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Excerpts from:
The Meaning
of Prayer
By
Father John Hardon, S.J.
Read Entire Article on Catholic Education.org
There is nothing more profitable in which any human being can
engage than to pray. Prayer is conversation with the invisible world of God,
the angels and the saints. Conversation means that I wish to share with that
other person something of what I have--what is inside of me.
I literally turn toward the one with whom I wish to speak…the
words convert, conversion and conversation all have the same fundamental
meaning of redirection; a turning away from one thing, [self], and toward
something else[another person]…my intention is to bridge the gap that
separates me from another person…we become united mainly by what we share of
our own spirit with another person.
Prayer is no ordinary conversation. It is conversation with
the invisible world whose existence we can partially reason to [but] fully
know only by faith…without faith there is no prayer. When we pray to God we
are breaking in on the conversation among the persons of the Trinity.
God is the first and primary Being of the invisible world,
the angels are the second great beings with whom we are to communicate in
prayer,...the saints behold the face of God…they can help us as only those
who have reached their destiny can assist those -- that is us -- who are
still in such desperate need.
Read
Entire Article on Catholic Education.org |
