August 18, 2026 • 27 mins
In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai leads us in a time of reflection and prayer to check up on our spiritual health. He explains that when we are spiritually healthy, we are grateful and cheerful. But when we are not, even the smallest thing drives us crazy.
All those times when we're kind of irritable, restless, disconcerted, really worried about how things are going to turn out, what people might say, that's a sign we need a checkup and we need to get more spiritually healthy.
Our spiritual health will come, he explains, if we are men and women of prayer; if we are men and women who turn prayer into a real dialogue with God. Prayer puts us in contact with God, with our purpose and meaning, and therefore has the profound effect of giving us hope. There is nothing more essential for us than hope, to live by hope. We can't really live without hope. We can't even pray without hope.
The hope that comes from our prayer is also a reminder that we're never alone-- that's how some of the great saints survived. Prayer doesn't have to be a super perfect, forceful, or calm concentration. Prayer is a correspondence and dialogue with Our Lord.
As St. Josemaria Escriva says, “Prayer is the most powerful weapon a Christian has. Prayer must make us effective. Prayer must make us happy. Prayer gives us all the strength we need to fulfill God's commands" (The Forge, no. 439).
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SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I ask your pardon for my sinsand the grace to make this time
of prayer fruitful.
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my Father and Lord, my
(00:33):
guardian angel to seed for me.
When you pray, do not be likethe hypocrites, for they love to
pray standing in the synagoguesand on the street corners to be
seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they havereceived their reward in full.
(00:56):
But when you pray, go into yourroom, close the door, and pray
to your father, who is unseen.
Then your father, who sees whatis done in secret, will reward
you.
Well, we begin our prayer nowwith these words from St.
Matthew.
Well, are we in our room?
(01:17):
Have we closed the door?
Or are we praying in secret?
Well, we're not fully in secret,because we are together in this
oratory, which is the place topray, but we know the Lord sees
us now, and that he says, Well,he will reward us.
(01:37):
How will you reward us, Lord, ifwe go as good sons and daughters
to really pray?
That's what we want to do now,in this uh time now.
It should not just be me, thepriest, speaking, but it should
be me, the priest, speaking andpraying, and you listening and
(02:04):
praying.
The dominant feature of thistime really has to be that we
are we're some somehow praying.
And if you think that the Lordwill reward us, then your Father
who sees what is done in secretwill reward you.
Well, that has to give us a lotof hope.
Because we know that there'snothing more essential for us
(02:24):
than hope, to live by hope.
And not only that, but withstrong doses of hope all the
time, at every moment.
That means we see the meaning ofwhat we do, we see the meaning
of our prayer, we see themeaning of our work, our
interactions.
We know that the Lord willreward us.
(02:47):
He will reward you and me forthe work we do, he will reward
me and you for the fraternity welive, for the time we pray, for
the moments in which we do ournorms of piety.
If we understand that phrase,then your father who sees what
is done in secret will rewardyou.
(03:09):
That reward, that fact that ourwork here has purpose, it should
not be seen simply as a rewardas in we personally,
individually, will go and cashin our lottery ticket.
It's a reward that is much,let's say, deeper than that,
(03:30):
much broader than that.
It's a reward that has to dowith the purpose of our life,
the meaning of our life.
Isn't it true that the greatestreward for us would mean that
our life has brought many othersouls to you, Lord, because we
prayed, because we were pious,and it extended the grace that
(03:51):
we have received to so manyother souls.
And that certainly is a sourceof hope.
We can't really live withouthope.
We can't even pray without hope.
I don't know who said this, butsomebody said a man can live 40
days without food.
(04:12):
I don't think I could live 40days without food.
I don't know.
But anyway, that's what they say40 days without food.
About three days without water,about eight minutes without air.
But only one second withouthope.
And prayer puts us in contactwith God, with our purpose, our
(04:38):
meaning, and therefore has thatprofound effect of giving us
hope.
And a first essential settingfor learning hope really is
dialogue with Jesus, speakingwith Jesus, prayer as speaking.
It's as though our Lord doesn'twant us simply to be like those
(04:59):
hypocrites.
The hypocrite, that is, he lookslike he's praying, he appears to
be praying, he appears to bedoing the kind of good things
like he says here on the streetcorners or in the synagogues,
but they're actually justlooking like they're praying.
For our Lord, this would behypocrisy.
And this is certainly not whatwe want.
(05:23):
We cannot simply look like we'repraying.
