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You know some definitions that say prayer is a conversation with God, and prayer is lifting your mind to God. Romano Qaurdini says that prayer is a response to God’s holiness. All these definitions touch on prayer in some way, but they’re too brief. Let us listen to what John Chrysostom said about prayer. Prayer is our mediator with God; it gives courage to the heart and calms the soul. But when we speak of prayer, let us not think it is just words. Prayer is a longing for God. It is an inexpressible love that does not come from people but originates in divine grace.

The Apostle says. We do not know what we should pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Prayer is heavenly food that nourishes the soul. Anyone who has tasted it will always long for the Lord. It is as if a fierce fire seizes his heart. Prayer is a gift from God. It is grace. The Holy Spirit comes into the heart of a person who has opened himself to God and gives him a desire for God. He often allows a person to experience God’s closeness, and then comes the joy of God and peace in the heart. This, too, is prayer. And man responds to this in some way. And this is an essential moment in Christian prayer. Prayer as a response. Romano Quardini said that prayer is a response to God’s holiness. God’s holiness is God’s greatness and God’s closeness. God’s love for creation pours out upon the whole world. The response to God’s holiness is a response to God’s love. Therefore, our prayer is a response to everything God constantly does for us, to what He means to us. God penetrates our soul with his word and opens a well of prayer in our heart. And man is flooded with gratitude, or a sense of responsibility, or a sense of sinfulness.

All this is already the beginning of prayer, even before man puts it into words. Prayer is, therefore, a response. It is not empty talk. It is not words repeated over and over again. Prayer is always an expression of a personal relationship. This is what every Christian prayer is about. It is an expression of personal love. God as a person enters our lives, and we respond to him personally. Although prayer is a gift from God, on the one hand, on the other hand, it is a human response and often also the result of effort, because we do not always feel like praying. If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that there are more moments when we do not want to pray than when we do. Prayer is a particular human activity, but above all, it expresses a relationship. Prayer is a specific human act, but above all, it expresses a relationship. We cannot do something without a relationship with someone. It is not, therefore, reading something, doing something, but it is an expression of our love. A person prays with their heart. Every prayer should be their prayer. It doesn’t matter if I pray the psalms, the Our Father, or in my own words; it must always be a personal prayer. Prayer requires a certain constancy, devotion, faithfulness, and humility.

Everything that belongs to a human relationship is connected with this. Human relationships are not built on moods, but on faithfulness. When two people get married, they are not together just because they enjoy each other’s company, but because they have made a decision. If I know that God bends down to me and intervenes in my life, I pray when I feel like it and when I have to pray. Because prayer is not just a matter of experience, but of faithfulness. Through prayer, I get to know what God is like and experience it. If I do not know God as He is, I do not know His true face, which will always mark my prayer. If I think God is distant and strict, I will never find joy in prayer. So knowledge leads me to true prayer. What I experience in prayer leads me to knowledge of God. I experience for myself that God is peace, that God is joy, that God is love, that God is close, and then I discover these truths in Scripture, which support my spiritual life. Prayer is not just a matter of feelings and experiences. Spiritual life is like life in general. From exuberant youth, enthusiasm, and many experiences, God gradually leads a person to a deeper experience, and often God takes away those moments of spiritual joy and happiness in prayer, leaving only dry devotion and faith. The greatness of prayer lies in devotion. It is not important whether we feel bliss when we pray. If God gives this to someone, let them be thankful for it. Great in prayer is the one who does not abandon God even when he does not feel God or especially experience Him. Another element of Christian prayer relates to this: inner truthfulness. As with all of Christianity, purity of intention and action is essential. Nothing is worse than when a person begins to deceive themselves and then begins to deceive others or God. God, who sees into man’s heart, can never be deceived. This is what the prophet Isaiah says. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. St. Teresa said, “Prayer is not a matter of many words, but of much love.” And we must always admit truthfully how we feel. When we don’t feel like praying, let’s say, “Lord, I don’t feel like praying.” And if I pray anyway, I have done a great thing. If my thoughts are distant during prayer, if I am distracted, thinking only of myself and constantly returning to my worries, I must admit it. I entrust it to God and ask him to accept me as I am, with all my fears, and not to pretend that nothing is happening. Likewise, when I lack love in my heart, I must be able to acknowledge and admit it. There is nothing worse than illusion. That is why it is so vital that every prayer we say is true in our hearts.I don’t mean I don’t praise God when my heart isn’t overflowing. My praise does not depend on feelings and experiences. It is necessary to stand before God as I am. Then God can lead me to transformation. Often, from the point of view of spiritual progress, it is more critical for us to chase away fatigue and fight distraction, like experiencing bliss, because at that moment, a person only receives, but gives nothing. We must begin prayer anew every day. Every relationship requires investment. Prayer is an expression of faith. This does not mean that God always hears us or grants our requests. When Jesus spoke about prayer, he emphasized that we must pray constantly and not lose heart. There is a story about a judge who did not want to help a widow in her legal dispute. However, the widow persistently asked the judge to help her, and she succeeded. And will God not hear the pleas of those who call to him day and night? God hears every prayer, but he does not answer it immediately to allow our devotion to grow. Prayer is closely related to our attitude of faith. A person who prays with love cannot do more. If we find time for prayer, our whole life can be transformed into prayer. All our activities can become worship. A person who does not pray does not live. As long as a person does not pray, he is not a person as God intended him to be, because man was created in the image of God. The form of prayer is not so important; what is essential is that we put our hearts into our prayers. Let prayer transform us into the image of God.

