Go to God like a Little Child

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1)

Quote from Mother Teresa: Contemplative at the Heart of the World;

“Where can I learn to pray? Jesus taught us: “Pray like this: Our Father… Thy will be done… Forgive us as we forgive.” It is so simple yet so beautiful. If we pray the “Our Father” and live it, we will be holy. Everything is there: God, myself, my neighbour. If I forgive, then I can be holy and can pray… All this comes from a humble heart, and if we have this we will know how to love God, to love self and neighbour.

This is not complicated, and yet we complicate our lives so much, by so many additions. Just one thing counts: to be humble, to pray. The more you pray, the better you will pray. How do you pray? You should go to God like a little child. A child has no difficulty expressing his little mind in simple words which say so much. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Become as a little child.” If we pray the gospel, we will allow Christ to grow in us.

One thing is necessary for us – confession. Confession is nothing but humility in action. We called it penance, but really it is a sacrament of love, a sacrament of forgiveness. That is why confession should not be a place in which to talk for long hours about out difficulties. It is a place where I allow Jesus to take away from me everything that divides, that destroys. When there is a gap between me and Christ, when my love is divided, anything can come to fill the gap. We should be very simple and childlike in confession. “Here I am as a child going to her Father.” If a child is not yet spoiled and has not learned to tell lies, he will tell everything. This is what I mean by being childlike. Confession is a beautiful act of great love. Only in confession can we go as sinners with sin and come out as sinners without sin.”

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.