The disciples asked Christ to teach them how to pray. Jesus raised no objections, He used no strange or esoteric formulae but with great simplicity said: 'When you pray, say: Father ... And he taught them the Our Father.
This prayer also comprehends and expresses the material and spiritual requirements of human beings. ... And precisely because of our everyday needs and difficulties, Jesus exhorts us: ... 'Ask and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you'.
This is not a request for our own desires to be satisfied, but for our friendship with God to be kept alive. This was the experience of the ancient Desert Fathers, and of contemplative people in all times who, through prayer, became friends of God. In this context he quoted words of St. Teresa of Avila who encouraged her nuns to "beseech God to deliver us from these perils for ever and to keep us from all evil! And although our desire for this may not be perfect, let us strive to make the petition. What does it cost us to ask it, since we ask it of One Who is so powerful?"
Each time we pray the Our Father, our voice mingles with the voice of the Church, because one who prays is never alone. ... May the Virgin Mary help us rediscover the beauty and profundity of Christian prayer.
Benedict XVI
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