Jesus Christ is the foundation of our lives. He is the beginning and the end. Everything happens through him. God sent his Son as the ultimate expression of his love. Jesus Christ is our way. He is God’s way to man. Conversely, Jesus is man’s way to God. Through Jesus, God comes to us, and through Jesus, we go to God. The Incarnation is the most crucial event in history. God united himself with human nature. Because of this, we can live with God. Through Jesus, we come to know the Father. As Jesus said, “Whoever sees me sees the Father.

” The Gospels reveal how Jesus revealed himself and what he did. St. Paul writes, “If God gave us his Son, he gave us everything else.” When we love one another, it is an expression of our affection. When God loves, he doesn’t just give something; he gives himself in Jesus Christ. This is why knowing Christ is so important. Through Christ, we receive salvation. By taking on our human nature and dying for us, he became the cause of our salvation. He saved us, and we will be saved when we unite our lives with his. Spiritual life means our relationship with Christ grows and deepens until it reaches the stage described by St. Paul: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” What does this mean? It means that Christ begins to fully manifest himself in a person. This is actually the pinnacle of Christian striving: giving space to Christ in our lives. Jesus Christ is at the beginning of our conversion. Because of him, we renounce sin. As St. Paul said, “What I once considered a gain, I have written down as a loss for Christ. For his sake, I have renounced everything.” Our conversion is not genuine unless it includes a relationship with Christ. However, Christ is also the cause of our rebirth. Our new life is possible only in Christ. No one can save himself. Even if he were perfect and did everything, it would not lead to salvation if he did not do it with Christ.”No one can rid themselves of sin on their own. No one can defeat death. Only Jesus defeated death. Spiritual life begins with baptism. That is when we became connected to Christ. But we must strive to live with Christ. This means letting die within ourselves whatever is contrary to union with Christ. One more thing is essential to our life with Christ. And that is our life in the Church. We all form the mysterious body of Christ, the Church. The Church is Jesus’ work from the very beginning. Our life with God takes place in the Church. Jesus’ spirit is at work in the Church—the Holy Spirit. When we are not connected to the Church, we are not connected to Jesus. Many people in the world are not interested in spiritual life. They live only for this world. St. Paul wrote about this. Their belly is their god, shame is their glory, and destruction is their end.

