13. The melody of prayer
In the forest
Angela is very
joyful and happy today. She has gone for a walk in the beautiful forest which
is near their home with her mum and little Joseph.
The sunbeams which
are shining through the dense foliage of the trees, the small river which is passing
by merrily close to them, the cheerful chirping of the birds which are flying happily
from tree to tree and the many flowers that adorn the surrounding plains, make
a beautiful natural painting.
Mum Sofia is
sitting under the shade of a very tall tree and reading a book.
Sometimes, she
stops reading and raises her eyes to the chatty birds which are stirring up the
whole forest with their melodious voices.
From her lips words
of gratitude go to her beloved God who adorned His creation with such beauty. Like
the little birds she is also singing, from the depths of her heart, loving
hymns of praise, devotion, faith and worship to Him who is for her the sweet
and affectionate heavenly God the Father.
Sometimes she cannot
bear her great love for her beloved king God and hot tears of worship like
pearls are flowing down her cheeks. She is imagining that she is lost in His
Fatherly embrace, with her hands around the divine neck of her King and there,
like a carefree child is enjoying His affectionate heavenly love.
Her heart would
like to say many loving prayers, but when she is feeling like a little girl
hidden in the motherly embrace of God the Father, she cannot express any words
and tells Him silently only "I love You".
If
someone could see the angels of heaven, they would be
wondering what was happening at that time; he would see the angels stop their
own angelic melody in order to admire the wonderful human melody of love that
some souls, divinely in love with
their God the Father, pour out like perfume throughout heaven.
Angela with her brother picks
many flowers; anemones, yellow and white daisies and makes them into a big
bouquet.
When she finished the nice
bouquet of flowers she comes joyfully to offer it to her mum.
Sophia cannot hide her joy with
the children’s nice present and, after she first thanked them in such a sweet
way that only mummies know how to, then she took both her children into her
arms to cover them with motherly kisses.
She embraces them so tenderly
and affectionately so that both her children happily enjoy such motherly warmth
of love. Her love for them and the gratitude she is feeling to her heavenly God
the Father for all He has granted her till now, make her unable to hold back
two tears of joy and happiness.
The melody of the heart
Mum Sophia’s tears are flowing down her cheeks on to little
Angela’s head, who is raising her eyes up with uncertainty to see from where
these two dew drops came. With great surprise she discovers that tears were
flowing from her mum’s eyes and that’s why she is asking her in amazement:
-Why are you crying mum, are you sad?
-I am not crying, my little girl, from sorrow but from
great joy and happiness! I am so happy that I am holding my treasures, you and
your brother, in my arms! I am also happy that I can enjoy this wonderful
creation of our good God.
But my greatest joy and happiness, my Angela, is what
my soul feels, knowing that we are children of the most sweet and affectionate
Father, who is our good God.
This happiness makes me weep and tell Him through the
depths of my heart many times, "I
love You" and "I thank You."
-I also want, mum, to say to our good God, "I
love You" and "I thank You" for all He has given us!
-Always say these two words to our God, my Angela. These two words express the soul’s love and
gratitude to our heavenly Father, therefore this is the sweetest melody that a
soul can give to the creator God. It is the only prayer that pleases Him
completely and makes Him fill the soul with many blessings.
-Don’t we thank Him with the other prayers that we
say?
-All prayers, my child, when they are said with
childish simplicity, love and respect for our heavenly Father, give Him joy and
happiness. Our God the Father is like us your parents. He rejoices every time
we enter into His arms as little children and tell Him with simplicity whatever
we have in our hearts.
-Can we tell Him in our prayers the good and the bad
things we commit?
-Of course, my baby. Whatever a child can tell his mum
and dad, he can say exactly the same to his God the Father. If we, your
parents, my Angela, love you a thousand times, our good God loves you infinitely. There is no earthly measuring
device with which someone can measure the magnitude of love that He has for all
His creatures. His love is like the endless sky and His affection like the hot
sun. Therefore He rejoices every time we speak to Him through our prayers, our
thoughts, our desires and all our dreams. He likes it when we tell Him whatever
we have in our hearts and when we ask His blessing and help. So we give Him the
right to intervene in our lives and lead our souls according to His will. However, when we pray we must have absolute
faith and trust in God our Father, so that He hears us and He will give our
soul whatever it needs at the right time that He as God knows.
The path of holiness
-Once you told me, mum, that prayer is a very
great gift of God to man. Why?
