Learning To Pray

"In prayer sometimes what you have to do is to show up and open the door." (Joel-Isaiah McIntyre)

Again on the fruit of peace.

Do everything out of love. Drop the idea of going after your own perfection.

Our Lady, espose of the Holy Spirit, as master of docility to the promptings of the paraclite.

A few ideas to take into account in order to evangelize following the promptings of the Holy Spirit: primacy goes to grace, creativity and simplicity.

Harmony.

Lights in our intellingence and promptings in our hearts.

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. the tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity." (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

"O most blessed light, fill the inmost heart of your faithful. Cleanse that which is unclean, water that which is dry, heal that which is wounded." (From the Sequence of the Holy Spirit).

Docility and humility.

"Don't speak: listen to Him." (St Josemaria's spiritual director.)

"We give to others not because we are better but because we have received first." (Joel-Isaiah McIntyre)

"Octave of all Saints – Tuesday – 8 November 1932: This morning, not yet an hour ago, my Fr Sanchez revealed to me ‘another Mediterranean.’ He told me: ‘Make friends with the Holy Spirit. Don’t speak: listen to him.’ And while I was praying on my way home from Leganitos, my prayer was both gentle and filled with light. And I saw how the life of childhood, by making me aware that I was a son of God...

“In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.” (St John of the Cross.)

"Grace breaks the chains of guilt, freeing us from the oppression of sin and allowing us to live victoriously in Christ." (St Augustine).

"I tell you something very beautiful: It is no longer me, it is Jesus himself who is looking at you in this moment, he is looking at you, He knows you, he knows the heart of each one of you, he knows the life of each one of you, he knows the joys, he knows the sadness, the successes and the failures. Jesus knows your hearts. He sees our hearts. And he tells you today here in Lisbon, on this World...

"Jesus, you are within me. I want to encounter you every day. You are a Person, you are not an idea; you are a travelling companion, you are not a programme. You are the love that solves many problems. You are the beginning of evangelization. You, Jesus, are the source of Joy!" (Pope Francis).

Why is it good to stick to a daily prayer plan?

"So also when He says, The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep, He is not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For He was able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart from Him, who Himself had said, Without me you can do nothing? But from the same source we can show what others also h...

Devotion to the Holy Spirit reveals itself as a key for evangelization.

There's no insurmountable obstacle on the road for true evangelizers.

Philip run up to the chariot and heard the eunuch reading Isaiah the prophet.

"You fulfill a demanding life plan: you get up early, you pray, you frequent the Sacraments, you work or study a lot, you are sober, you are mortified..., but you notice that something is missing! Bring this consideration to your dialogue with God: since holiness-the struggle to achieve it-is the fullness of charity, you must review your love for God and, through Him, for others. Perhaps you will...

"One form of prayer moves us particularly to take up the task of evangelization and to seek the good of others: it is the prayer of intercession. Let us peer for a moment into the heart of Saint Paul, to see what his prayer was like. It was full of people: “…I constantly pray with you in every one of my prayers for all of you… because I hold you in my heart” (Phil 1:4, 7). Here we see that interce...

"Dear brothers and sisters, let us start, and start anew, as Church, from the Holy Spirit … I leave you with this question: do I pray to the Spirit? Do I let myself be guided by Him?" (Pope Francis)