
That 'always seeing the face of the Father' is the highest manifestation of the worship of God. It can be said to constitute that 'heavenly liturgy', performed on behalf of the whole universe [John Paul II]
Quel “vedere sempre la faccia del Padre” è la manifestazione più alta dell’adorazione di Dio. Si può dire che essa costituisce quella “liturgia celeste”, compiuta a nome di tutto l’universo [Giovanni Paolo II]

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