And that's why we could say thatsincerity and truth with God and
a true dialogue with him is whatwill nurture hope.
Because when no one listens tome anymore, well God still
listens.
When nobody cares about what Ihave to say, well, the Lord
(05:47):
still cares.
And in other words, I can alwaystalk to God.
Even if I'm to be plunged intocomplete solitude, I'm never
really alone.
And if I pray, I am certainlynot alone.
(06:09):
And it is uh very sad to hearabout people when they describe
themselves as lonely.
They say, I am lonely.
As though they perceive likethis idea that nobody's
interested in them, they'reisolated, they're without a
contact, without a dialogue,without a sense of being loved.
And indeed, it must be a painfulexperience to feel that
(06:32):
loneliness.
It could happen that we end upin a situation where we are like
physically alone, nobody's incontact with us for whatever
reason, but we know we're neveralone.
And we know that from our timeof prayer.
That's how some of the greatsaints uh you could say
survived, like Cardinal MguyenVan Twan, the cardinal from
(07:00):
Vietnam, who was a prisoner for13 years, and nine of those
years was in solitaryconfinement.
And he was never really alone,even though he was in solitary
confinement.
And he has left us a preciouslittle book called Prayers of
Hope.
And he describes how, in those13 years in jail, in a situation
(07:23):
that was seemingly utterlyhopeless, the fact that he could
listen and speak to God becamefor him an increasingly powerful
source of hope, even though hewas never completely alone.
And that enabled him after hisrelease to become for people all
(07:48):
over the world a witness tohope.
He wrote a beautiful book abouthis experience.
And you know, that great hopedoes not wane even in nights of
solitude.
That was the essence of PopeBenedict's encyclical on hope,
(08:08):
Special Me, that even if we arehit hard by human circumstances
that are very difficult, we cannever really use hope if we are
men and women of prayer.
On April 30th, 1975, BishopNagoyan Van Twan was arrested by
(08:31):
the communist government, andthey were absolutely convinced
that he had actually planned aconspiracy to bring down the
government.
They were convinced of that.
So to avoid that, well, theythought, well, we've got to put
him in prison.
So they didn't just put him inprison out of a whim.
They really thought he was adanger to the stability of the
(08:52):
government and of the society.
This is what he described.
He said, from the very firstmoment of my arrest, the words
of Bishop John Walsh, who hadbeen imprisoned for 12 years in
communist China, his words cameto my mind.
On the day of his liberation,Bishop Walsh said, I have spent
(09:16):
half my life waiting.
It is true.
All prisoners, myself included,constantly wait to be let go.
When am I going to get let go?
I decided then and there that mycaptivity would not be a time of
(09:38):
resignation, but a turning pointin my life.
I decided I would not wait.
I would live the present momentand fill it with love.
For if I wait, the thing is Iwait for, they'll never happen.
The only thing that I can besure of is that I'm going to
(10:00):
die.
No, I will not spend timewaiting.
I will live the present momentand fill it with love.
A straight line consists ofmillions of little points.
Likewise, a lifetime consists ofmillions of seconds joined
(10:20):
together.
If every single point along theline is rightly set, the line
will be straight.
If every minute of a life isgood, that life will be holy.
So he just says, alone in myprison cell, I continued to be
(10:44):
tormented by the fact that I was48 years old, in the prime of my
life, that I had worked foreight years as a bishop and
gained so much pastoralexperience, and there I was,
isolated, inactive, and far frommy people.
One night, he says, from thedepth of my heart I could hear a
(11:06):
voice advising me, why tormentyourself?
You must discern between God andthe works of God.
Everything you have done anddesire to continue to do,
pastoral visits, trainingseminarians, sisters and members
of religious orders, buildingschools, evangelism,
(11:26):
non-Christians, etc., all ofthat is excellent work.
The work of God.
But it is not God.
If God wants you to give it allup and put the work into his
hands, do it and trust him.
(11:47):
God will do the work infinitelybetter than you.
He will entrust the work toothers who are more able than
you.
You've only to choose God, notthe works of God.
Isn't that another beautifulexpression?
(12:07):
And you know, through prayer,through dialogue, we can come to
that same attitude and that sametask to choose God.
And never forget that we alwayscount on his grace despite our
miseries.
Now we might not be in prison,we may not be in solitary
(12:30):
confinement, but the Lord cannevertheless, you know, despite
our limitations, lack of time,make use of us.
And we know ultimately that ourprayer is that dialogue of hope.
