The more you pray, God is \u2018more\u2019 God in you
\n\u201cBut when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.\u201d (Matthew 6,6)
\nDear friend, there\u2019s kind of a vicious circle that you may have already experienced: The less you pray, the less you feel like praying; and the less you feel like praying, the less you pray\u2026 And in that drift, it seems like God is moving away from us, and we no longer feel Him close. A coldness starts to invade the soul when we don\u2019t maintain regular contact with Him. Yet, He is always there; it\u2019s us who move away from Him, and we no longer feel His presence. Then, the emptiness that I feel in me, I try to fill it with multiple activities; so that I no longer have time to be alone, in intimacy, with the Lord. In other words, my personal prayer gets pushed aside.
\nAnd the opposite is true: the more I pray, the more God is God in me. Although, in truth, God doesn\u2019t change: He can\u2019t be more God or less God. He is always the same; He is immutable and unchangeably present in me.<\/p>\n
Dear friend, so that this apparent death of God in you does not happen, and to avoid falling into spiritual atrophy, I invite you right now to turn inward, to revitalize this so essential experience of God in you. For this, I exhort you to practice an exercise of intimate and silent prayer.
\nGather your whole being, release the tensions, the chatter and the noises of your mind, and try as much as possible to find silence, especially in your mind and in your heart. Become aware of the presence of God in you. Forget everything\u2026 feel peace\u2026 serenity\u2026 calm.<\/p>\n
Also ask for the intervention of the Holy Spirit, saying:
\nCome Holy Spirit. Sweet guest of the soul. Ignite in my heart the fire of your Love.
\nNow, go on saying with all your being, the following prayer, pausing to repeat the phrase with which you most identify:
\nDay after day, Lord of my life,
\nmay I remain before You,
\nface to face.
\nWith clasped hands, I will stay before You,
\nLord of all the worlds,
\nface to face.<\/p>\n
In this world that is yours,
\nIn the midst of the exhaustion,
\nof the turmoil, of the conflicts,
\nof the impassioned multiple,
\nI must remain before You,
\nface to face.<\/p>\n
And when my duty in this world
\nIs finished,
\nO King of Kings,
\nalone and in silence,
\nI will remain before You
\nface to face. Amen.<\/p>\n
Prayer \u201cFace to Face\u201d (E-65)<\/p>\n
Stay for a few minutes in silence, repeating short prayers or any other expression or short phrase that helps you remain quiet and, in the presence, \u2026
\nStart repeating softly, either out loud or in your mind, a short phrase or word that serves as a bridge. Repeat it rhythmically, using your breath to guide you \u2026 For example: \u201cBefore You, face to face,\u201d or \u201cMy God and my everything,\u201d or \u201cMy Lord and my God,\u201d or \u201cYou are everything\u201d or \u201cYou are with me\u201d \u2026 It should be short and preferably always the same. <\/p>\n
Remain in that stillness as long as you can, trying to experience the presence of God within you; in this way, you can recover the enchantment with God, which will lead you to regain the enchantment with life, and will also allow you to move away from the sense of an existential emptiness.<\/p>\n
You can finish with the following sentence that summarizes Psalm 139: <\/p>\n
Psalm 139 (138) is a journey inward, into oneself. It explains very well the experience of God. It is the Psalm of Contemplation. I invite you to read it slowly:<\/p>\n
LORD, you probe me, you know me:
\nI am before You at all times.
\nYou know my thoughts,
\nWhether I am at work or asleep.<\/p>\n
You know full well what I do,
\nYou are familiar with all my ways:
\nA word is not yet on my tongue,
\nbefore You Lord, know all about it.
\nYou fence me in, from behind and in front,
\nYou have laid your hand upon me,
\nas the air surrounds me, so You encircle me.
\nI believe Lord, although I cannot understand.
\nWhere can I go to escape your Spirit?
\nWhere can I flee from your gaze?
\nYou are everywhere,
\nat the edge of the horizon,
\nat the height of the mountain,
\nIn the depths of the sea.
\nI cannot hide from your gaze,
\nbecause darkness is not dark to You.
\nYour hand never leaves me for a moment.<\/p>\n
When I want to find You,
\nYou await me in my innermost self.
\nIt is You who gave me life,
\nand who knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb.
\nFrom before all time, You know me,
\nYou knew me through and through,
\nin your works, You were counting on me.
\nHelp me to feel your presence at every moment,
\nthat I may do what is pleasing to You,
\nand that your vision for my life might be accomplished<\/p>\n
Prayer \u201cYou Know Me\u201d (The Path-4)<\/p>\n
Finish this moment of intimacy with the Lord, little by little. Without too much hurry. Listening to this song will help you:<\/p>\n
Let us be silent, brothers, and let the Lord speak.
\nLet us be silent, brothers, and let silence return,
\nfor we have already lost the gift of listening.
\nAnd in this tumult of so many words,
\nwe are unable to hear God.
\nLet us be silent, brothers, and let the Lord speak. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The more you pray, God is \u2018more\u2019 God in you
\n\u201cBut when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.\u201d (Matthew 6,6)
\nDear friend, there\u2019s kind o…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-825","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":496,"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17048,"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/825\/revisions\/17048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.tovpil.org\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}