‘Realistic’ ‘Fantastic’

‘I don’t know how to pray.’ Of course you don’t.

‘Seriously, I can’t pray.’ Of course you can’t.

St. Paul proclaims the truth:

The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words (Romans 8).

The truth is that we can and do pray in the Spirit. The truth is that we are weak.

Let’s take forgiveness as perhaps the best example:

It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense, but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession (CCC, 2843).

This is a remarkable passage from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

On the one hand, it is entirely realistic.

Life is full of offenses – sometimes intended, mostly not. We feel the pain – it’s hard to forget.

On the other hand, it is entirely fantastic.

We simply ‘offer our hearts to the Holy Spirit’ and suddenly transformation occurs:

Injury becomes compassion.

Hurt becomes intercession.

We pray in the Spirit.

Amen.