But do I really listen to theLord?
(12:54):
Do I really speak to him withconfidence?
When I say a memorari for theone who needs it most, do I have
that person that needs it most?
And do I think, okay, Lord,here's a good way that I can
help her?
Yet we haven't done anything.
We haven't gone to clean herroom.
We haven't gone to, I don'tknow, fix something in her life
(13:16):
necessarily.
We've prayed for her.
So often happens, people say tome, you know, they have this
problem, that problem, you know,like they're big problems.
And they inevitably just say,Father, pray for me.
And that's true.
My temptation is, well, you knowwhat you can do, you can fix
(13:36):
that problem by doing this andcalling that place and seeing
this doctor, I don't know what.
Yeah.
That's not what they're asking.
They're just trusting in prayer.
We know our prayer is adialogue.
But do I really listen?
Do I speak with confidence?
(13:57):
And the way we know, really,ultimately, is we truly can say
that we are friends of Jesus.
You know, today's gospel,chapter 13 of St.
Luke.
The Lord is going throughJerusalem and on his way to
Jerusalem.
Someone said, Sir, will there beonly a few saved?
(14:19):
He said to them, Try your bestto enter by the narrow door,
because I tell you, many willtry to enter and will not
succeed.
Once the master of the house hasgot up and locked the door, you
may find yourself knocking onthe door, saying, Lord, open to
us.
But he will answer, I do notknow where you come from.
(14:41):
Then you will find yourselfsaying, We once ate and drank in
your company.
You taught in our streets.
But he will reply, I do not knowwhere you come from.
Away from me, all you wickedmen.
This is a powerful passage.
We ate and drank.
They're trying to persuade Jesusthat he knows them.
(15:05):
That he had been in contact withthem.
They're knocking at the door tocome in.
And if Jesus had known them,well, he would say, Yeah, no
problem, I know you, right?
But he's saying, I don't I don'tknow who you are.
I don't remember who you are.
I don't remember talking to you.
I don't remember having had adialogue with you.
I don't really know who you are.
(15:26):
You may have been at a partywith me somewhere.
You may have come to a talk, butuh sorry, if you don't ring a
bell.
I mean, it happens, eh?
Your mom tells you you shouldnot open the door to strangers.
You should not allow a strangerto come into the house or to
(15:47):
even join your birthday partywhen you're a kid.
Even if a stranger comes up andsays, I'm a friend of your
friend.
I played football with yourfriend.
Don't you remember?
Picture Jesus at the judgmenttrying to remember.
You see, did you did we have acontact?
(16:09):
Nomeswena, as we say.
He tells us how some people willcome to him and say that we ate
and drank in your presence.
You taught in our streets.
Well maybe, but I I don't know.
It's possible.
(16:30):
It's like if you were to updatethis, the type of people would
say, Look, uh we went to Mass onSundays.
We said grace before meals, weprayed the Angelus in school.
We did some good things.
But will all those supposedlygood things actually mean that
(16:53):
we had a dialogue with our Lord?
Authentic piety?
Instead of hearing those ratherpainful words, sure you may have
done that, but I don't know you.
We want to hear, ah, yes, ofcourse.
Of course I know you.
You did your prayer every day.
(17:15):
You tried.
I remember you.
You did your prayer.
You were often distracted onyour phone.
But I know you were trying.
I know you.
I know you.
I remember how many times youfell asleep in your prayer.
I remember that as you werenodding away.
I definitely recognized youbecause you persevered.
(17:39):
If our Lord said that to us,that would fill us totally with
hope.
Not just because of our personalefforts, but because God gave us
that grace and we didcorrespond.
And that's what prayer has tobe.
It has to be thatcorrespondence.
It doesn't have to be this superperfect, forceful concentration.
(18:05):
If we are truly men and women ofprayer, we will also, like the
saints, be full of hope.
And if we are full of hope, wewill always be full of this
sporting spirit and full ofcheerfulness.
That's one sign of a person ofprayer.
She has this good humor, thischeerfulness.
(18:30):
So what our Father says in theforge, prayer is the most
powerful weapon a Christian has.
Prayer must make us effective.
Prayer must make us happy.
Prayer gives us all the strengthwe need to fulfill God's
(18:50):
commands.
And that's what we ask that ourLord grant us that grace so that
our prayer be effective and giveus that lasting happiness.
In a changing world wherethere's a lot of upheaval,
there's a lot of uncertainty.
