I am now reading my third book about Pope Francis and this is the best one as it is really the source that the other books seem to have used and this is the one I kept looking for : "Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio" by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin. Here is what the then Cardinal said in interviews in 2010 on prayer. The question asked him was "In your opinion, what should the experience of prayer be like?" (I love the question and wish more of my sisters would want to answer this question - not an easy one but so important.)
"In my view, prayer should somehow be an experience of giving way, of surrendering, where our entire being enters into the presence of God. It is there where a dialogue happens, the listening, the transformation. Look to God, but above all feel looked at by God. Sometimes the religious experience in prayer occurs to me when I pray aloud with the rosary or the psalms. Or when I joyfully celebrate the Eucharist. But the moment when I most savor the religious experience, however long it may be, is when I am before the tabernacle. At times, I allow myself to fall asleep while sitting there, looking at it. I feel as if I were in someone else's hands, as if God were taking me by the hand. I think you have to reach the transcendental otherness of the Lord, that the Lord is everything, but He always respects our freedom."
I hope each of you will reflect on your experience of prayer today. I know that I go to prayer to allow God to love me and so I especially like the sentence: "Look to God, but above all feel looked at by God."
My mother once asked me if I thought she was praying correctly for "I just go to Church and begin to thank for my woderful husband and my four children and then I just sit there in gratitude." I remember telling her that her prayer was just right and God was pleased to see her gratitude. I now try to remember to do the same, at least some days!
Today, in some places such as the Vatican, the Feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated; we will celebrate it on Sunday.
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