Mar 5, 2025 Written by 

Decisive turning point

1. With the incarnation of the Word of God, the history of prayer knows a decisive turning point. In Jesus Christ, heaven and earth touch each other, God is reconciled with humanity, the dialogue between the creature and his Creator is fully restored. Jesus is the definitive proposal of the Father's love and, at the same time, man's full and irrevocable response to divine expectations. He, the Incarnate Word, is therefore the only Mediator who presents to God the Father every sincere prayer that rises from the human heart. The question, which the first disciples addressed to Jesus, thus also becomes our question: "Lord, teach us to pray!" (Lk 11:1). 

2. As to them, so also to us Jesus "teaches". He does so first of all by example. How can we fail to recall the touching prayer with which He addresses the Father already in the first moment of the incarnation? "Entering the world, he says: You wanted neither sacrifice nor offering, a body instead you have prepared for me . . . Then I said: Behold I come - for of me it is written in the scroll of the book - to do, O God, thy will" (Heb 10:5). Subsequently, there is no important moment in Christ's life that is not accompanied by prayer. At the beginning of his public mission, the Holy Spirit descends upon him while "having received baptism, he stood praying" (Lk 3:21 f). From the evangelist Mark, we know that when he started preaching in Galilee, Jesus "got up in the morning when it was still dark and went out of the house and withdrew to a deserted place and prayed" (Mk 1:35). Before the election of the apostles "he went up on the mountain to pray and spent the night in prayer" (Lk 6:12). Before the promise of the primacy to Peter, Jesus, according to Luke's account, "was in a secluded place praying" (Lk 9:18). Even at the moment of the transfiguration, when on the mountain his glory radiated before darkness fell on Calvary, Jesus prayed (cf. Lk 9:28-29). Particularly revealing is the prayer in which, during the Last Supper, Jesus poured out towards the Father his sentiments of love, praise, supplication, and trusting abandonment (cf. Jn 17). They are the same sentiments that resurface in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Mt 26:39. 42) and on the cross (cf. Lk 23:46), from the height of which He offers us the example of that last, touching invocation: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34). 

3. Jesus also teaches us to pray with his word. To emphasise the "need to pray always, without tiring", He tells the parable of the unjust judge and the widow (cf. Lk 18:1-5). He then recommends: "Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation. The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak" (Mt 26:41). And he insists: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for whoever asks receives, and whoever seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Mt 7:7-8). 

To the disciples, desirous of concrete guidance, Jesus then teaches the sublime formula of the Our Father (Mt 6:9-13; Lk 11:2-4), which was to become the typical prayer of the Christian community down the centuries. Tertullian already described it as "breviarium totius evangelii", "a compendium of the whole Gospel" (De oratione, 1). In it Jesus delivers the essence of his message. Whoever consciously recites the Our Father "commits himself" to the Gospel: he cannot in fact fail to accept the consequences for his own life deriving from the Gospel message, of which the "Lord's Prayer" is the most authentic expression.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 23 September 1992]

71 Last modified on Wednesday, 05 March 2025 07:07
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".

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We see that the disciples are still closed in their thinking […] How does Jesus answer? He answers by broadening their horizons […] and he confers upon them the task of bearing witness to him all over the world, transcending the cultural and religious confines within which they were accustomed to think and live (Pope Benedict)
Vediamo che i discepoli sono ancora chiusi nella loro visione […] E come risponde Gesù? Risponde aprendo i loro orizzonti […] e conferisce loro l’incarico di testimoniarlo in tutto il mondo oltrepassando i confini culturali e religiosi entro cui erano abituati a pensare e a vivere (Papa Benedetto)
The Fathers made a very significant commentary on this singular task. This is what they say: for a fish, created for water, it is fatal to be taken out of the sea, to be removed from its vital element to serve as human food. But in the mission of a fisher of men, the reverse is true. We are living in alienation, in the salt waters of suffering and death; in a sea of darkness without light. The net of the Gospel pulls us out of the waters of death and brings us into the splendour of God’s light, into true life (Pope Benedict)
I Padri […] dicono così: per il pesce, creato per l’acqua, è mortale essere tirato fuori dal mare. Esso viene sottratto al suo elemento vitale per servire di nutrimento all’uomo. Ma nella missione del pescatore di uomini avviene il contrario. Noi uomini viviamo alienati, nelle acque salate della sofferenza e della morte; in un mare di oscurità senza luce. La rete del Vangelo ci tira fuori dalle acque della morte e ci porta nello splendore della luce di Dio, nella vera vita (Papa Benedetto)
We may ask ourselves: who is a witness? A witness is a person who has seen, who recalls and tells. See, recall and tell: these are three verbs which describe the identity and mission (Pope Francis, Regina Coeli April 19, 2015)
Possiamo domandarci: ma chi è il testimone? Il testimone è uno che ha visto, che ricorda e racconta. Vedere, ricordare e raccontare sono i tre verbi che ne descrivono l’identità e la missione (Papa Francesco, Regina Coeli 19 aprile 2015)
There is the path of those who, like those two on the outbound journey, allow themselves to be paralysed by life’s disappointments and proceed sadly; and there is the path of those who do not put themselves and their problems first, but rather Jesus who visits us, and the brothers who await his visit (Pope Francis)
C’è la via di chi, come quei due all’andata, si lascia paralizzare dalle delusioni della vita e va avanti triste; e c’è la via di chi non mette al primo posto se stesso e i suoi problemi, ma Gesù che ci visita, e i fratelli che attendono la sua visita (Papa Francesco)
So that Christians may properly carry out this mandate entrusted to them, it is indispensable that they have a personal encounter with Christ, crucified and risen, and let the power of his love transform them. When this happens, sadness changes to joy and fear gives way to missionary enthusiasm (John Paul II)
Perché i cristiani possano compiere appieno questo mandato loro affidato, è indispensabile che incontrino personalmente il Crocifisso risorto, e si lascino trasformare dalla potenza del suo amore. Quando questo avviene, la tristezza si muta in gioia, il timore cede il passo all’ardore missionario (Giovanni Paolo II)
This is the message that Christians are called to spread to the very ends of the earth. The Christian faith, as we know, is not born from the acceptance of a doctrine but from an encounter with a Person (Pope Benedict))

Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 1 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 2 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 3 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 4 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 5 Dialogo e Solstizio I fiammiferi di Maria

duevie.art

don Giuseppe Nespeca

Tel. 333-1329741


Disclaimer

Questo blog non rappresenta una testata giornalistica in quanto viene aggiornato senza alcuna periodicità. Non può pertanto considerarsi un prodotto editoriale ai sensi della legge N°62 del 07/03/2001.
Le immagini sono tratte da internet, ma se il loro uso violasse diritti d'autore, lo si comunichi all'autore del blog che provvederà alla loro pronta rimozione.
L'autore dichiara di non essere responsabile dei commenti lasciati nei post. Eventuali commenti dei lettori, lesivi dell'immagine o dell'onorabilità di persone terze, il cui contenuto fosse ritenuto non idoneo alla pubblicazione verranno insindacabilmente rimossi.