 … Since Paul was invited to speak in the synagogue in Antioch [v Pizídii] to clarify this new teaching, that is, to explain and proclaim Jesus, Paul begins with the history of the salvation of the ( Acts 13, 13-21). Paul got up and started like this: «God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted this people when they lived abroad, in the land of Egypt» (v. 17) … and narrated the entire history of salvation. Štefan did the same before the torture of the ( Acts 7, 1-54), and Paul does so again. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews also does, when he tells the history of Abraham and „all our fathers“ ( Heb. 11 1-39). We sang the same thing today: « I want to praise the Lord’s mercy forever; throughout all generations to proclaim your faithfulness with their mouths» (Ž 89,2). We sang about David’s story: « I found my servant David» (v. 21). Matúš ( do the same. Mt 1, 1-14) and Luke (. Lk 3, 23-38): when they start talking about Jesus, they give his family tree is O in the background behind Jesus? There is a certain history.

History of grace, history of election, history of promise. The Lord chose Abraham and walked with his people. At the beginning of the mass, in the entrance chant, we read: „God, when you walked at the head of your people, you made your way and lived with them…“. There is the story of God with his people. Therefore, when Paul is asked to explain the reasons for believing in Jesus Christ, he does not begin from himself; he starts from history. Christianity is a particular doctrine, yes, but not only that. It is not only those contents that we believe: it is history that carries this teaching, which is God’s promise, God’s covenant, a matter of God’s election. Christianity is not just some kind of ethics. Yes, it is true; it has moral principles, but we are not Christians purely because of an ethical vision. It’s about something more. Christianity is not a certain elite of people chosen for the truth. This elitist understanding then continues to stick in the Church. For example: I am from that institution, I belong to this movement that is better than yours, than this, than that. That is an elitist understanding. No, Christianity is not this: Christianity belongs to a certain people, to a people chosen by God selflessly.

Because we do not have this sense of belonging to the people, we will be „ideological Christians“, with a small doctrine confirming the truth, with ethics, with morality – that’s good – or with the elite. We feel part of the God-chosen group – Christians – and others will go to hell, or if they save themselves, it’s out of God’s mercy, well, they’re the eliminated ones… And so on. If we do not have awareness of belonging to the people, we are not true Christians.

That is why Paul explains Jesus from the beginning, starting from his belonging to the people. And how often do we fall into this partiality, whether dogmatic, moral, or elitist? Elitist understanding harms us so much, and we lose that sense of belonging to the holy faithful people of God, who were chosen by God in Abraham and promised him a great promise, Jesus, and made him walk with hope, and made a covenant with him. People’s awareness.

NI am constantly captured by that passage Deuteronomy, I think it is the 26th chapter where it says: „ Once a year when you go to present a sacrifice to the Lord, the first fruits, and when your son asks you: But father, why are you doing this?, you should not say to him: „For God commanded it“, but: „ We were one nation, we were like this and the Lord set us free…“ ( Dt 26, 1-11). To recount history, as Paul did here. Transmitting the story of our salvation. The Lord advises in the same place in Deuteronomy: „ When you enter a land that you have not conquered, that I have conquered, and when you eat fruits, which you did not plant, and you will live in houses that you did not build, when presenting the sacrifice you will say“ – this is the famous Deuteronomic creed – „My father was a wandering Ara mean, then he descended into Egypt in small numbers… he stayed there for four hundred years, then the Lord freed him, took care of him…“ He tells history by singing, remembering a nation, and stating it is a nation.

In this history of God’s people, until the coming of Jesus Christ, there were saints, sinners, and many ordinary people, good, with virtues and with sins, but all of them. The famous “west” who followed Jesus had a nose that belonged to a certain people. Whoever claims to be a Christian but does not have this sense of smell is not a faithful Christian; he is somewhat distinctive and somewhat feels justified without the people. Belonging to the people, having the memory of God’s people. And this is what Paul, Stephen, and Paul teach again, apostles… And the author’s advice in the Letter to the Hebrews is: „Remember your ancestors“ ( Hebrews 11:2), that is, to those who preceded us on this path of salvation.

