, that is. Excerpts: The Holy Father continues to speak with a sharp sense of urgency:And if I may, here are some books to get you started (scroll down). Or if that's too much, just say, "Jesus, my Lord and my God! Help! Thanks! Love you!" Rinse, repeat...
“Yes, you have to come to know Jesus in the Catechism – but it is not enough to know Him with the mind: it is a step. However, it is necessary to get to know Jesus in dialogue with Him, talking with Him in prayer, kneeling. If you do not pray, if you do not talk with Jesus, you do not know Him. You know things about Jesus, but you do not go with that knowledge, which He gives your heart in prayer. Know Jesus with the mind – the study of the Catechism: know Jesus with the heart – in prayer, in dialogue with Him. This helps us a good bit, but it is not enough. There is a third way to know Jesus: it is by following Him. Go with Him, walk with Him.”
It is necessary, “to go, to walk along the streets, journeying.” It is necessary, said Pope Francis, “to know Jesus in the language of action.” Here, then, is how you can really know Jesus: with these “three languages - of the mind, heart and action.” If, then, “I know Jesus in these ways,” he said in conclusion, “I involve myself with Him”:
“One cannot know Jesus without getting oneself involved with Him, without betting your life [on] Him. When so many people – including us – pose this question: ‘But, who is He?’, The Word of God responds, ‘You want to know who He is? Read what the Church tells you about Him, talk to Him in prayer and walk the street with him. Thus, will you know who this man is.’ This is the way! Everyone must make his choice.”
...The prayer is the key. Without it, we can know the Catechism back and forth, and we can seek to serve others and look for Christ in each other, but the root of all of that — the root that feeds our understanding of the books and helps us to see Christ in others, and to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit — is prayer. Daily prayer is what nourishes all of the rest: feeds it, supports it, connects it, grounds it, as Mary grounded Martha...
Or "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner."
Or the Our Father. Or the Sign of the Cross. It's not hard to get started. Make it a habit. Do it as needed, and do it daily even when you don't think you need to.
Other great prayers:
A few excellent basic guides to prayer:
- Fr. Thomas Dubay, Prayer Primer : Igniting a Fire Within
- Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
- Mark Shea, The Heart of Catholic Prayer: Rediscovering the Our Father and the Hail Mary
- Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire
- ed. by Mike Aquilina and David Scott, Weapons of the Spirit: Selected Writings of Father John Hugo
- Fr. Thomas Dubay, Deep Conversion/ Deep Prayer
- Fr. Robert Barron, The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path
- Dan Burke, Navigating the Interior Life: Spiritual Direction and the Journey to God
- Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Conversions in the Spiritual Life
- Father Jordan Aumann, OP, Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition
- Father Thomas Dubay, Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel-On Prayer
- Fr. Harvey Egan, SJ, An Anthology of Christian Mysticism (Pueblo Books)
- Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life (2 Volume Set)
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