MARY, OUR MOTHER

MEDITATION 54

LIFE AT NAZARETH

1. A Life of Prayer.
Prayer, the union of the soul with God, is communication and intercourse with divinity. Therefore, there is nothing more necessary. God is all; we are nothing. God is the Lord and Master, immensely rich, powerful, full of bounty. We are poor, miserable and helpless. It is then natural, indispensable to appeal to Him, since without God we can do nothing. And prayer consists exactly in this, in appealing to Him, pleading with Him to grant us what we need. Have you ever reflected on the easy means God has given us to enable us to overcome our weakness and to triumph over our miseries? Prayer is so easy, so simple and yet so effective a remedy. If the sick had such an easy medicine at their disposal, that is to say, if by merely approaching the doctor they could get cured, do you think there would ever be any sick in the world?

How stubborn we are to disregard this divine means of prayer. How stupid we are not to make use of it more frequently. Without prayer no saint has ever attained sanctity. The greater the spirit and life of prayer, the greater the sanctity. There are saints without extraordinary gifts of miracles, prophecies, austerities, ecstasies and rapture, but without prayer there is none. However, you need not look at the saints. Just enter into that School of prayer where the saints learnt this lesson, this School of Nazareth.

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]