Devotions: the prayer of the "poor", a form of prayer to obtain graces
Poverty represents a fundamental attitude in prayer.
Poverty as a manifestation of one's own nothingness and a courageous and discreet exploration of the whole of God.
If waiting is an expression of hope, poverty is an expression of faith.
In prayer, the one who recognizes himself as dependent on another is poor.
He renounces the foundation of life on himself, on his plans, his resources, his certainties, but he hooks them to God.
The poor man refrains from doing accounts. He prefers to "count" on Someone!
The poor man trusts the God who intervenes, but also the God who does not make himself heard.
Of the God who manifests himself, as of the God who gives no sign ...
It is about surrendering to a God who tells you when it is time to leave (immediately!), But does not reveal you when you will arrive.
The only constant is temporary.
The only comfort is precariousness.
The only wealth is a promise.
The only one made a Word.
The person praying is not a wealthy of the spirit, but an incurable beggar, who begs for fragments, splinters of light.
His thirst makes him wary of cisterns, but leads him to constantly seek the source.
The prayer is not for the "arrived", but for the pilgrims, whose pouch pouched does not contain a growing nest egg, but the necessary that runs out the same evening.
Only those who are poor in time can give time to God!
It is unlikely that anyone who has plenty of time (and casually squanders it) finds time to pray. At best, it just gives the scraps.
The poor man performs the miracle of giving time to God in prayer. The time he lacks.
The necessary time, not the superfluous one. And it gives it with width, without measuring.
Through prayer, the poor trust the intervention of God "instantly".
“When they bring you to synagogues, magistrates and authorities, don't worry about how to exonerate yourself, or what to say; because the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what is to be said "(Lk 12,11).
Poor prayer is sober, discreet, discreet prayer.
The poor man who prays is not afraid of weakness, he does not care about the number, the quantity, the success.
The poor man who prays discovers the strength of weakness!
"When I am weak, it is then that I am strong" (2 Cor. 12,10:XNUMX).
The poor man does not seek emotional gratification in prayer. Nor does he beg for easy consolations.
He knows that the essence of prayer does not consist in sensitive joy.
The poor look for God even when God disappoints him, hides himself, disappears into the night.
He is there, without giving in to fatigue, clinging to will rather than feeling, in the faithfulness of a love willing to accept any test.
He knows that the meeting sometimes takes place in the party.
But, more often, it is consumed in an endless vigil.
The "dark night", the cold, the anguish, the non-response, the distance, the abandonment, the not understanding anything, are the most expensive "yes" that the poor are called to say in prayer.
The poor man insists on keeping the door open to this God who denies himself.
The lit lamp is not intended to heat.
But to report a suffered loyalty.
If you do not accept that prayer strips you of appearances, frees you from clutter, takes all unnecessary things, tears off your masks, you will never experience what prayer is.
Prayer is an operation of loss.
You don't pray because you want to have it. But why do you agree to lose!
In prayer, God makes you discover, first of all, what you do not need, which you must do without.
There is an "too much" that must leave room for the essential.
There is a "more" that must give space to the only necessary.
To pray does not mean to accumulate, but to undress, to rediscover the nakedness and truth of one's being.
Prayer is a long, patient job of simplifying one's life.
Praying = verb entry subtract !!
To the point of drowning our tiny island of satisfaction, to let ourselves be submerged by the ocean of God, by the crazy plans of His Love;
until you get the miracle of nothingness that touches the Infinite!
The whole of God is placed only in that nothingness, which is a space, open from empty hands and a pure heart.
So far we have repeated:
WAITING = HOPE
POVERTY = FAITH
Now let's add a third provision for prayer: DISSATISFACTION = DESIRE
Prayer is intended for those who do not resign themselves to the fact that things must remain as they are.
When a man confesses dissatisfied and wishes to tend towards something else, then he is suitable for prayer.
When one is willing to lose everything to try adventure, to risk the new, to abandon habits, then prayer is for him.
Prayer is for those who don't give up!
Someone called the Christian "an unsatisfied contentment".
Happy with what the Father is for him and does for him, dissatisfied with his way of being a son, brother and citizen of the Kingdom.
In fact, prayer is at the same time the cause of joy and the beginning of uneasiness.
Fullness and torment. Tension between "already" and "not yet".
Security and research.
Peace and ... abrupt reminder of what remains to be done!
In prayer we are amazed at the limitless grandeur of the Father's invitation, but we feel the disproportion between His offer and our response.
We take the path of prayer only after having cultivated germs of restlessness.
Some of us are satisfied when "he said the prayers".
Instead, we must discover that dissatisfaction is the condition for prayer.
"Woe to you who are now satisfied!" (Luke 6.25)
Prayer of the Sioux Indians
Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
whose breath gives life to the whole world, listen to me!
I come before Your face like Your son.
Behold, I am weak and small before You;
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me taste the beauty of creation and make my eyes
contemplate the purple red sunset.
My hands must be full of respect
for the things you created and for the teachings
that You have hidden in every leaf and every rock.
I desire strength, not to be superior to my brothers,
but to be able to fight my most dangerous enemy: myself.
Always make me capable of coming to you with pure hands and
with a sincere look, so that my spirit,
when life fades like the setting sun,
can reach you without being ashamed.