UNTAPPED POWERS?

UNTAPPED POWERS?
(Portable Spiritual First Aid Kit)

Our intellect and free will are the greatest powers we have. These are the power parts of our soul. Yet many of us do not harness these powers correctly.The object of the intellect is TRUTH, while the will must tend to the GOOD. In other words these two powers ought to be directed to God Who is TRUTH and GOODNESS in Himself. Everything else are to be sought insofar as they are related to and participate in the Truth and Goodness Who is God– [the ONE, TRUE, GOOD, and BEAUTIFUL.]

Now consider that the essential act of all prayer is the raising of the mind (intellect) and heart (will) to God. Thus everytime we turn to God in prayer we are exercising these powers we have as human persons.

No wonder people of prayer become the wisest and most loving. A person who develops a deep prayer life (also called interior life) gains more and more access to the infinite wisdom and love of God. For prayer opens up for him a portal to the supernatural, instantly. No wonder many uneducated Saints turned out to be wiser than many irreligious scholars.

So then prayer should be our primary instinct. When we are lost and our life seems to be going nowhere, prayer re-orders and re-focuses our life to God. When we are beset with afflictions prayer grants us the consoling presence of God. When we are to make important decisions prayer guides us. And as St. Padre Pio advises us: “And everyday, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, PRAY.”

In our idleness, or when we freeze into inaction, with no motivation at all, prayer ought to be the first option that will surely open up to meaningful activity. Even in our sickness, mental or physical, in any miserable condition, through prayer, we can be with Jesus in the desert or upon the cross.

In short, prayer is a portable spiritual first aid kit for any problem or affliction, whether physical, emotional, mental or even spiritual. We can pray anytime and anywhere. We can simply bow our heads, perhaps close our eyes, be in God's presence, and make acts of faith, hope, and charity, consciously expressing our inner conviction of faith, hope, and love for God. Or we can resort to short ejaculatory prayers: ‘Jesus, I love you’ ‘My Mother (Mary), My confidence’, or just a sign of the cross devoutly made. Or we could simply converse intimately with Jesus in our soul, as to a Friend. [In other words, prayer ought to penetrate all the phases of our daily activities. “We pray as we live, because we live as we pray.” (CCC #2725)].

O how foolish it is to not pray, and deprive ourselves of its benefits. Prayer PURIFIES our mind and STRENGTHENS our will. In times of temptation and weakness the graces of prayer immediately ‘kick in’ to counter the effects of concupiscence.

O how proud of us to think we can solve everything on our own. Or how pessimistic we could be to just quit without praying. Nothing is impossible with God. This doesn't mean that we do not need to take action to solve our every problem, and just wait for a miracle. Rather it is in prayer that we will be led to the right course of action in every situation.

No wonder, it is said that the person of prayer is a strong person, for he has access to the strength, wisdom, love, and almighty power of God.

[Let Pope Benedict XVI exhort us then to keep looking at and imitating Jesus’ prayer “that flows through the whole of his life like a secret channel that waters existence, relationships and actions, and guides them with progressive firmness to the total gift of self in accordance with the loving plan of God the Father”. And again he exhorts us to “train ourselves in an intense relationship with God, with prayer that is not occasional but constant, full of faith, capable of illuminating our lives as Jesus taught us.”]