But nevertheless, in front ofthose difficult moments, that we
(19:13):
always be happy.
I mean, it's easy to be happywhen everything is going well,
we're on an exotic beach ortropical beach or something, and
we're enjoying things.
But our happiness has to beindependent of the situation
that we're in.
(19:36):
Paul, he had that.
Cardinal V Antoine, who was inprison, had that.
And indeed, St.
Paul was in prison too.
And yet he continually wroteabout joy in his letters from
prison.
It's amazing when you thinkthese great letters that we have
(19:56):
of St.
Paul, they were written fromprison.
In fact, the most common themein his writings about joy in
particular were written in thecontext of filth and squalor of
his first century prison cell.
(20:18):
We call them the captivityepistles.
The captivity epistles are hisletter to the Ephesians, his
letter to the Philippians, hisletter to the Colossians, his
letter to Philemon.
And those were, you could say,narrowed down to the year 60 or
62, more or less, is what thescholars think.
(20:38):
So we can think of him there inthose terrible prisons of the
time.
And there he is praying for allthose churches.
His letters really reflect thepastor's heart, full of nobility
and full of sense of grandeur,of concern, of love.
(21:01):
For all his spiritual children.
He's praying for Timothy and allthe other early Christians.
There's a great painting from1627 by Rembrandt.
It's always struck me.
At that time he was only 21years old, and he's shown there
in pen in hand.
(21:22):
And his situation is harsh,difficult in jail, but that did
not stop him from trying torealize or achieve his mission.
Especially because he was ableto pray.
Or think even of somebody likeCardinal Pell in prison.
(21:43):
When he arrived there, myunderstanding, I don't know if
this is true, but myunderstanding is that they
didn't want to give him hisbrevery.
And he had to make specialrequests, and finally they gave
him his brevery.
And I think a New Testament, sohe could pray with that.
But when he was in prison,unjustly imprisoned, totally
unjustly, he made friends withthe prison guards.
(22:06):
He made friends with theauthorities in prison.
He didn't take it out on them.
They were just doing their job.
He made good friends and he evenpraised the prison authorities
for the good work that they weredoing.
And he wrote a whole journal,and it was all published.
It's a beautiful journal.
(22:31):
So we ask for that spiritualhealth.
That spiritual health will comeif we are men and women of
prayer.
If we are men and women who turnprayer into a real dialogue.
And the most essential sign ofthat spiritual health is that we
be souls of prayer.
(23:01):
You know this author, MatthewKelly, who he describes the
spiritual health.
He says, when I'm spirituallyhealthy, nothing bothers me.
This one truth, he says, is thefruit of many years of
self-observation.
When I'm spiritually healthy,nothing bothers me.
(23:23):
He says, when I'm spirituallyhealthy, my wife can take
forever to get ready.
The stock market can drop athousand points in a day.
The flight can be canceled.
My favorite team can lose.
My plans can fall apart.
But I'm able to remain calm andmaintain a joyful outlook with
(23:43):
deep interior peace.
Like Moses praying and keepinghis arms outstretched.
When he had his armsoutstretched, that was a sign of
prayer.
Well, then the Israelites won.
(24:03):
When he let them down, they theylost.
And we know that we are in aplace of spiritual health, and
we know when we are not.
And I would say one of the keyindicators of spiritual health
that we are souls of prayer.
(24:25):
One of the key signs is that wehave gratitude.
You know, the doctor comes andhe takes your pulse, he says,
Mom, it's a good pulse, yeah,you're doing good.
Or they take your bloodpressure, they put the thing on
your arm, and they squeeze it,and then they wait and they
hear, oh, yeah, you're good.
(24:47):
If they have to do it again, itmeans that they hurt a bad pulse
or something.
That would be a sign that youwere not healthy.
But for us, a sign that we arehealthy is the result of that
life of prayer, which isgratitude.
When we are spiritually healthy,we are grateful.
But when we are not, even thesmallest thing drives us crazy.
(25:12):
All those times when we werekind of irritable, uh, restless,
uh, disconcerted, really, reallyworried about how things are
going to turn out, what peoplemight say, that's a sign.
I need a checkup, you know, Ineed to get more spiritually
healthy.
When I'm not spirituallyhealthy, the only way for me to
(25:36):
be happy is for everything to gomy way.
And of course, that neverhappens, that everything just
goes our way.
It rains, machines break down,people are difficult.
Those things always happen.
But when we are in dialogue withthe Lord and speak to Him, truly
(25:56):
we will be spiritually healthy.