If someone asked me, „ What do you think is the deviation of Christians – today and at any time – the deviation that is most dangerous for Christians?“I would say without hesitation that it is a lack of memory of belonging to the people. When this is missing, dogmatisms, moralisms, ethicists, and elite movements come. People are missing. A people who are always sinners, we are all them, but who are not fundamentally wrong, who have a nose for being the chosen people who follow the promise and who made the covenant, which he may not fulfill, but he knows about it.

Let us learn from the Lord this awareness of the people, which the Virgin Mary sang so beautifully in her Magnificat ( Lk 1, 46-56), which Zacharias sang so beautifully in his Benedictus ( Lk 1, 64-79) – we pray those hymns every day, morning and evening. People’s awareness: we are the holy faithful people of God who, as the First and then the Second Vatican Council says, have a sense of faith in their whole being and are infallible in how they believe.

OF mentions the word of God at the beginning of today’s liturgical reading (which you may have already listened to or may have listened to live at St. Mass in the church). It is an essential theme of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and John boldly preached it (Acts 4,31); The twelve did not want to neglect him, therefore they appointed seven deacons, and it then spread (6,2.7). Later, Samaria received the word of God (8,14), and pagans in the person of Cornelius and his house also joined (11,1). God’s word goes further and further on its way from Jerusalem, touching different people and changing their lives. God’s word spreads and flourishes (v. 24) because it is alive.

is that actually God’s word? God enters into communication, he echoes. He speaks through creation, through events in history, through the Holy Scriptures; he speaks to man. But the big secret that is revealed to us is, as Benedict XVI writes. Verbum Domini exhorts that God „ from eternity utters his Word in the Holy Spirit…“ (Verbum Domini, 6). God himself is the communication of love that takes place between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is the specificity of Christianity. The Son of God, who became man, the Word made flesh, invites us to enter into this constant communication of love.

The Holy Ghost says in our excerpt (v. 2), and Barnabas, with Saul and others in Antioch, hear him. The Word of the Spirit found a soil prepared by fasting and prayer in them. It is not that God is subject to these elements of piety, but that he arouses them. But there is always the listener’s responsibility not to dull the organ of hearing that makes it possible to capture God’s message. Barnabas and Saul went on an apostolic mission, during which they preached God’s word (v. 5), because the word had already taken root in them and was growing.

Now, when we again have the opportunity to be personally present at St. Mass and receive the Eucharist (even if in a limited mode), let’s make sure that the entirety of God’s word does not fall on the earth“ due to our inattention. May God’s word bring us an abundant harvest.

As for every 13th, even this month, the thirteenth day is the day of the Virgin Mary, our heavenly mother. God had already chosen the Virgin Mary at the beginning of the world, so he decided on the thirteenth day of the month for her. We know that on the thirteenth day, the Virgin Mary chose to come and show the world the way back to Jesus Christ. On the thirteenth, she came to Fatima. Since then, every thirteenth day of the month has been her day So let’s look at the Virgin Mary even today, so that we can see in her the great graces with which God gifted her, so that today we can see her as a woman chosen by God, a woman sent to people, to your children. We heard about it in the Letter to the Romans: „To those who love God, everything helps for good.“

There, whom God has looked for, He has also predestined. God chose the Virgin Mary and predestined her for a memorable and unique mission that has no parallel. God saw Mary become the mother of His Son and the mother of all the world’s people. Maria is truly our mother. And it is not only because she wants it to be her privileged wish, but because God gave her the mission to be a mother to every person. We have a beautiful mother. A lovely, pure, holy, immaculate, full of God’s graces, a mother who loves us endlessly, a mother whom, I dare say, we will not find anywhere else in the world. Mary has a very special mission in the life of every Christian, every one of us. Just as she had a very special mission when she lived in this world, a mission to give life to her Son, stand at the birth of the church, encourage the apostles, and teach them. Mary is the true mother of all, heaven, and earth.

