Meditation Mt 6,7-15

(verse 6 is also considered, which is the preceding context)

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace:I will beg God our Lord that all my intentionsand actions may be directed purely to the praise and serviceof His Divine Majesty

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: Jesus teaches students how to pray. Maybe they are in a room, maybe the students are sitting around Jesus, who explains, not to be talkative, not to make excessive gestures, but to meet God in the silence of their apartment. See how students are listened to, how they receive the words that Jesus says. Maybe you are with them …

Ask for the fruit of meditation: for my meeting with Jesus

1. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

When you enter your apartment and close the door behind you, it usually means that you enter the most intimate place for you. If you have a mess in your apartment, you will not let strangers come in, but only those with whom you have close relationships that you trust and feel safe and do not have to pretend to be someone you are not.Perhaps that’s why Jesus is saying today, to enter your apartment for prayer, because only there you can truly meet with the Living God. Where is your apartment (it can be a specific room, it can also be a space in you) where you meet with God? For what purpose do you meet with God? What is the meeting like? What gives you a meeting with Him?

If you do not have such a place, look for it in yourself ….

2. In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us to pray Our Father.It is important to have both individual and community prayer for our spiritual development. We are all daughters and sons of God, that is why we can say our Lord’s Prayer together. When we say the words of Our Father prayer ourselves, we pray for the intentions of others (we say: give us this day our daily bread, we do not say: give me). Both types of prayers are needed, just as it is nice to meet friends in life, but later it’s good to stay alone. It is worth remembering others and taking care of them, but when we neglect ourselves, we can’t help others.How do you care for the balance between community and individual prayer? What does community prayer and individual prayer feed you?

3. I encourage you to practice:

first part: think and see what your most common prayer looks like

second part: imagine that you are going to pray to the room, the place where you usually pray. You are approaching and you see that Jesus is waiting for you there. How does your meeting with Him look like (your prayer), what are you doing?

What differences do you notice?

Meditation:St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)