Prayer

To be true servants of God

in the full force of the word.

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God

First of all, we want to offer our best wishes to our good heavenly Father, whose feast it is today. May He find in each one of us a loving servant, in the full force of the word. This is our wish for You, good heavenly Father, our Creator to whom we owe everything. It is a duty for each one of us to accomplish all that You expect of us. Therefore, that will be my wish for this year for all of you, dear brothers and sisters: to become true servants of God in the full force of the word. What an immense wish! Our heavenly Father needs true servants. He could act alone, but He has decided otherwise: He wants to need human beings. In every era throughout history, He has had these servants in the person of the Saints. This little community of the latter times, prophesied by so many Saints throughout the ages, must be made up of true servants of God, real Saints. Well, my brothers and sisters, I wish that this may be the case, that our heavenly Father may have the immense joy of finding souls among us that are totally given, ready for everything for Him. That is the summary of sanctity. May our good heavenly Father find souls among us who are ready to follow, as fully as possible, the teachings of His Son, Jesus, the Incarnate Word. We must — and I insist on it, my brothers and sisters — we must be these servants of God. I also make this wish for all of Christianity. For all Christians, I wish that they may come as close as possible to the Gospel Truth, that they may accomplish what God is expecting of them.

How can we attain it?

You may wonder, “How can I become that servant of God?” Well, I will simply give you the answer of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus says: Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened. These are the words of Jesus Himself. That will be the watchword for this year. One word: Prayer! May this year be a year of prayer. Concerning the year that is beginning, we have just sung, “And not a moment lost, not an hour profaned will tarnish its course.” Do you want there to be not a moment lost during the course of this year? Pray! Let us pray! It is in prayer that God forms His servants. The person in prayer is in contact with God. His prayer comes from a heart that acknowledges and realizes to what point it has an urgent need, a pressing necessity of God’s help. Without Me, you can do nothing, says the Gospel. Without God’s help, we cannot achieve anything worthwhile and durable. And God Himself has promised that He will grant what we ask of Him. Many of you will recall that at a given moment, Our Lady of Tears asked us for special prayers. She had us multiply them often. This year we are going to multiply our prayers. And right away, I will hasten to tell you again what Our Lady of Tears said to us: “My children, do it not out of duty, but out of love.” Out of love, because great goods are attached to it. Jesus says to us: Who among you, if his son asks him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? Therefore, if you, evil as you are, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the good spirit and all good things to those who ask Him? For the year 2013 which just ended, the watchword was docility, attention to the Holy Spirit. This year’s watchword practically amounts to the same thing. Let us remain in contact with God as much as possible; that is what prayer is! Let us ask God for all sorts of good things. Let us ask Him to form a new heart in us. We are naturally cowardly, selfish, full of self-love, sensual, gluttonous, lazy. We love independence, but we do not like to obey, submit, render accounts. Our heart is easily rebellious and often very petty. Let us ask God for a new heart, a heart that loves the things of God, a heart that loves His virtues, a heart that desires the good Spirit and all these good things that will make us true servants of God. Prayer is not anything complicated. When the Apostles asked Jesus, “Teach us how to pray,” Jesus answered by teaching them the very beautiful prayer of the Our Father.

Perseverance in prayer

In chapter 18 of Saint Luke, Jesus presents a fine illustration of the power of perseverance with the example of a poor widow asking an iniquitous judge to render her justice against her adversaries. For a long time that judge refused to hear her, not wanting to be bothered. But the humble woman insisted and entreated so much and so well that finally — not out of love or thoughtfulness, but a little out of selfishness, to have peace, to get rid of that lady — the judge rendered her justice. And Jesus adds: And God will not avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night? And He will be slow to help them? God your Father would not be attentive to your request? I assure you, He will avenge them promptly. Promptly — according to God’s promptitude, for God has time ahead of Him. But our God knows how our heart is made. He knows that the human heart normally appreciates what it has long desired, long requested. People have less of an appreciation for things that are obtained too quickly. We take them for granted, they are owed to us, whereas the good things of God are immense. That is why He wants us to ask for them with so many supplications. If we say to ourselves, “I asked for those virtues, and I did not receive them,” my brothers and sisters, let us watch our tongue, because the word of God is infallible: Everyone who asks, receives! If we do not receive, perhaps it is because we did not sufficiently ask. Or because we did not ask in the good and necessary dispositions of humility, faith, confidence, perseverance and abandonment. Perhaps in making our request we gave up too quickly; we want to obtain it with just a snap of the fingers.

