9781644135945

The Easter Cycle
from our enemies and from the enemies of the Church; that there may be concord and harmony
among all peoples; that there may be but one fold and one shepherd; that all men may be saved.
The Church places these petitions on the paten, in the hands of the Lord, who is about to offer
Himself up to the Father with her and for her.
“For where there are two or three gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of
them” (Mt 18:20). The prayer of the Christian is necessarily a catholic (universal) prayer, made
with and for the rest of the community. He who has once learned to pray in the spirit of Christ,
knows that his prayer belongs to the whole Church. He knows that nothing is so foreign to the
spirit of Christ and to a child of God as a narrow isolationism. “Woe to him that is alone” (Eccles
4:10). The Christian knows that when he prays he is supported and abetted by his brethren.
If he loves God with all his heart, he means not with his own heart alone, but with those of all
his brethren. He feels that Jesus, Mary, the saints in heaven, and all earnest Christians on earth
have but one heart, the heart of Jesus. By virtue of the power of the Holy Ghost, they have but
one soul. When he prays, he knows that all the blessed in heaven and the baptized on earth pray
with him, joining in one “Our Father,” in one “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to
the Holy Ghost”; all join in the same “Hail Mary.” When he prays, he has a deep consciousness
of these others praying with him, and he joins his prayers to those of the whole community,
even when he prays alone, knowing that no one by himself dares to approach the Father. One
can approach God only in company with the other children of God, united to them, as it were,
with one heart and one soul. All must approach the Father together and present themselves as
one; otherwise the Father is not pleased with them.
He who prays alone is narrow, egotistical, and isolated. Separated from the community,
he cannot ask “our Father” to “give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses.”
He has failed to understand that this promise has been made only to the community of men,
praying with one another and for one another. “Where there are two or three gathered together
in My name, there am I in the midst of them,” supporting their petition, supplementing it, and
presenting it to the Father.
“No man cometh to the Father but by Me” ( Jn 14:6). Only in communion with Him and
through Him can we gain admission to God with our prayers. He leads us, since we are joined
to Him, into the sacred presence of God. Through Him we have become the children of God
and may now gain admission to the Father. Through Him and in Him we live, we feel, we work
as children of God and fulfill the duties which are ours by reason of our being members of the
family of God. We perceive also our obligation of approaching God as children when we pray.
In truth we can be said to be really praying only when we do so with Christ and through
Christ. He must be in our midst. Wherever two or three are assembled in His name, there He
is to be found among them if they are of one soul and one mind, united by mutual love. They
are one in the measure in which they are one in their prayer, in heart, and in spirit. He stands in
the midst of those who pray as their leader and guide. Now the Father hears the voice of His Son
mingled with the prayers of the community. For this reason our prayers are answered. Through
this union of prayer we establish contact with Christ and with His prayers. He assimilates and
unites the entire Church with Himself. God does not look with pleasure nor bestow His grace
on those separated from the community, but only on the Church and on those in communion
with the Church. The individual can hope to receive from Him only in the measure in which
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