And all these things can happen.
And we just keep plowing thefields.
It'll be okay.
Just, you know.
These are the oxen that we'vebeen given, and those are the
oxens we've got to plow thefield with.
And they go the wrong way, andthey, I don't know, they kid you
and do whatever oxen's do.
(26:17):
But we've got to plow the field,keep at it, and we will be uh
spiritually healthy.
Let's ask our blessed mother.
We can imagine her prayer atthat moment when the angel came
and announced to her hervocation.
That's the way he was able tospeak to her because she was
attentive and open to God'sgrace, showing to seek for us so
(26:39):
that we have that spiritualhealth that comes from being
souls of dialogue, souls ofprayer.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations you havecommunicated to me.
In this meditation, I ask yourhead to put them into effect.
My Immaculate Mother St.
Joseph, my father and Lord, myGod and angel intercede for me.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I ask your pardon for my sinsand the grace to make this time
of prayer fruitful.
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my Father and Lord, my
(00:33):
guardian angel to seed for me.
When you pray, do not be likethe hypocrites, for they love to
pray standing in the synagoguesand on the street corners to be
seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they havereceived their reward in full.
(00:56):
But when you pray, go into yourroom, close the door, and pray
to your father, who is unseen.
Then your father, who sees whatis done in secret, will reward
you.
Well, we begin our prayer nowwith these words from St.
Matthew.
Well, are we in our room?
(01:17):
Have we closed the door?
Or are we praying in secret?
Well, we're not fully in secret,because we are together in this
oratory, which is the place topray, but we know the Lord sees
us now, and that he says, Well,he will reward us.
(01:37):
How will you reward us, Lord, ifwe go as good sons and daughters
to really pray?
That's what we want to do now,in this uh time now.
It should not just be me, thepriest, speaking, but it should
be me, the priest, speaking andpraying, and you listening and
(02:04):
praying.
The dominant feature of thistime really has to be that we
are we're some somehow praying.
And if you think that the Lordwill reward us, then your Father
who sees what is done in secretwill reward you.
Well, that has to give us a lotof hope.
Because we know that there'snothing more essential for us
(02:24):
than hope, to live by hope.
And not only that, but withstrong doses of hope all the
time, at every moment.
That means we see the meaning ofwhat we do, we see the meaning
of our prayer, we see themeaning of our work, our
interactions.
We know that the Lord willreward us.
(02:47):
He will reward you and me forthe work we do, he will reward
me and you for the fraternity welive, for the time we pray, for
the moments in which we do ournorms of piety.
If we understand that phrase,then your father who sees what
is done in secret will rewardyou.
(03:09):
That reward, that fact that ourwork here has purpose, it should
not be seen simply as a rewardas in we personally,
individually, will go and cashin our lottery ticket.
It's a reward that is much,let's say, deeper than that,
(03:30):
much broader than that.
It's a reward that has to dowith the purpose of our life,
the meaning of our life.
Isn't it true that the greatestreward for us would mean that
our life has brought many othersouls to you, Lord, because we
prayed, because we were pious,and it extended the grace that
(03:51):
we have received to so manyother souls.
And that certainly is a sourceof hope.
We can't really live withouthope.
We can't even pray without hope.
I don't know who said this, butsomebody said a man can live 40
days without food.
(04:12):
I don't think I could live 40days without food.
I don't know.
But anyway, that's what they say40 days without food.
About three days without water,about eight minutes without air.
But only one second withouthope.
And prayer puts us in contactwith God, with our purpose, our
(04:38):
meaning, and therefore has thatprofound effect of giving us
hope.
And a first essential settingfor learning hope really is
dialogue with Jesus, speakingwith Jesus, prayer as speaking.
It's as though our Lord doesn'twant us simply to be like those
(04:59):
hypocrites.
The hypocrite, that is, he lookslike he's praying, he appears to
be praying, he appears to bedoing the kind of good things
like he says here on the streetcorners or in the synagogues,
but they're actually justlooking like they're praying.
For our Lord, this would behypocrisy.
And this is certainly not whatwe want.
(05:23):
We cannot simply look like we'repraying.
And that's why we could say thatsincerity and truth with God and
a true dialogue with him is whatwill nurture hope.
Because when no one listens tome anymore, well God still
listens.
When nobody cares about what Ihave to say, well, the Lord
(05:47):
still cares.
And in other words, I can alwaystalk to God.
