Fr Lombardi editorial: Prayer, mystery and desire

The Pope has begun a new cycle of catechesis on prayer in his Wednesday audience. It is not in any way an obvious subject. It is not an obvious subject because in the frenetic pace of today’s materialistic and secularised context, we tend to marginalize the role of reflection and contemplation in our lives and also that of prayer.

It is not obvious because often in Christian circles we talk about prayers and praying, we look for the right "formulas", but rarely go any further, to the point of putting God and our relationship with him at the very centre of our person and our lives.

It is not obvious, but it does meet with a widespread, universal yearning of "digital man just like the caveman” and its no small point that these first lessons by the Pope have already drawn great interest. Rightly, the Pope began with those prayers that have always been always present, in all civilizations and cultures, with some wonderful quotes culminating in the sublime hymn attributed to Proclus, "You Beyond all": "Unknowable, nobody can hold you. Everything that we think belongs to you. To thee, O Ineffable, whose presence our souls perceive, we raise a hymn of silence. " Understanding and feeling that God is more, that He is mysterious, yet at the same time in the depths of the soul lies "a thirst for infinity, a longing for eternity, a desire for love, a need for light and truth, that encourage us to the Absolute "- in a word," the desire for God. " These are the two main conditions that must be rediscovered in all their truth and power first to turn to Jesus and to personally meet the true God through him. Mystery and desire. This is the common ground of humanity that prays, upon which the precious seed of Christian prayer can fall and become fruitful.