The power of prayer originates in God alone. We have this truth on the best of authority. “The Kingdom of God is within you,” declared our Blessed Lord. St Paul ratified this when he taught the early disciples in Corinth, “…Your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit that you received from God and lives within you” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Paul goes on to state that we don’t own ourselves; we belong to God, who alone creates purity of heart, if we allow Him to do so and ask nicely. (God is gentle and will not impose, without an invitation.)
The missionary work of authentic discipleship, like prayer, arises from a pure heart. While it is the unique combined ability to think, to pray, to create, and to control our instincts that makes us human beings, we habitually refuse these “worship aids.” St Paul recognized this reality when he wrote to the Romans 7:18-25: “The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” Such irrational proud self-sufficiency that blinds us to authentic prayer and the divine foundation of missionary discipleship!
The detour away from authentic prayer (from our bad attitude or just impatience, perhaps?) is when the progressive narrative of any marriage, family, center, parish, or Christian community addresses the challenge of discipleship with smug confidence: “How can I make this project go forward and grow in prosperity? How can I – yes, almighty me! – successfully teach children and other ignorant humans, who may not know their right hand from their left?” The great Carmelite doctor of the Church, St Teresa of Avila, cut through this lie of self-sufficiency when she taught her nuns that: “Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” How far, how very far, does this truth extend through all stages and in all relationships of a human life?
Simply, we are to be friends with the Reality of God, to remain in the Love of the Blessed Trinity, through Jesus Christ. The extension of this is the final command of our Divine Master: “Love one another.” We have the Magisterium and Sacraments of our Catholic Church to guide us in how to implement and connect us with the supernatural tradition, which is both ancient and ever new. We are not alone, not orphans. By their lifestyle on earth and intercession from heaven, the saints of past generations help us with both our life of prayer and missionary calling. Additionally, the holy angels, with their eternal emanation from the Blessed Trinity, pray with us and for us.
Prayer is most powerful (and most completely fused with Mission) when one becomes a living vessel of the Beatitudes (manifest in the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy). We pray for one another and with one another, in the Divine Wounds, through the love that is within us, on the condition that we remain in His love. Therein is the seed of the Word. The prayers of a catechist (or parent or friend) amounts to a cry of love for another: “Dear Lord, let him grow.” And for a family, centre, or parish: “Lord Jesus, be present among us and teach through us.”
Shortly before I came to Malta in 2013 to learn about the missionary apostolate of the Society of Christian Doctrine, I felt afraid. Needing guidance and hope on where to begin introducing St George Preca’s spirituality into the USA (where rugged self-sufficiency is considered a virtue and humility a weakness), I reached out to a trusted bishop with the question: “Do you think I can do this?” Faithful, true, and devoid of false optimism, his answer was like a lightning bolt: “No, you cannot. However, God working within you may be able to do so.” He gave me an enduring directive: “Pray constantly. Pray especially against self-deceit.” Later, in reading more deeply into the writings of St George Preca, I learned two central realities: “God does not need you” and “it is your intention that matters.” The divine superfluity continues and comforts, even in the face of shortcomings or even miserable flops!
Yet, needed or not, successful or failure, how lovely to be invited to be part of the Great Story, which recalls that nothing is lost or wasted with God. All human beings are invited to share in the freedom of the Christian gospel! Empowered by the mandate of love and accompanied by many prayers, we may even find the courage to receive the Love of Jesus Christ. Then, we can dare to hope that others will come to share with us – to learn and teach, to play and to live. “Let the little children come unto me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14).
Ruth D. Lasseter
SDC Associate
Indiana, USA