Even if I'm to be plunged intocomplete solitude, I'm never
really alone.
And if I pray, I am certainlynot alone.
(06:09):
And it is uh very sad to hearabout people when they describe
themselves as lonely.
They say, I am lonely.
As though they perceive likethis idea that nobody's
interested in them, they'reisolated, they're without a
contact, without a dialogue,without a sense of being loved.
And indeed, it must be a painfulexperience to feel that
(06:32):
loneliness.
It could happen that we end upin a situation where we are like
physically alone, nobody's incontact with us for whatever
reason, but we know we're neveralone.
And we know that from our timeof prayer.
That's how some of the greatsaints uh you could say
survived, like Cardinal MguyenVan Twan, the cardinal from
(07:00):
Vietnam, who was a prisoner for13 years, and nine of those
years was in solitaryconfinement.
And he was never really alone,even though he was in solitary
confinement.
And he has left us a preciouslittle book called Prayers of
Hope.
And he describes how, in those13 years in jail, in a situation
(07:23):
that was seemingly utterlyhopeless, the fact that he could
listen and speak to God becamefor him an increasingly powerful
source of hope, even though hewas never completely alone.
And that enabled him after hisrelease to become for people all
(07:48):
over the world a witness tohope.
He wrote a beautiful book abouthis experience.
And you know, that great hopedoes not wane even in nights of
solitude.
That was the essence of PopeBenedict's encyclical on hope,
(08:08):
Special Me, that even if we arehit hard by human circumstances
that are very difficult, we cannever really use hope if we are
men and women of prayer.
On April 30th, 1975, BishopNagoyan Van Twan was arrested by
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the communist government, andthey were absolutely convinced
that he had actually planned aconspiracy to bring down the
government.
They were convinced of that.
So to avoid that, well, theythought, well, we've got to put
him in prison.
So they didn't just put him inprison out of a whim.
They really thought he was adanger to the stability of the
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government and of the society.
This is what he described.
He said, from the very firstmoment of my arrest, the words
of Bishop John Walsh, who hadbeen imprisoned for 12 years in
communist China, his words cameto my mind.
On the day of his liberation,Bishop Walsh said, I have spent
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half my life waiting.
It is true.
All prisoners, myself included,constantly wait to be let go.
When am I going to get let go?
I decided then and there that mycaptivity would not be a time of
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resignation, but a turning pointin my life.
I decided I would not wait.
I would live the present momentand fill it with love.
For if I wait, the thing is Iwait for, they'll never happen.
The only thing that I can besure of is that I'm going to
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die.
No, I will not spend timewaiting.
I will live the present momentand fill it with love.
A straight line consists ofmillions of little points.
Likewise, a lifetime consists ofmillions of seconds joined
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together.
If every single point along theline is rightly set, the line
will be straight.
If every minute of a life isgood, that life will be holy.
So he just says, alone in myprison cell, I continued to be
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tormented by the fact that I was48 years old, in the prime of my
life, that I had worked foreight years as a bishop and
gained so much pastoralexperience, and there I was,
isolated, inactive, and far frommy people.
One night, he says, from thedepth of my heart I could hear a
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voice advising me, why tormentyourself?
You must discern between God andthe works of God.
Everything you have done anddesire to continue to do,
pastoral visits, trainingseminarians, sisters and members
of religious orders, buildingschools, evangelism,
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non-Christians, etc., all ofthat is excellent work.
The work of God.
But it is not God.
If God wants you to give it allup and put the work into his
hands, do it and trust him.
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God will do the work infinitelybetter than you.
He will entrust the work toothers who are more able than
you.
You've only to choose God, notthe works of God.
Isn't that another beautifulexpression?
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And you know, through prayer,through dialogue, we can come to
that same attitude and that sametask to choose God.
And never forget that we alwayscount on his grace despite our
miseries.
Now we might not be in prison,we may not be in solitary
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confinement, but the Lord cannevertheless, you know, despite
our limitations, lack of time,make use of us.
And we know ultimately that ourprayer is that dialogue of hope.
But do I really listen to theLord?
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Do I really speak to him withconfidence?
When I say a memorari for theone who needs it most, do I have
that person that needs it most?
And do I think, okay, Lord,here's a good way that I can
help her?
Yet we haven't done anything.
We haven't gone to clean herroom.
We haven't gone to, I don'tknow, fix something in her life
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necessarily.
We've prayed for her.
So often happens, people say tome, you know, they have this
problem, that problem, you know,like they're big problems.
