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The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer Life JPII General audience of April 17, 1991

The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer Life JPII General audience of April 17, 1991. The Act of Prayer by its very nature joins in a seamless marriage the Hebrew concepts of Spirit and Word. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer Life JPII General audience of April 17, 1991.

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The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer Life JPII General audience of April 17, 1991

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  1. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 The Act of Prayer by its very nature joins in a seamless marriage the Hebrew concepts of Spirit and Word

  2. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 We know that during his messianic activity Jesus often retired in solitude to pray, and that he spent entire nights in prayer (cf. Lk 6:12). For this prayer he preferred those deserted places which prepare one for conversation with God, who is responsive to the need and inclination of every spirit sensitive to the mystery of divine transcendence (cf. Mk 1:35; Lk 5:16). In the Old Testament Moses and Elijah acted in a similar way (cf. Ex 34:28; 1 Kgs 19:8). The book of the prophet Hosea enables us to see that deserted places have a particular inspiration to prayer. God "will lead [us] into the desert and speak to [our] heart" (cf. Hos 2:16).

  3. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 In our lives, as in the life of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is revealed as the Spirit of prayer. The Apostle Paul tells us this eloquently in a passage from the letter to the Galatians: "As proof that you are children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Gal 4:6). In some way, then, the Holy Spirit transfers into our hearts the prayer of the Son, who raises that cry to the Father.

  4. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Our prayer also expresses our "adoption as children," (cf. Rom 8:15). which has been granted to us in Christ and through Christ Prayer professes our faith to be conscious of the truth that "we are children" and "heirs of God," "coheirs with Christ.” Prayer allows us to live this supernatural reality because of the action of the Holy Spirit who "bears witness with our spirit" (cf. Rom 8:16-17).

  5. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Since the beginning of the Church the followers of Christ have lived in this same faith, which has also been expressed at the hour of death. We are familiar with the prayer of Stephen, the first martyr, a man "filled with the Holy Spirit." During his stoning, he gave proof of his particular union with Christ by exclaiming, as did his crucified Teacher, in reference to his executioners, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" And then, still at prayer, he looked intently at the glory of Christ standing "at the right hand of God" and cried out: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (cf. Acts 7:55-60). This prayer was a fruit of the Holy Spirit's action in the martyr's heart.

  6. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 One also finds the same interior inspiration of prayer in the acts of martyrdom of others who have confessed Christ. These confessions express a Christian consciousness formed in the school of the Gospel and the letters of the apostles that has become the consciousness of the Church herself.

  7. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Above all in the teaching of St. Paul, the Holy Spirit appears as the author of Christian prayer, first of all because he urges us to pray. He it is who begets in us especially at the time of temptation, the needs and the desire to obey that "watch and pray" recommended by Christ, because "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mt 26:41). An echo of this encouragement seems to resound in the exhortation of the Letter to the Ephesians: "With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end, be watchful with all perseverance...that speech may be given to me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel" (Eph 6:18-19).

  8. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Paul realizes that he is in the condition of those who need prayer to resist temptation and not to fall victim to their human weakness, and to face up to the mission to which they have been called. He always remembers and is sometimes dramatically aware of the charge given to him: to be a witness of Christ and the Gospel in the world, especially in the midst of pagans. And he knows that what he has been called to do and to say is also and primarily the work of the Spirit of truth, of whom Jesus has said: "He will take from what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:14).

  9. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 The Holy Spirit uses "the things of Christ" to "glorify him" through the missionary message. So it is only by entering into the sphere of Christ's relationship with his Spirit, in the mystery of unity with the Father, that one can accomplish a similar mission. The way to enter such a communion is prayer, stirred up in us by the Spirit.

  10. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 With particularly penetrating words, the Apostle shows in the Letter to the Romans how "the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings" (Rom 8:26). Paul hears similar groanings arising from the very depths of creation, which "awaiting with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God" in the hope of being "set free from slavery to corruption, is groaning in labor pains even until now" (Rom 8:19, 21-22).

