( East 4,1.3-5.12-14 )
I have no other help besides you, O Lord.
From the Book of Esther
In those days, Queen Esther sought refuge with the Lord, seized by anguish. It fell to the ground with her maids from morning to night and said :
" Blessed art thou, God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Come and help me, who am alone and have no help but Thee, O Lord, because a great danger above me.
I have heard from the books of my ancestors, Sir, that you release all those who up to last your will. Now, Lord, my God, help me, who am alone and have no one except you.
Come to rescue me, who are orphaned, and place her on my lips an appropriate word in front of the lion, and make me appreciate him. Turn your heart to hatred against those who fight us, to ruin her and those who agree with him. As for us, free us from the hand of our enemies, turn our mourning into joy and our salvation in suffering .
Prayer of Esther contains the fundamental elements in relation to how they should pray.
high After the prayer of praise to God, Esther forward your request.
Prayer is presented in the words of Esther as a gradual process of spiritual maturity. The ability to pray authentically, like the ability to reach certain depth dialogue with the Lord, not the result of a technique or a methodology learned, but by a gradual process, during which the person enters into an ever deeper with the Spirit of God, as happens in every relationship also on a human level, with time and with the sharing of experience, every personal relationship intensifies and deepens.
Ester The reference to his childhood is not accidental.
In adulthood, Esther is able to entrust to God, his personal problems, is capable of expressing a prayer of praise and petition, and such a prayer, as we see later in this story, obtaining infallibly its effects benefits on an entire people.
Above all what is sown in childhood, returns to the surface in the most difficult of adult life. The prayer of Esther ends recognizing the absolute sovereignty of God and his knowledge of all that is hidden, then follows the request for his intervention in favor of Israel, that God will intervene through the person of Esther.
The person praying must therefore know that the prayer of intercession, requires a personal contribution from any person who prays, a contribution of struggle and personal risk, a contribution of willingness to be instruments of God's work, if paying in person. Esther has demonstrated that this second characteristic of the person: the willingness to take risks in the name of the Lord. When asked where to find such courage, he responds by saying that the courage to serve God, drawn from the same prayer. The prayer is a way to draw strength in the Lord (cf. Eph 6:10; 2 Tim 2:1).
That God Almighty that Esther perceives as prevenient, as the One who knows all and dominates all but the first is our Father.
The heart of God, infinitely perfect and sensitive than a sense of the supernatural, is moved to the request of the man who approached him with the same confidence of children.
Christian prayer at this point takes on its deeper meaning: the inner experience of being "children of God, "leads the human heart to the unlimited confidence of prayer.
http://www.cristomaestro.it/lectio_liturgica/tempi_forti/quaresima/giovedi_quaresima.htm
0 comments:
Post a Comment