And they inevitably just say,Father, pray for me.
And that's true.
My temptation is, well, you knowwhat you can do, you can fix
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that problem by doing this andcalling that place and seeing
this doctor, I don't know what.
Yeah.
That's not what they're asking.
They're just trusting in prayer.
We know our prayer is adialogue.
But do I really listen?
Do I speak with confidence?
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And the way we know, really,ultimately, is we truly can say
that we are friends of Jesus.
You know, today's gospel,chapter 13 of St.
Luke.
The Lord is going throughJerusalem and on his way to
Jerusalem.
Someone said, Sir, will there beonly a few saved?
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He said to them, Try your bestto enter by the narrow door,
because I tell you, many willtry to enter and will not
succeed.
Once the master of the house hasgot up and locked the door, you
may find yourself knocking onthe door, saying, Lord, open to
us.
But he will answer, I do notknow where you come from.
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Then you will find yourselfsaying, We once ate and drank in
your company.
You taught in our streets.
But he will reply, I do not knowwhere you come from.
Away from me, all you wickedmen.
This is a powerful passage.
We ate and drank.
They're trying to persuade Jesusthat he knows them.
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That he had been in contact withthem.
They're knocking at the door tocome in.
And if Jesus had known them,well, he would say, Yeah, no
problem, I know you, right?
But he's saying, I don't I don'tknow who you are.
I don't remember who you are.
I don't remember talking to you.
I don't remember having had adialogue with you.
I don't really know who you are.
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You may have been at a partywith me somewhere.
You may have come to a talk, butuh sorry, if you don't ring a
bell.
I mean, it happens, eh?
Your mom tells you you shouldnot open the door to strangers.
You should not allow a strangerto come into the house or to
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even join your birthday partywhen you're a kid.
Even if a stranger comes up andsays, I'm a friend of your
friend.
I played football with yourfriend.
Don't you remember?
Picture Jesus at the judgmenttrying to remember.
You see, did you did we have acontact?
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Nomeswena, as we say.
He tells us how some people willcome to him and say that we ate
and drank in your presence.
You taught in our streets.
Well maybe, but I I don't know.
It's possible.
(16:30):
It's like if you were to updatethis, the type of people would
say, Look, uh we went to Mass onSundays.
We said grace before meals, weprayed the Angelus in school.
We did some good things.
But will all those supposedlygood things actually mean that
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we had a dialogue with our Lord?
Authentic piety?
Instead of hearing those ratherpainful words, sure you may have
done that, but I don't know you.
We want to hear, ah, yes, ofcourse.
Of course I know you.
You did your prayer every day.
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You tried.
I remember you.
You did your prayer.
You were often distracted onyour phone.
But I know you were trying.
I know you.
I know you.
I remember how many times youfell asleep in your prayer.
I remember that as you werenodding away.
I definitely recognized youbecause you persevered.
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If our Lord said that to us,that would fill us totally with
hope.
Not just because of our personalefforts, but because God gave us
that grace and we didcorrespond.
And that's what prayer has tobe.
It has to be thatcorrespondence.
It doesn't have to be this superperfect, forceful concentration.
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If we are truly men and women ofprayer, we will also, like the
saints, be full of hope.
And if we are full of hope, wewill always be full of this
sporting spirit and full ofcheerfulness.
That's one sign of a person ofprayer.
She has this good humor, thischeerfulness.
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So what our Father says in theforge, prayer is the most
powerful weapon a Christian has.
Prayer must make us effective.
Prayer must make us happy.
Prayer gives us all the strengthwe need to fulfill God's
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commands.
And that's what we ask that ourLord grant us that grace so that
our prayer be effective and giveus that lasting happiness.
In a changing world wherethere's a lot of upheaval,
there's a lot of uncertainty.
But nevertheless, in front ofthose difficult moments, that we
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always be happy.
I mean, it's easy to be happywhen everything is going well,
we're on an exotic beach ortropical beach or something, and
we're enjoying things.
But our happiness has to beindependent of the situation
that we're in.
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Paul, he had that.
Cardinal V Antoine, who was inprison, had that.
And indeed, St.
Paul was in prison too.
And yet he continually wroteabout joy in his letters from
prison.
It's amazing when you thinkthese great letters that we have
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of St.
Paul, they were written fromprison.
In fact, the most common themein his writings about joy in
particular were written in thecontext of filth and squalor of
his first century prison cell.
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We call them the captivityepistles.