Not a matter of taste

So many Saints prayed for years in aridity, without any consolation. If they had waited to have the taste for prayer before they prayed, they would never have become Saints. It seemed that God was not hearing their prayers, but they persevered, with their will and especially out of love. They prayed with all the fervor of their will, but without feeling any sweetness or consolation. They persevered. Did you ever notice that when someone says, “We’re going to go and pray,” a strange sort of phenomenon occurs! Could the devil have something to do with it? This phenomenon is very widespread among humans in general: someone just has to say, “We’re going to pray,” and suddenly a kind of lassitude overcomes just about everyone. Perhaps I would not use the word “distaste,” but sometimes it is not very far removed. With many people, one only has to tell them, “We’re going to go and pray,” and other ideas immediately come to mind. There are other things, more important things to do, more pressing matters, more interesting occupations that come to mind. Is it not so, my brothers and sisters, is it not so that this is quite common in the hearts of men, if we were to be really honest about it? As long as we will not have acquired the love and the taste for prayer, that is how it will be. And that taste for prayer is a gift of God, a grace He grants according to the soul’s efforts, and also at His hour. Often, I tell you, the first steps are the hardest. Jesus told us, “I will come to crown your efforts.” My brothers and sisters, there is an effort to be made. Sometimes we get the impression that we are a little like strangers with God. We know He is there, but we feel a little like strangers, or we feel that He is a stranger with us. Even so, we must continue, still continue to pray. You are sad, you are despondent, you have no taste for it; you are weary, almost discouraged: pray! Do not diminish your prayer. Do not stop; on the contrary, increase your prayer. This is not the time to stop. It is at such moments that you need prayer the most. We always need it, but it is in periods of despondency more than ever that we need God’s help. You are weak, you are in need of all kinds of good things, especially spiritual things. We need the good spirit, as Jesus says in the Gospel. Sometimes we feel that we do not have the good spirit, that our spirit is a bit distorted. The evil spirit is after us... It happens to everyone. What must we do? Pray, pray until God lets Himself be touched. You are without virtue; you feel that you have no heart, no love, no humility; you feel that you are not given to God. You see that there is an immense quantity of virtues and gifts that you do not have. Pray! Pray! Ask, and you shall receive. And, my brothers and sisters, you will receive the good spirit and all sorts of good things. But not from one day to the next. It is very rare that God acts this way. It is not His usual manner of proceeding. Little by little, often unbeknown to us, He transforms the soul that prays to Him. When we pray to Him, He gives us the occasion to practice the virtue we are asking Him for. We ask for patience? He gives us the occasion to practice patience. He comes to try our patience. We ask Him to love suffering? He sends us little things to suffer. But at the same time, as Saint Paul says, He gives us what we need to bear the trial. He gives the occasion to practice a particular virtue, and at the same time He gives a very special, very efficacious grace. That is how He listens to our prayers. And if we correspond to grace, He gives another grace that will perhaps be another trial. And through all that, He grants joys to the soul, according to His Word: Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Divine joy