  11. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Against this historical and spiritual backdrop, the Holy Spirit is at work: "The one who searches hearts [God] knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will" (Rom 8:27). We are at the most intimate and profound source of prayer. Paul explains to us and enables us to understand that the Holy Spirit not only urges us to pray, but he himself prays in us!

  12. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 The Holy Spirit is at the origin of the prayer which most perfectly reflects the relationship existing between the divine Persons of the Trinity: the prayer of glorification and thanksgiving, by which the Father is honored, and with him the Son and the Holy Spirit. This prayer was on the lips of the apostles on the day of Pentecost, when they announced "the mighty acts of God" (Acts 2:11). The same things happened in the case of the centurion Cornelius, when during Peter's discourse, those present received "the gift of the Holy Spirit" and "glorified God" (cf. Acts 10:45-47).

  13. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 St. Paul interprets this first Christian experience that became the common patrimony of the early Church. After expressing the desire that "the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Col 3:16), he exhorts the Christians to remain in prayer, "singing with gratitude in your hearts to God," teaching and admonishing one another with "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." And he asks them to transmit this prayerful style of life to whatever they do in word or in deed. "Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col 3:17).

  14. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 A similar recommendation is given in the Letter to the Ephesians: "Be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns... singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father" (Eph 5:18-20).

  15. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 This brings us back to the trinitarian dimension of Christian prayer according to the teaching and exhortation of the Apostle. One also sees how, according to the Apostle, it is the Holy Spirit who urges this sort of prayer and forms it in the human heart. The "prayer life" of the saints, the mystics, the schools and currents of spirituality which developed in the Christian centuries is in line with the experience of the primitive communities.

  16. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 The Church's liturgy is maintained along the same line, as appears, for example in the Gloria when we say: "We give you thanks for your great glory"; similarly in the Te Deum, we praise God and proclaim him Lord. In the prefaces, there is the invariable invitation: "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God," and the faithful are invited to give their response of assent and participation: "It is truly right and just." How beautiful it is to repeat with the praying Church, at the end of each psalm and on so many other occasions, the short, dense and splendid doxology of the Gloria Patri: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit...."

  17. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 The glorification of the Triune God, under the action of the Holy Spirit who prays in us and for us, occurs principally in the heart. But it is also translated into vocal praises from a need for personal expression and community association in celebrating the marvels of God. The soul which loves God expresses itself in words and easily in song, too, as has always happened in the Church, since the first Christian communities.

  18. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 St. Augustine informs us that "St. Ambrose introduced song into the Church of Milan" (cf. Confessions, 9, c. 7: PL 32,770). He remembers that he wept, hearing "the hymns and sweetly echoing songs of your Church, and was touched with profound emotion" (cf. Confessions, 9, c. 6: PL 32, 769).

  19. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Even sound can be of help in praising God, when instruments serve to "transport human feelings upward" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Expositio in Psalmos, 32, 2). This explains the value of songs and music in the Church's liturgy, inasmuch as "they serve to stir up feelings for God...with various melodies" (Summa Theol., II-II, q. 92, a. 2; cf. St. Augustine, Confessions, 10, c. 22: PL 32, 800).

  20. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 If liturgical norms are observed, one can also experience today what St. Augustine recalled in another passage of his Confessions (9, c. 4, n. 8): "What songs I raised to you, O my God, in reading the psalms of David, canticles of faith, the music of piety.... What songs I would raise to you in reading those psalms! How I was inflamed with love for you and with desire to recite them over the face of the whole world, if I could have...." All this happens when either individual souls or communities follow the intimate activity of the Holy Spirit.

  21. The Holy Spirit: Source of Prayer LifeJPII General audience of April 17, 1991 Come Holy Ghost Creator blest and in our hearts take up thy rest; Come with thy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which thou hast made, to fill the hearts which thou has made. O Comforter to thee we cry. Thou heavenly gift of God most High; Thou font of life and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above, and sweet anointing from above. O Holy Ghost, through thee alone, know we the Father and the Son; Be this our firm unchanging creed, that thou dost from them both proceed that thou dost from them both proceed. Praise we the Lord, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit with them one; And may the Son on us bestow All gifts that from the Spirit flow All gifts that from the Spirit flow.

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