-Because through it man can speak with the Creator of
the whole world as a child speaks to his mum and dad. My child it is a
wonderful and unique gift that our good God gave to man so that we, as humans, are
able to speak and express with our words the various feelings and desires of
our soul. In all of creation no other creature, except man, has this
possibility of communication by speech. So with this wonderful gift our Creator
wants us to speak to Him, to express our love and to tell Him our joys, our
anxieties, our worries, our dreams, our spiritual struggles, our various
weaknesses but also the mistakes which we commit and pollute our souls. So, this possibility that we have to speak
to God, we call prayer. With the gift of prayer, sometimes we ask His
blessing to achieve something good, and other times when we make Him sad with
the mistakes we commit, we apologize to Him so that He forgives us and cleanses
our soul from the filth of sin.
-Then, the gift of prayer is really wonderful!
-It is wonderful, my Angela, not only because through
it we can speak to our Creator but also because it helps us to unite with Him
through our words of love and adoration for Him.
-How is this, mum?
-In prayer, my little girl, all of us can tell and ask
Him whatever we want. Don’t you do the same with your parents? Doesn’t it give
you pleasure to tell us what's on your mind and in your heart?
-Yes, mum.
-However, there is also something else when you speak
to us, not only do you feel happy, but you also make us very happy.
-What is it that I say that makes you so happy?
-Well, when you enter into our embrace and tell us
that you love us so much, from the earth till to the sky! Then, my little girl,
you cannot understand how much happiness floods the heart of your mummy and
your daddy with those words of your love! You can make us happy every time you
come close to us to tell us what makes you happy and what displeases you, but
when you are enclosed in our arms and tell us how much you love us and adore
us, then our heart flutters from unspeakable joy and happiness. Then we hold
you tighter in our arms and hide you even deeper in our hearts. It is then that
I and your dad feel that we are one with you in the mystery of infinite love
and adoration.
-Mum, does our good God have the same feeling,
whenever I tell Him that I love Him?
-Yes, my Angela! Whenever you tell Him that you love
and worship Him, He takes you into His fatherly arms, not only to cover you
with divine kisses but with something more precious and unique.
-With what, mum?
-With the grace of the Holy Spirit, which floods your
soul and turns it slowly, slowly into a furnace of divine love? If you continue
to love Him, to trust Him and to obey His divine Will, then He will flood you
more and more with the Holy Spirit and will lead you through the paths of
virtue into the high mountain peaks of holiness. That’s why the Church, my
child, uses prayer as the path of holiness, since through it all who love God are
sanctified.
A Prayer from God
-Μum,
which prayer does our God most prefer us to say?
-God rejoices and listens attentively to all the
prayers people say. But there is a prayer which has been taught to us by our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself and therefore it is called the Lord's Prayer; “Our
Father…”. He taught it for the first time to the holy disciples, when they
begged Him to tell them how to pray. This prayer should be said daily by all
Christians but preferably many times in a day. Although it is a short prayer,
it includes everything we should ask from God and also what we need to do to
please our Lord. I have already spoken to you about this prayer in the past.
However, as long as we will follow the path of God's love, so the Holy Spirit
will help us to understand the deeper meanings which it contains.
-Mum, can you explain it to me once more so that I
understand it even better?
-Of course, my little girl. In addition, whenever I
say it and I understand the divine secrets which are hidden in it I feel more
and more joy in my heart. That’s why I want you to know the deep meanings so
that you also say it attentively and devoutly. This prayer has so much power
that it can transform you into an eagle of God who will fly high up to the
mountaintops of holiness. But I want, before I start explaining it, to say it
together first.
-"Our
Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. "
-What are, my Angela, the first words of the prayer?
-Our Father, mum.
-These words “our Father" are the key to the understanding of this
prayer. God, to whom we are now going to speak through prayer, is not only the
Creator of the whole world but also the natural Father of our souls. We are His
own beloved children and He rejoices every time we speak to Him through our
prayer. But most of all He is pleased when we sanctify our souls with our good
and virtuous life and so we show everyone that we are His royal children. Then
His holy Name is glorified among people by watching us live as polite royal
children, worthy of the great King God our Father. Each time we call Him
"our Father" His divine heart will beat joyfully and happily.
-From now on, mum, every time I pray, I will start like this: "My
sweet Father"!
-And then, my Angela, He will answer you: "My sweet little girl, my
little princess, I am preparing the greatest gift for you "!
-What kind of gift does He want to give me?
-What you ask Him for next in your prayer saying, "Thy kingdom
come."
It's the most precious thing our good God can give to those who love Him
with all their heart and make Him King of their lives. It is the Holy Spirit of absolute joy, peace and happiness that
transforms a simple soul into a royal throne of Almighty God. When the Holy
Spirit floods a soul, it is turning into a volcano of love.