God gives joy when we make the effort, when we want to and when we apply ourselves to pray and to please Him. You see, here in the Community since Christmas, we have applied ourselves to multiplying Christmas hymns in our recreations. We have multiplied hours of singing Christmas hymns and contemplating this beautiful, great mystery of the Nativity: the God-Man who made Himself a little Child. When we started singing, perhaps we said to ourselves, “Oh, don’t tell me we’re going to spend the Christmas Season singing hymns. A few hours in the chapel on Christmas Day is fine, but not entire evenings! We’ve got to have a little fun too.” We have a hint of pagan mentality that surfaces. But isn’t it true, my brothers and sisters, isn’t it true that after that first effort, after we had really applied ourselves very simply to singing our hymns in prayer, isn’t it true that you experienced joy? Isn’t it true that you felt the presence of God? Isn’t it true that you felt your heart warming up, like the disciples of Emmaus who walked with Jesus without having recognized Him? They thought they were with a stranger, but they were in the company of Jesus, God Himself. And their hearts did not lie, their hearts were totally rekindled. My brothers and sisters, that is how it happens. There is an effort that costs something. And in His love, in His infinite mercy, God comes to crown our efforts and He gives us joy. He promised that He would: Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. That is Jesus’ infallible promise. Look at athletes who want to become champions in all sorts of sports, look at the discipline to which they subject themselves! What efforts, countless hours and years of training! And for what? To win a medal — a little human, very short-lived glory. And yet, if they win the victory, you see them in total euphoria. But what will remain of all that? What will remain of it for eternity, and often even in this world? It is the same thing for people who have the ambition of making a mark for themselves in a liberal career: doctor, lawyer, engineer, computer scientist, etc. If they really want to distinguish themselves, make a name for themselves, these young students must set aside many pleasures, give priority to their studies and research, impose a rule of life on themselves. Eventually, once they succeed, they will be very proud of themselves, proud of their reputation as a brilliant professional. A human joy crowns their efforts. My brothers and sisters, that is not how you will feel the joy that God promises. It is on a totally different level. It is a joy that you will not be able to express, but that you will experience if you make your effort, if you enter into prayer. But real prayer! Not a little prayer just to get it over with, because you do not have the choice. “It’s time and I have to do it. And if I can arrive as late as possible, all the better...” No! We must become souls of prayer, and God will give us joy. The example I gave you of athletes and professionals is terribly lame, because the joys God gives cannot be compared to these conceited joys that our pride makes us feel. There is really no comparison; it does not work, it does not hold up. To be humiliated, for example. How can anyone feel joy over being humiliated, over suffering? Nevertheless, as Saint Paul says, I overflow with joy in all my troubles. How can that be? He was a man united to God, a soul of prayer. If you are souls of prayer, my brothers and sisters, you will taste joy. But you must not give up. At Pontmain, the Blessed Virgin said to the little children, “Pray, pray, My children, My Son is letting Himself be touched.” This meant: Continue, do not stop, My Son is about to let Himself be touched; but if you stop praying, He will not let Himself be touched. We say, “Fine, I gave my measure; I have been praying for a week, a month, a year...” What limits can we set for God? You will recall the siege of Bethulia, with Judith. We do not set limits for God. We turn to God with confidence and we pray and pray, and God lets Himself be touched. If Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Son of that Virgin of Pontmain, let Himself be touched for a war... A war! — which is very painful for bodies, but as far as God is concerned, it is just a war — how much more will He let Himself be touched when His child prays to Him with tears: “O Lord, give me Your good things, give me your Spirit and these virtues that I desire because You want me to practice them. I desire them so that I may resemble Your Son.” How much more will He let Himself be touched. But we must persevere.

