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The Time After Pentecost
(Introit). Genuine and humble prayer is always accepted by God. “He that humbleth himself
shall be exalted” (Gospel). Such is a fundamental law of the spiritual life. The word of the Baptist
will always be true: “He must increase, but I must decrease” ( Jn 3:30). In the measure we go
outside of ourselves in prayer, God enters into our souls, filling us with His gifts and graces.
The more we renounce ourselves in prayer, the more we grow in love for God. The more we
decrease, the more He increases within us until that day when, humility and self-renunciation
having become perfect, everything we are is from God and for God. Genuine prayer enlarges
our hearts, enabling us to receive all the gifts of God, even God Himself. When He is within
us, He will be also for us; and “if God be for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31.) “When I cried
to the Lord, He heard my voice, from them that draw near to me; and He humbled them, who
is before all ages, and remains forever” (Introit).
The publican prayed and went down to his house justified. Such is the power of genuine, humble
prayer. We experience this power of prayer all the more intimately when we unite our prayers
with those of the praying Church. Through liturgical prayers we increase our power, we renounce
our individuality and enter into communion with the praying Church. “To Thee, O Lord, have
I lifted up my soul” in union with the praying Church. Then it can be truly said of us: “This man
went down to his house justified.”
We shall pray well and fruitfully to the extent to which we humbly forget ourselves and
renounce our own will and desires. Sometimes we feel unhappy if we do not obtain what we
desire and pray for. It is our pride and self-will that is wounded. Our prayer, however, will be all
the better and more efficacious the more humbly we acknowledge our failures and our weakness
and let the Lord direct our ways as He pleases. Only of the man who sincerely prays with
humility did the Lord say: “This man went down to his house justified.”
Prayer
O God, who dost manifest Thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; increase
Thy mercy towards us, that we, seeking the way of Thy promises, may be made partakers of Thy
heavenly treasures. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
“To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul; in Thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be
ashamed” (Offertory). “When I cried to the Lord, He heard my voice” (Introit). The Church
believes that God graciously hears her prayers. Knowing the power and the value of prayer, she
prays full of confidence in the Lord; she prays through Him in a humble way.
The Church prays full of confidence in the Lord. Having paid for our guilt through His life
and death, our Lord has rendered the most perfect satisfaction to the Father, thus meriting
all the graces necessary for our salvation. In heaven and in the tabernacle He unceasingly
implores the Father for us. The Church knows that she is too weak of herself, for many of her
children are still subject to sin and unable to do good works without the help of God. For
this reason she feels all the more obliged to call upon the satisfaction, merits, and prayers of
the Lord. “I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me” (Phil 4:13). Daily and without
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