Then the divine love which is pouring out from it like lava, is like a
fire inside this sanctified being and the soul lives a happiness and pleasure
that it is difficult to be described by man’s mind. That is what the martyrs of
our Christ were living and therefore could suffer with patience all the
terrible tortures which the pagans imposed on them.
The spirit of love
-What should we do in order to bring the Holy Spirit
into our soul? How should we live?
-We should live, my Angela, according to His Will
which is the spirit of love, as it is taught by our Lord in His holy Gospel.
That’s why in the next phrase of the prayer, we beg our Lord to help us to
carry out His holy Will in our lives: "Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven".
As the angels in heaven apply it, so we His earthly angels who live here on
earth, should also apply it.
-Mum, what does it mean to live with the spirit of
love?
-It means, my child, to love each other and to behave
in such a way so that we don’t cause sadness and
sorrow to our fellowman. With love, you treat everyone with respect and
spiritual kindness. You shouldn’t provoke anyone with jealousy, anger, envy,
slander, hate and other malice which the evil Satan puts deviously into
our mind and heart. For each person the
spirit of love should be the necessary spiritual food with which he will feed
his soul on a daily basis. As our body is not able to live without its
necessary food, so also the soul cannot survive without the necessary spiritual
food of love. The spirit of love is the
spiritual bread that we should beg our Lord to give us with our daily food.
-Is that why mum we pray next "Give us this day our daily
bread"?
-Yes, my Angela. Our Lord wants us to ask in our prayer
not only for the food of the body but also for the soul. Besides, what would be
the point of struggling to feed only our mortal body which after death will
become soil and will be lost, while we have condemned our intangible and indestructible soul
with spiritual starvation? Isn’t it foolish to take care of whatever has not so
much value and to neglect what has eternal value? The spiritual food of love is
necessary because without it the spiritual death of the soul occurs. So you can
understand why our well-beloved Lord asks us not to hold grudges and hate in
our hearts for any man and to forgive anyone who hurts us. Indeed, it is so
important for Him, that He emphasizes to us that if we want to be forgiven by
Him for all our mistakes we commit, we must first forgive those who hurt us.
Did you understand why after the phrase of the prayer "Give us this day our daily
bread ",
He immediately adds "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us"?
-Yes, mum. I understand that if we want Christ to live
in our heart we must not allow evil thoughts in our heart against any man.
-What you say, my Angela, is the basis of love that
our Christ taught us and what Satan hates the most. That’s why the greatest war
he makes against people is to tempt them with the terrible passions of hate,
jealousy, envy, resentment, slander and others, with which he can easily
destroy the spirit of love and send the Holy Spirit and our good God away from
our hearts.
-Wow,
mummy, what cunning ways Satan uses to bring misery to our soul! I will say the
"Lord’s prayer" many times a day and I will beg our good God not to
allow the evil Satan to tempt my soul but to send him way.
A wonderful prayer
-Except for this wonderful prayer "Our Father
..." I will also teach you, my Angela, another one equally nice which I
was taught by my spiritual father. It is a prayer that includes everything a
soul could wish for, who wants to love our well-beloved Lord very much and to
live in absolute love, trust and obedience to His holy Will.
-Can you tell me it now mum?
-I will tell you it and then I will analyze some of
the great meanings which are hidden in it:
God of my heart and of endless love,
My Heavenly Father,
make my heart worthy to become one
with Your Merciful heart,
so that I can truly love You, worship You,
and have mercy towards all people throughout the world.
Flood my soul with Your divine love and help me to become worthy
of reciprocate this great love to You in the best way I can.
It’s You that I recognize as my heart’s only King
and I dedicate my soul to Your only begotten Son Jesus,
our beloved holy Infant and wounded King.
Accept me in Your fatherly arms
and hide me there deep in Your motherly heart.
Send me your holy angels to guard
my body, my soul and my heart
and secretly teach me the absolute adoration,
trust and obedience to Your holy Will,
in order to never hurt You again.
I’m also begging Your beloved daughter
and Queen of heaven and earth,
our holy Mother Mariam, to keep me under her tender protection
and teach me how I can ceaselessly love You like a child.
I believe in You, I worship You
and I love You,
I am Your humble child who struggles on earth
and has a strong longing to be found again
in Υour embrace for the whole of eternity. Amen.
-It is very nice mum! The most beautiful of all that I
have heard so far. I will also learn it to say it together with the
"Lord’s Prayer." But please explain it to me so that I understand its
great meanings.