Not only out of self-interest

We mentioned war... When there are physical sufferings, cataclysms like the recent ones all over the world, it seems that some of those touched more immediately by these sufferings think of getting down on their knees and asking God for help. Not all, but many begin to pray. My brothers and sisters, let this not be our case. God must not be obliged to drive us to our knees, practically reduced to praying out of duty, out of necessity, because if we do not have recourse to God, we are finished, humanly speaking. It must not reach that point. It is a little for this reason that this year I am making the first move. Let us make this year a year of prayer to let our heavenly Father know that “yes,” if He wants to make us suffer, we accept. But that is not the reason we enter into prayer. It is not out of fear of the rod; it is not because we are afraid to see the ground split open and swallow us up. It is not because we are afraid of an earthquake or a war. No! It is because we want the good things that He has promised us as a result of prayer. That is why we enter into prayer. That is the idea of this year’s watchword. It is not to wait for the rod to strike, and then we fall on our knees. No, no! That is not the watchword for this year. Of course, it will ward off many things. That is the bonus. Many things will be avoided if you fulfill this watchword. But that is not the reason for it. And if you hear forecasts of all sorts of sufferings, pray for those intentions. But let that not be the first goal of your prayer. The first goal is to obtain the good things that Jesus has promised us: His Spirit and all His goods, His virtues. That is why we want to multiply our prayers this year. Each one of you, my brothers and sisters, that is the reason for which you are willing to adopt this watchword, which should be not only for this year, but your watchword for life, and which eventually should be the watchword for all of Christianity. Seeing you, inspired by the way prayer permeates you, Christians and non-Christians alike will want to enter into prayer themselves, want to turn to God. They will see the benefits, the beauties of prayer made not out of duty but out of love. They will see it, and their heart will be touched. And just seeing it, being the witnesses of it, already their hearts will be rekindled and they will want to do it. To that end, my brothers and sisters, we must enter into prayer with love. Such prayer will transform us, because there are still a few little things that have to be transformed in us. I eagerly anticipate, already with satisfaction and pleasure, the application you will put into it, because many good things depend on it. These good things that Jesus speaks of in the Gospel will make us true servants of God, and that will give our brothers and sisters of the earth the taste for prayer themselves. Prayer will transform us and will transform the world. Prayer!

