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

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 612).
• 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 135 Lk 516).
• In the Old Testament Moses and Elijah acted in a
  similar way
• (cf. Ex 3428 1 Kgs 198).
• 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 216).

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 46).
• 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 815).
• 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 816-17).

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 755-60).
• 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 2641).
• 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 618-19).

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 1614).

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 826).
• 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 819, 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 827).
• 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 211).
• 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 1045-47).

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 316),
• 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 317).

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 518-20).

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