-This prayer, my child, is not just a prayer but a prayerful confession. My spiritual father was telling me that
this prayer is frightening Satan
very much because it shows us the shortest path, but also the way how to easily
reach holiness. Every phrase is a step on the heavenly ladder which brings us
ever closer to God’s embrace. In the
words of this prayer all those things are hidden that our good God would like
us to do so that we live like His own royal children, like children of His
divine heart. Therefore,
whenever I say this prayer it is like hearing our well-beloved God Himself
saying it to me:
"My child, I am your heavenly Father, who loves
and adores you as a mother loves her baby. I want to be the God of your heart
and for you to let Me flood you with My infinite love, so that your heart
becomes compassionate towards all your fellow humans, as My divine one is. I
want you to ask Me every day to flood you with the grace of My Holy Spirit, in
order to make your heart a volcano of My love, so that the lava of My divine
love pours out from it. Then you will also experience in your heart, what the
holy martyrs lived and had the strength to acknowledge Me with courage before
the pagans and suffered many tortures for this admission. They were recognizing
Me as the only king of their hearts and every day were dedicating their soul to
My only begotten Son Jesus, whom they loved and worshipped as their own beloved
Infant and wounded King. "
-What
would you reply to these sweet words of God our Father?
-I would beg Him, my child, to hold me tightly in His
fatherly embrace, because only there I feel safety and certainty. You
should also continually beg Him for it, so that He never lets you go from His
motherly love and embrace. He really likes all His children to be like babies
in His arms, because He loves and adores us. The only thing He asks from us is
to trust Him absolutely and to obey His Will like His angels in heaven.
-What else could I ask Him for to help me and to guide
me, except for you mum, who help and advise me how to live properly, according
to our Lord’s Will?
-You should beg our good God, my daughter, to send you
angels of heaven to guard your body and soul from every temptation of Satan and
also to teach you how to love Him with absolute adoration, trust and obedience,
as is done in heaven. Above all, you should also beg our heavenly Mummy, our
glorious Virgin, to teach you how to love Him as she did.
Jesus’ Prayer
-However, it would be a great omission, my Angela, not
to mention to you another very short prayer. It consists of just seven words
but its power is immeasurable. The holy Fathers of the Church call it the gold
of prayers because of the secret theology which is hidden in it but mainly for
the great fear and terror that is caused to the demons during this prayer when we say it. They even advise us to say
it as often as possible until it becomes one with our breath. They say that, as
when we breathe we get the oxygen we need and we are able to live, so with this
short prayer our soul is flooded by the power of the presence of our Christ
Himself and it gives it spiritual oxygen and life.
-Mum, what is this prayer which is so powerful?
-It is "Lord,
Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."There are just seven words but they
have the power to cleanse and sanctify the soul as well as the five human
senses. The value of this prayer lies exactly in the power of the name of our
Lord Himself and at the confession we make when we say it.
-What is our confession?
-Well, with the word "Lord" we confess willingly that only our good God is the King
of our hearts and the sovereign of our soul. We allow Him to guide, teach and
protect our whole being from all evils. We don’t have, we don’t believe and we
don’t confess to another God except Him. The word "Lord" is the first
nail against Satan, who wants to interfere with devious ways as the boss of our soul
and lead us according to his devilish will. By saying the word “Lord” with faith, we are making an invisible
protective shield around our soul that can repel any demonic temptation.
-Now I understand, mum, why we say "Lord have
mercy!" many times in the Church.
-And just this word, my child, frightens Satan very
much because it is a confession of faith to the one and only God. However, the next word, which is the name of our
sweet Savior, frightens him equally. The name "Jesus" is what Lucifer and his demons cannot bear hearing,
because it is the human name of the Son of God. For this reason, many saints of
our Church, who lived this power that the holy name of our Lord Jesus sends by
experience, say that for Christians
there is no greater weapon against Satan than the name of our Lord. When it
is pronounced with faith and love to our Redeemer, it becomes the fire that
burns demons.
-Mum, what does the word "Christ," mean?
-The word "Christ"
is also my Angela a word of confession. With this we declare that our Lord
Jesus is the promised Messiah and
Redeemer of the world. He is the Son of God and also God, who became man
like us to save all the people of the world
from their sins. And finally with the words "have mercy on me" we beg Him for three things:
First, to forgive us for the mistakes and sins we
commit.
Secondly, to cleanse us from the filth of sin and to
release us from every evil influence on our soul and body.
Thirdly, to flood our hearts with the grace and the
light of the Holy Spirit with which our soul becomes one with our good God.
Therefore, my sweet daughter, from today on, I want you to start saying many
times with your lips and your heart this short but very powerful pray.
