The Mystery of Talking with God

CONSIDERATION OF THE TRINITY makes us reflect not only on the three divine Persons but also on the universality of the Church. Sometimes I ask people, "To whom do you pray? ", and often enough the answer is, "To God. " Behind that word "God" is, of course, the figure of the Father or Jesus himself. But there are also people who pray to God as if they were praying to the divine essence. This is not prayer. The prayer of Christians is unavoidably personal. It is person-to-person: we pray to the Father or to the Son or to the Holy Spirit. What is more, each one of the divine Persons relates to us differently when we pray.

First of all, we do well to keep in mind that it is God himself who inspires our prayer; it is the Holy Spirit who suggests to us what the Father wants to hear. The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness, suggesting the things we should ask for according to the divine designs (cf. Rom 8: 26-27). By making us aware that we are truly children of God, the Holy Spirit frees us from fear and anxiety; it endows us with the boldness (parrhēsia) we need to call on God with the name of Father, as Jesus taught us to do and as he did himself (Gal 4: 6; Rom 8: 15). Praying in the Spirit means becoming fully aware both of our neediness and of the power of this divine presence within us. The precarious nature of our Christian existence makes us realize that we need to ask for help, and so we are given the Holy Spirit to guide us in our petition, adoration, thanksgiving, and contemplation.