by br. Francesco D. Colacelli

“I am only a poor friar who prays”, Padre Pio would often say of himself. Above all when someone would attribute to him the merits  of a miracle and he had to make them understand that miracles come  from Our Lord and that we, all of us, may obtain them, if we ask with faith. “Ask and it will be given  you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you (Mt 7,8),  Jesus promised  us.
But prayer is not just  a means to obtain grace and divine intervention. This, in fact,  is a marginal aspect, a consequence of prayer that should be instead, “a close sharing between friends… taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.”
This   is how St. Therese of  Lisieux expressed herself  and,  in equally straight-forward terms, St Teresa of Jesus wrote: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”
Less poetically and  in a more didactic way, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that “the Lord leads all persons by...