Personal prayer, how it is done and the graces that are obtained

Personal prayer, in the Gospel, is located in a specific place: "Instead, when you pray, enter your room and, having closed the door, pray to your Father in secret" (Mt. 6,6).

The instead emphasizes an attitude opposite to that of the "hypocrites, who love to pray by standing upright in the synagogues and in the corners of the squares".

The password is "in secret".

Speaking of prayer, there is the marked counter-position between "square" and "room".

That is between ostentation and secrecy.

Exhibitionism and modesty.

Rumble and silence.

Entertainment and life.

The key word, of course, is the one that indicates the recipient of the prayer: "your Father ...".

Christian prayer is based on the experience of divine fatherhood and our sonship.

The relationship to be established, therefore, is that between Father and son.

That is, something familiar, intimate, simple, spontaneous.

Now, if in prayer you seek the gaze of others, you cannot pretend to draw the attention of God on yourself.

The Father, "who sees in secret", has nothing to do with a prayer intended for the public, offered in a devoted, edifying spectacle.

What matters is the relationship with the Father, the contact you make with him.

Prayer is true only if you can close the door, that is, to leave out any other concern other than meeting God.

Love - and prayer is either a dialogue of love or is nothing - must be redeemed from superficiality, kept in secret, removed from prying eyes, protected from curiosity.

Jesus suggests frequenting the "camera" (tameion), as a safe place for the personal prayer of the "children".

The tameion was the room in the house inaccessible to outsiders, an underground closet, a refuge where the treasure is kept, or simply a cellar.

The ancient monks took this recommendation of the Master literally and invented the cell, the place of individual prayer.

Someone derives the word cell from coelum.

That is, the environment where one prays is a kind of sky transferred down here, an advance of eternal happiness.

We, not only are we destined for heaven, but we cannot live without heaven.

The earth becomes habitable for man only when he cuts out and welcomes at least a piece of heaven.

The dark gray of our existence down here can be redeemed by regular "blue transfusions"!

The prayer, in fact.

Others claim that the word cell is related to the verb celare (= to hide).

That is, the place of hidden prayer, denied to the public and invaded only for the attention of the Father.

Mind you: Jesus, when he speaks of the tameion, does not offer a prayer of intimacy, of a pleased and exasperated individualism.

Your "Father" is "yours" only if it belongs to everyone, if it becomes "our" Father.

Loneliness should not be confused with isolation.

Loneliness is necessarily communal.

Those who take refuge in the tameion find the Father, but also the brothers.

The tameion protects you from the public, not from others.

It takes you away from the square, but places you in the center of the world.

In the square, in the synagogue, you can bring a mask, you can recite empty words.

But to pray you must realize that He sees what you carry inside.

So it is appropriate to carefully close the door and accept that deep look, that essential dialogue that reveals you to yourself.

A young monk had turned to an elderly man because of a tormenting problem.

He heard himself say: "Go back to your cell and there you will find what you are looking for outside!"

Then a priestess asked:

Tell us about prayer!

And he replied, saying:

You pray in despair and in need;

rather pray in full joy and days of abundance!

For is prayer not the expansion of yourself into the living ether?

If pouring your darkness into space comforts you, a greater joy is to pour your light.

And if you cry only when the soul calls you to prayer, it should change your tears

until the smile.

When you pray you rise to meet those who pray at the same time in the air; you can only meet them in prayer.

Therefore this visit to the invisible temple, is only an ecstasy and a sweet communion….

Just enter the invisible temple!

I can't teach you to pray.

God does not listen to your words, if He himself does not pronounce them with your lips.

And I cannot teach you how the seas, the mountains and the forests pray.

But you, children of the mountains, forests and seas, can discover their prayer deep in the heart.

Listen to the peaceful nights and you will hear murmuring: “Our God, wing of ourselves, we want with Your will. We wish with Your desire.

Your impulse transforms our nights which are your nights, our days which are your days.

We can't ask you anything; You know our needs before they even arise.

Our need is You; in giving yourself, you give us everything! "