9781644135945

The Light of the World
“We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom 8:26). The most important element
in prayer is the method of contacting God. Prayer is the source of the divine life that is to fill the
soul and lead us toward sanctity. Our contact with God, however, is neither the fruit of our own
efforts nor the searching of our intellect nor a mere natural exertion of our will and faculties.
“I give you to understand that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith Anathema to Jesus.
And no man can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor 12:3). Only the believing
and loving soul will be able to enter into fruitful communion with God. Faith and charity are
meaningless unless they live and work under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Only in the spirit
of the Holy Ghost can the soul go to the Father and talk with Him with a feeling of intimacy and
with the liberty of a child of God. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom
8:26). Prayer is a work of the supernatural man who in Christ has been lifted up by the Holy
Ghost and has become united with Christ, the Son of God.
“The Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings. And He that searcheth the
hearts knoweth what the Spirit desireth; because He asketh for the saints according to God”
(Rom 8:26 f.). “You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba, Father.”
We pray as children of the Father. So our prayer is the expression of our innermost feelings,
desires, strivings, yearnings, and we express ourselves in the spirit of sonship given to us. It is the
Holy Spirit dwelling within us, who prays for us. He inspires our prayers, awakening in us faith,
hope, and charity, and the affections of reverence, gratitude, and devotion. With sanctifying grace
He infused into our soul His seven gifts, and whenever He urges us to pray and intends to lead
us to the Father, He strikes the strings of this living harp. He employs those faculties of our soul
which render us children before God. He touches the string of holy fear, that we may approach
the Father reverently. He awakens the grace of piety, that our reverence may be that of the liberty
and intimacy of a child. By means of the gift of knowledge He makes us see and appraise natural
truths and experiences in the light of God. By the gift of understanding He reveals to us in our
prayers the deep truths of our holy faith, of the gospel, of the life of God. Through the gift of
wisdom He imparts to us an interior urge to taste of God and His mysteries; it is He who makes
us experience the bliss and solace of knowing God. Thus the Holy Spirit produces within us the
feelings and sentiments of a child wherewith we may go to the Father in our prayers. He asks us to
adore the Father with childlike feelings, to thank and praise Him, to offer Him our heart and soul,
our mind and body, and to beseech Him that He may hear our prayers and listen to our needs.
“The Spirit Himself asketh for us. . . . And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the
Spirit desireth.” Being pleased with these prayers made in the spirit of sonship, the Father benevolently
accepts the thanksgiving, adoration, devotion, and petitions of His child. It is for
this reason that our prayers, if they are offered in the spirit of sonship, are so valuable and
fruitful, and that the soul praying in this spirit will be able to draw many great graces from this
conversation with the Father.
No one is guided more accurately by the Spirit of God in his prayers than he who prays with
the Church. Guided by the Holy Ghost, the Church is the great ecclesia orans, the praying
Church. When we follow the leadership of the Church, there is less danger that we shall pray
according to our own intentions, which are often purely mundane and merely the expression
of our own spirit and mind. The more we are guided in our prayers by the Church, by her
prayers and religious ceremonies, by her needs and sentiments, the more we are guided by the
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