Abstract

The reason why people pray little may be due to Hezekiah's reforms, which prohibited any form of worship outside the temple, but also to the ignorance, indifference, fear, or lack of boldness of ordinary people. Without prayer, the human spirit is paralyzed, and spiritual life stagnates. This is noticed by all those who approached the Temple to worship (John 4:20) and pray (Luke 18:10). But it is not enough to be present in the courtyards of the Temple to offer prayers before God that will be heard and rewarded "with mercy and compassion." St. John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray, but we find no place where it is said that these disciples prayed in the wilderness or in their homes. The only motivation for worship outside the Temple must be the angelophanies and theophanies, which are quite present in the New Testament, as well as the awareness that Christ the Savior is God Himself, usually developed immediately after a miracle performed by Him. The school of prayer, in which the disciples participated as students of our Lord Jesus Christ, sets an example to follow. The Savior Himself often prays, the words of His prayer are heard and remembered by the disciples, the position of His body and the places where He prayed are also known, as are the tone of His voice and even the language in which He addresses the Father. If the Pharisees pray in order to be seen by men, the disciples must pray in secret, in the closet. If the pagans pray, saying many words, as if God does not know what they want to ask, the disciples must pray, trusting that God the Father knows what they need. They are only to act as his sons and brothers among themselves, saying the Lord's Prayer. The major difference between the Savior's disciples and the other Jews is prayer "they, with one mind, were in prayer with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers" (Phil 1:14). When the persecutor Saul of Tarsus became a Christian, Ananias received the sign from God that he could without fear approach the one who a short time before "was breathing threat and death through the cities". He finds that he 'prays'" (Phil. 9:11). Nevertheless, we must recognize that there are steps of prayer on which we walk, but few Christians come to know all the mysteries of prayer. "This is our weakness, which we recognize only and precisely as Christians: we do not know how we ought to pray".