Ave Maria Meditations
We did not merit the faith: God gave it to us as a free gift, but it is ours to cherish or to take for granted, and if we begin to take it for granted, we will surely lose it. So, we must strive instead to be ever more conscious of it, to be jealous of it and guard it. We must make it the unspoken principle that guides our every action, the center of our being and of all that we do each day. It must become as real for us, as necessary to our lives, as the air we breathe. We must constantly work to strengthen it and make it operative in all we do.
The surest way to do this, I think, is by prayer. In prayer we speak to God, we ask His help, we seek His pardon or we promise amends, we thank Him for favors received. But we cannot pray as if we were talking to the empty air; so in the very act of praying we unconsciously remind ourselves of the reality and the presence of God, thereby strengthening our belief in Him.
That is why, again in my opinion, the Morning Offering is still one of the best practices of prayer. For in it, at the beginning of each day, we accept from God and offer back to Him all the prayers, works, and sufferings of the day, and so serve to remind ourselves once again of His providence and His kingdom. If we could only remember to spend the day in His presence, in doing His will, what a difference it would make in our own lives and the lives of those around us!
We cannot pray always, in the sense of those contemplatives who have dedicated their whole lives to prayer and penance. Nor can we go around abstracted all day, thinking only of God and ignoring our duties to those around us, to family and friends and to those for whom we are responsible. But we can pray always by making each action and work and suffering of the day a prayer insofar as it has been offered and promised to God.
The Servant of God, Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.
