Pope Benedict: One Who Prays Is Never Alone

The following comes from Zenit:

The voice of one who prays is interwoven with the voice of the Church, since "no one who prays is ever alone," says Benedict XVI.

The Pope made this reflection today before reciting the midday Angelus with those who had gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

The Holy Father drew from the Gospel of today's liturgy for his reflection, which presented Christ's teaching of the Our Father prayer.

He noted how Jesus draws the lesson from "his own prayer, with which he addresses God, his Father."

And this prayer, the Pontiff observed, is among the "the first words of sacred Scripture that we have known since childhood. They fix themselves in the memory, they form our lives, they accompany us until our last breaths."

Addressing the Omnipotent

Benedict XVI reflected on how the Our Father "incorporates and expresses human material and spiritual needs."

"It is not an asking to satisfy one’s own wants," he said, "but rather to keep alive one’s friendship with God, who -- the Gospel always says -- 'shall give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him!'"

The Holy Father referred to a text of St. Teresa of Avila, who exhorted her sisters: "We must beg God always to free us from every danger and to take away every evil from us. And however imperfect our desire, we must make an effort to persist in this request. What does it cost us to ask so much, given that we address the Omnipotent?"

The Bishop of Rome went on to note that each time we pray the Our Father, "our voice interweaves with the voice of the Church, because no one who prays is ever alone."

He concluded, citing a 1989 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “Each one of the faithful must try to seek and can find in the truth and wealth of Christian prayer, taught by the Church, his own way, his own style of prayer … he will thus let himself be guided … by the Holy Spirit, who leads him, through Christ, to the Father."