The Freedom of the Spirit in Prayer
Reflect
Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:5-6)
Meditate
In prayer we experience, more so than in other dimensions of life, our weakness, our poverty, our being created, because we stand before the omnipotence and the transcendence of God. And the more we progress in listening to and dialoguing with God, for prayer becomes the daily breath of our soul, the more we perceive the meaning of our limits, not just before the concrete situations of every day but in our relationship with the Lord too. Growing within us is the need to trust, to trust ever more in him; we understand that we do not know how to pray as we ought. And it is the Holy Spirit who helps us in our incapacity, who illuminates our minds and warms our hearts, guiding us to turn to God.
With prayer animated by the Spirit we are enabled to abandon and overcome every form of fear and slavery, living the authentic freedom of the children of God. Without prayer which every day nourishes our being in Christ, in an intimacy which progressively grows, we find ourselves in the state described by Saint Paul in his Letter to the Romans: We do not do the good we want, but the evil we do not want…. The apostle wants to make us understand that it is not primarily our will that frees us from these conditions, nor even the law, but the Holy Spirit.
And since where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, in prayer we experience the freedom given by the Spirit: an authentic freedom, which is freedom from evil and sin for the good and for life, for God. The freedom of the Spirit…is never identified…with the possibility to choose evil, but rather with…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is true freedom: actually to be able to follow our desire for good, for true joy, for communion with God, and to be free from the oppression of circumstances that pull us in other directions.
Pope Benedict XVI
From General Audience of Wednesday, 16 May 2012, Saint Peter's Square, Rome.
Act
Try to spend at least 30 minutes in prayer (listening to and dialoguing with God) in the coming days.