We read the Gospel as it became our mother. It was under the cross of her Son who offered his life to God for the salvation of the whole world. As he completed his lifelong sacrifice, the sacrifice of love, the supreme sacrifice, he gave his mother this mission. At the cross, Mary became our mother. It’s strange why at the cross. Each of us is a child of God. Through Jesus Christ, we became children of God, and through our suffering and cross, we can become children of the Virgin Mary. And we are to become them. Jesus suffers in us if we suffer because we are his brothers and sisters. After all, we are children of God. Jesus gave us a special sign through baptism, in which God looks down on us as His children. When we have difficulties and are knocked to the ground under the weight of the crosses, our mother, the Virgin Mary, stands by us.

God sent the Virgin Mary to Fatima. He does not want us to suffer, trouble, or afflict ourselves. He never wants to leave us alone. Likewise, he does not want us to be abandoned in our hardships and tribulations completely without encouragement, like Jesus. Therefore, whenever we have difficulties, he sends the Virgin Mary. He points to her and asks that we remember that she is our mother, that we accept her, beg her, and be with her. Look at her, how she tolerates your pain and helps you in your difficulties. Mary’s special mission – to be the mother of the whole world – will be fulfilled and realized only when every person accepts her as his mother. God will be most glorified, then Jesus will be most glorified, her Son, because he gave us his mother at the end of his earthly life, in other words, when he was completing his will.

Let us rejoice at this sacrifice, on the day of the Virgin Mary, to give us the grace to know how much she loves us and to beg us for the graces we need to endure hardships and sufferings. Let us ask her to walk through her life with her and with all the life that God has prepared for us. Mary’s heart will win. She said it in Fatima. Her heart’s victory will manifest in the fact that people, every believer, will honor her as their authentic and unique mother. That they will honor and love her as Jesus Christ, her Son. We are not afraid to have great respect for the Virgin Mary. Even if one of the people looks at us wrong because our respect for her is too great, we can answer it: „You think that I have bad respect for the Virgin Mary? That I love her more than her Son, Lord Jesus? So it’s not true because I can’t.“

I remember that once I had significant worries that everyone must have, they buy up, and you don’t know where to go. In these worries, I recognized the great help of the Virgin Mary, especially when I prayed to her and entrusted all those worries to her. She let me know that she is my mother, that she does not want me to exaggerate my fears, but that she wants me to give all my concerns to her and through her to Jesus Christ. Humans often cannot solve big problems by ourselves, but the Virgin Mary can help us. Let’s be like her children; she will manifest as our true Mother.

In today’s reading, Peter explains a vision he could not understand at first – he had the impression that God was telling him to eat unclean foods. However, a little later, he tells James and the other leaders of the Church that he already understands that his vision is not only about food. God knew what challenges the Church would bring when even the Gentiles began to become believers. That is why he gave Peter a vision to soften his heart. Thanks to this, Peter received the Roman soldier Cornelius, for he began to perceive the action of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles. God wanted Peter to no longer consider Cornelius and his relatives as „ defiled“, but to perceive them as brothers and sisters who also have a place in God’s kingdom (Acts 10, 15. 22-49).

And because Peter obeyed, the whole Church changed, Jews and Gentiles united to live as God’s redeemed family. God used Peter’s vision to help believers realize their imperfect thinking and align it with God’s. This vision brought them a whole new perspective on the world. God, like Peter, wants to help us recognize in which areas our thoughts and words do not coincide with his intentions. He “purified” everyone who belongs to Jesus. Although we do not get along best with some believers, we should remember that they, too, are redeemed as we are. They, too, are heirs of salvation and are our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord desires that our thoughts and speech reflect his heart’s love. Our words have great power! „Death just like life is in the power of language“ (Proverbs 18 21).

We have a huge responsibility: we can either build or tear down with our words. Every day, we can decide on one or the other. How will you think and talk about God’s children today? Can you use your words to encourage, build, and tell others how God looks at them? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you think about your brothers and sisters in Christ as he thinks. When he restores your mind, it will be easier for you to speak with love. And maybe your kind words will bring profound healing to someone