A Word For The Youth, Bucharest, Romania, 1998
Father Gheorghe Calciu spent more than two decades in Romanian prisons for opposing Communist oppression. In this recording he shows us what it really means to pray.
Fr. Gheorghe:
“I wish you never stop praying.
I wish you understand that if there is any protection that extends over human society, or over our land, then this is the power of prayer.
Do not say a routine prayer!
Move your soul, move your heart, experience the thrill of prayer.
I’m convinced that many of you are praying.
I also prayed and I believed that I knew how to pray until I got in the prison [Romanian communist prisons]. When I got to prison I realized that I did not know how to pray.
If your soul does not vibrate, if the thrill of faith and prayer does not fully cover your being, then you are not in a true prayer.
You are in a routine…
It is not easy. But if you persist, God helps you, He gives you the grace of prayer. The grace of prayer is given upon request. Maybe sometimes God chooses some people and gives them the power of prayer, without any effort… but… usually, the grace of prayer is achieved by striving, through perseverance.
The Savior said: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence” [Matthew 11:12]. And this is our violence, to ask earnestly for the Grace that God sends us in prayer.
I am addressing now the theologians and I say to them: learn how to pray, so that you can teach others.
As long as you do not know how to pray, it is useless to say: “O, you Christian people, you should pray!”
It is useless to tell your penitent: “Pray for your sins!”
When the priest will know how to pray, then he will send the flow of power to the believer.”
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