THE WARNING: PRAYER HASTENS THE TRIUMPH

Prayer hastens The Triumph. It accelerates the transformation of the heart. Only prayer can bring about the process that produces in the heart the kind of holiness found in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Prayer alone opens the heart to the transforming love of the Father. Even Jesus, the very Son of the Father, equal to Him in all things, had to pray. He prayed so well that His whole human life became a prayer. Because He prayed perfectly, the Holy Spirit formed His Sacred Heart into the glorious vessel of Divine Life that we know it now to be. The same Spirit is working in our hearts continually by His grace, according to the degree that we open to Him in prayer. As we pray, He acts with power and love in our hearts to make them more like the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Triumph is hastened in us personally by prayer. Our Lady always reminded us of this most fundamental activity when she visited us in her apparitions. She never failed to insist on prayer, calling the visionaries who saw her to prayer and conveying to us through them her demand that we return to prayer. There is no other way to reach God. We are surrounded by the inexpressibly merciful love of the Father. We are immersed in the being of Him who is love itself, yet we can somehow still remain entirely unaware of His presence, if we do not pray. Prayer opens the mind to realities around us that are the source of eternal life and bliss. It acknowledges that we are creatures who can have a profound love-relationship with God when we turn to Him in prayer, and admits our need of His friendship in order to gain happiness. It accepts not only the possibility, but the necessity of God giving us salvation, and surrenders to the truth that we cannot save ourselves. By prayer we assert that we are not alone, and that we do not want to be alone. We are responsible to another Who loves us and Who is our God. To be with God and to let Him be with us is not only the purpose of prayer, but the very point of our existence.

[To be continued . . .]