Love to pray

Mother Teresa on Prayer

 

Love  to  pray, gradually increase the number of times you pray during

the day. It is a matter of practice, as you spend more time praying,

you will pray better.

Prayer  enlarges  the  heart  until  it's  capable  of  containing God's  gift of  himself . Ask  and  seek  and  your  heart  will  grow  big  enough  to receive  Him  and  keep  Him  as  your  own.  Once  we  have  met  the  living  God , and  we  have  been  attracted  by  His  goodness, we find  ourselves  increasingly  drawn  into  prayer.

What  before  was  a  simple  duty, now  becomes  a  delight.

Mother Teresa was convinced that prayer was something simple, easily accessible, life giving and that prayer transformed us in a way, as no amount of effort at self improvement ever could.

 

Mother Teresa said "I fear just one thing: money! Greed - the love of money"

Mother Teresa said "I fear just one thing: money! 

Greed - the love of money"

When Mother has a real problem: like finding a roof for lepers, a home for children(1), she goes to ask. 

And for every big donation of money she always has an immediate application in building a home, a hospital, 

a shelter... But never Mother Teresa does fund raising. The sisters know it very well: when there is no food, 

a need for a bigger place or need for money to be able to build or buy a house for the poor, Mother invites 

all the sisters to pray and often organizes adoration to put the matter in Gods' Hands.

 At the same time Mother is scrupulously looking and  checking how every single penny in a convent is spent. The sisters have to answer this every time she comes  to visit. Every cent is a gift for the poor.

Mother herself believes that she will have to answer to Jesus for every single penny people gave her, for every word she spoke, for every act she put. Because she wants her surrender to God, her trust in Him and her love for Him, so pure, so perfect, so beautiful... 

There should not be a spot, a hidden gesture, a wasted minute, a spoiled penny... Only when we can imagine a love so deep and honest, a devotion so pure, we can understand how deeply Mother was involved to a good use of the money people gave her. When we read this words of her, we can understand her 

better maybe: "I fear just one thing: money! Greed - the love of money - was what motivated Judas 

to sell Jesus." (M. Teresa)

What does it take to know God more clearly?

What does it take to know God more clearly?

The 2 essential ingredients are time and obedience. It takes time to cultivate a relationship, and unless we make the choice of setting aside consistent time for prayer & the reading of Scripture, we will never become intimate with God. 

Obedience is the proper response to this communication, since it is our personal expression of trust in the promises of the Person we are coming to know.

God's love for us is spontaneous, free, uncalled & undeserved. He did not set His love on us because we were lovable, beautiful or clever, because in our sin we were unlovable, ugly and foolish. He loved us because He chose to love us.