The prayer of the Saints

My brothers and sisters, this year, and even starting this very day, you might also try to picture with your mind, with your heart and a little with your imagination — not too much with your imagination, but with your mind and heart — how the Saints prayed. Imagine Saint Francis of Assisi. We have his chapel here on the mountain, which Jesus Himself called “the Holy of holies.” Saint Francis really has a post of honor on our domain, on the mountain. Try to imagine the prayer of Saint Francis, a little man without very much talent. He was no orator. How did he pray? How did he withdraw and unite himself to God with simplicity to ask God to truly love Him? How did he ask God to be totally detached from the earth? How did he ask that God be truly all for him? And how did he ask Him for love of neighbor, in which he truly excelled? Saint Francis’ brothers cherished him despite all his quirks. How did he ask God for these gifts, these good things? What must have been his humble prayer: humble, suppliant, confident, perseverant, constant, unwearying, always revived day and night, during his waking moments in bed, as the Psalmist King David said: “Day and night upon my couch, my soul pours itself out continually before God.” That is how Saint Francis of Assisi prayed. Imagine the application and love with which the holy hermit Saint Charbel Makhlouf and Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, two of the greatest Saints of our time, must have prayed. When Thérèse was alone in her room suffering from the cold, do you think she was just thinking about how cold she was and feeling sorry for herself? And do you think she was remembering: “The sisters said this or that today. They talked about me and did not notice how much I practiced charity; they didn’t see that.” Her mind and heart were totally oriented toward Jesus, not her little person. And Saint Charbel Makhlouf, a priest whose only ministry was with the dying, when his superior and all his brothers forgot him for three days in the field during the harvest, do you think his prayer was: “What is my superior thinking? I have been here two days and two nights. And my brothers, are they blind, or are they heartless?” No, he continued peacefully in prayer, seeing the Hand of God in that trial. And the prayer of Saint Joseph in his trials, with his Spouse who was going to give birth. He did not yet know the ineffable mystery of the miraculous Incarnation of Jesus by the operation of the Holy Spirit. What was his prayer to God then? “Lord, what must I do? Should I speak? Should I intervene? Should I talk to Her, should I tell it to the priests? My Lord and my God, what should I do?” What a sorrowful prayer, without an answer for weeks, in extreme suffering! And afterwards, what must have been his prayer of love! In the Magnificat magazine we published: “Jesus, Mary, I love You.” How must Saint Joseph have said it? “Jesus, Mary, I love You.” And when his lips did not say “Jesus, Mary,” his heart said it, and Jesus and Mary sensed it. His heart said to them, “Jesus, Mary, I love You.” What was his prayer, his attention to God, his entreaty to be faithful to the mandate that God had given him? “Lord, how can I be faithful to what You are asking of me? I could so easily fail, get things wrong, make mistakes.” And the prayer of the Blessed Virgin! When the Angel came to announce the Incarnation to Her, She was in prayer. Our Blessed Mother was always in prayer. What must have been the prayer of the Blessed Virgin? What must have been the prayer of Jesus? At every moment in the Gospel we see Him withdrawing to pray. It was to give us the example. But what must have been His prayer in the name of all humanity, before His Father? That prayer, magnanimous beyond compare, loving beyond compare, self-forgetful beyond compare... He did not think of Himself, He did not need prayer; it was for us, His children to come. What must have been the prayer of Jesus — as a little baby in the Manger, and growing up at Nazareth, and during His public life when He withdrew at night? Think about it yourself. Think about it, and try to imagine what such a prayer must have been like. And, my brothers and sisters, unite yourselves to that prayer, enter into that prayer, and God will answer you and give you joy. You can be certain of it. He will give it to you. He will let Himself be touched. When we neglect prayer — all humans experience this — we become lukewarm, we become weak, we have no more strength, we become cowardly. We have no more courage, no more fervor. We no longer have a taste for the things of God. We don’t feel like doing anything anymore. All our good desires gradually slip away and evil gets the upper hand, because we have abandoned prayer. And we must strike our breast over it. What then is the remedy for this? It is to enter into prayer, to start right away, as soon as we become aware of it, and not say “later.” Start right away, no matter what the context, what the situation, what the company. We can enter into prayer in any situation. In our heart we turn to God and pray, and entreat Him without letup. Prayer is the infallible remedy for all our faults, the infallible remedy for all our shortcomings; it is the infallible remedy, by the promise of God Himself, by the promise of Jesus, who has promised us all sorts of good things. We can pray continually. Our God is always attentive. Imagine if to put in a request, a prayer to God our Father, we had to make an appointment to obtain an audience with Him. And that it be each one in turn, not everyone at the same time. Let us say God would be very limited, which is not the case. His gifts are not limited, but He had decided that He would hear one prayer at a time. How would we act to obtain that audience, that moment of favor with God? That moment when He will listen to me, just me. My prayer will have to be really good for me not to miss my chance; I must absolutely obtain what I ask of Him, and I have one chance. The next time might be in a month, six months. What would my prayer be like? And to think that we can pray as often as we like. If it were like that, we would all be standing in line, one after the other, to have our turn. We would be waiting to have our turn to speak to God, to make our prayer to Him. But you know, it is precisely the contrary. It is God who is waiting. He is there, and He awaits the prayer of His child. The roles are reversed. My brothers and sisters, let us realize this, and let our heart be confounded with love and embarrassment. “Good Lord, is it possible? I, Your creature, am making You wait?” God is waiting. He is ready to listen to us all the time, any moment at all. He is present all the time, not in a manner that is felt. I agree with you; you will not feel Him! But He is there. We know this by faith. He is there, He is waiting for us all the time. It is up to us to profit from it. And when you pray to Him, when you go to speak to Him, He is with you alone, as if you were the only person in the world. That is what our God is like! So, my brothers, this is the watchword I give you for this year: Prayer. We will speak about it again. This year, may we become souls of prayer, may prayer be on the increase among us and, I repeat, as Our Lady of Tears said to us so many times: may our prayer be not out of duty but out of love. Let us multiply with love the times strictly consecrated to prayer. And between those moments, may our heart, our soul be in prayer. Unceasing prayer, the love of prayer, is a gift of God. Let us ask Jesus that in His infinite Mercy, He may grant us this gift upon seeing our constant and sincere efforts. My brothers and sisters, I think that each one of us has an immense desire for the mercy of God, both for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters of the earth. Let us ask for it. Let us pray, let us pray! That is the watchword for this year. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.