I do not ask you now to think about Him, or to get many concepts, or to make great and delicate considerations with your understanding: «I do not ask you other thing than to look at him» (Way of Perfection cap 26,3).
From this quote from Way of Perfection, this year’s theme for the «Pro Orantibus» Day is taken out. In her eagerness to teach us from her own experience what is the path of prayer for Teresa of Jesus, she does not stop taking us through the ways of looking inside us, at that sustained attention, without reason, in a simple act of loving gaze that opens us to unknown but real possibilities, to welcome the mystery of God, of ourselves and of others.
It is beautiful the time of the Church we are living, where the Magisterium of Pope Francis calls us to return to the Gospel. It is important that all current human discoveries and studies, in some way, say that human beings cannot be realized without enhancing their spiritual dimension. It is a fact and a reality that we see in our daily living, even within a society like ours affected by superficiality and materialism. From these realities, the gaze of the God who saves us in Jesus Christ becomes urgent and necessary. Not only because we celebrate the Pro Orantibus Day, not even for being the day of the contemplative, but because when the person turns to his interiority, there is a way out of hope.
To look and let yourself look, is to develop that sense of search that is in «our entrails drawn». We seek because we are open beings and that opening has no end, as there is no end to being creatures of God. We need to hear words that open us to the Mystery. John in the Desert, saw and showed the «Lamb that takes away the sins of the world». Only those who are educated in the desert solitude have a penetrating gaze to show Salvation. «Master, where do you live, where do you stay?». And the disciples of the Prophet of the Desert, stayed with Him, when He said to them: «Come and you will see it».
Prayer is the condition that gives us the possibility to live in that state of openness of trust and liberation. The mystics of all times are those who teach us to see, to awaken, to show us ways, and to teach us processes. For this we must learn to see, and also to listen, to interpret times and sounds. The life of prayer, we can evaluate it in us. When we are open to the Mystery, everything opens and expands and this affects our way of being in the world. It involves the passage from rejection to acceptance, from indifference to solidarity, from individualism to generosity.
«If we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit rather than our own preconceptions, we can and must try to find the Lord in every human life» (Gaudete et exsultate, n.42)
Montserrat de la Cruz, ocd
Discalced Carmelites Villarrobledo (SP)