The captivity epistles are hisletter to the Ephesians, his
letter to the Philippians, hisletter to the Colossians, his
letter to Philemon.
And those were, you could say,narrowed down to the year 60 or
62, more or less, is what thescholars think.
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So we can think of him there inthose terrible prisons of the
time.
And there he is praying for allthose churches.
His letters really reflect thepastor's heart, full of nobility
and full of sense of grandeur,of concern, of love.
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For all his spiritual children.
He's praying for Timothy and allthe other early Christians.
There's a great painting from1627 by Rembrandt.
It's always struck me.
At that time he was only 21years old, and he's shown there
in pen in hand.
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And his situation is harsh,difficult in jail, but that did
not stop him from trying torealize or achieve his mission.
Especially because he was ableto pray.
Or think even of somebody likeCardinal Pell in prison.
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When he arrived there, myunderstanding, I don't know if
this is true, but myunderstanding is that they
didn't want to give him hisbrevery.
And he had to make specialrequests, and finally they gave
him his brevery.
And I think a New Testament, sohe could pray with that.
But when he was in prison,unjustly imprisoned, totally
unjustly, he made friends withthe prison guards.
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He made friends with theauthorities in prison.
He didn't take it out on them.
They were just doing their job.
He made good friends and he evenpraised the prison authorities
for the good work that they weredoing.
And he wrote a whole journal,and it was all published.
It's a beautiful journal.
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So we ask for that spiritualhealth.
That spiritual health will comeif we are men and women of
prayer.
If we are men and women who turnprayer into a real dialogue.
And the most essential sign ofthat spiritual health is that we
be souls of prayer.
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You know this author, MatthewKelly, who he describes the
spiritual health.
He says, when I'm spirituallyhealthy, nothing bothers me.
This one truth, he says, is thefruit of many years of
self-observation.
When I'm spiritually healthy,nothing bothers me.
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He says, when I'm spirituallyhealthy, my wife can take
forever to get ready.
The stock market can drop athousand points in a day.
The flight can be canceled.
My favorite team can lose.
My plans can fall apart.
But I'm able to remain calm andmaintain a joyful outlook with
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deep interior peace.
Like Moses praying and keepinghis arms outstretched.
When he had his armsoutstretched, that was a sign of
prayer.
Well, then the Israelites won.
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When he let them down, they theylost.
And we know that we are in aplace of spiritual health, and
we know when we are not.
And I would say one of the keyindicators of spiritual health
that we are souls of prayer.
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One of the key signs is that wehave gratitude.
You know, the doctor comes andhe takes your pulse, he says,
Mom, it's a good pulse, yeah,you're doing good.
Or they take your bloodpressure, they put the thing on
your arm, and they squeeze it,and then they wait and they
hear, oh, yeah, you're good.
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If they have to do it again, itmeans that they hurt a bad pulse
or something.
That would be a sign that youwere not healthy.
But for us, a sign that we arehealthy is the result of that
life of prayer, which isgratitude.
When we are spiritually healthy,we are grateful.
But when we are not, even thesmallest thing drives us crazy.
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All those times when we werekind of irritable, uh, restless,
uh, disconcerted, really, reallyworried about how things are
going to turn out, what peoplemight say, that's a sign.
I need a checkup, you know, Ineed to get more spiritually
healthy.
When I'm not spirituallyhealthy, the only way for me to
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be happy is for everything to gomy way.
And of course, that neverhappens, that everything just
goes our way.
It rains, machines break down,people are difficult.
Those things always happen.
But when we are in dialogue withthe Lord and speak to Him, truly
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we will be spiritually healthy.
And all these things can happen.
And we just keep plowing thefields.
It'll be okay.
Just, you know.
These are the oxen that we'vebeen given, and those are the
oxens we've got to plow thefield with.
And they go the wrong way, andthey, I don't know, they kid you
and do whatever oxen's do.
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But we've got to plow the field,keep at it, and we will be uh
spiritually healthy.
Let's ask our blessed mother.
We can imagine her prayer atthat moment when the angel came
and announced to her hervocation.
That's the way he was able tospeak to her because she was
attentive and open to God'sgrace, showing to seek for us so
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that we have that spiritualhealth that comes from being
souls of dialogue, souls ofprayer.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations you havecommunicated to me.
In this meditation, I ask yourhead to put them into effect.
My Immaculate Mother St.
Joseph, my father and Lord, myGod and angel intercede for me.
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