There is a prayer in the Pallottine Tradition, well known in our communities, in which we turn to the Lord and ask him to keep our family in the spirit of which St. Vincent was filled with, so we shall study to love all that he has loved and to work what he has taught us ...

This prayer, which we recite almost every day, is really a key to interpret and analyze the underlying motivations that bind us to our Founder, which give us a strong sense of belonging to his family.

As his children we love what St. Vincent has loved.
As his disciples we want to do what he has taught us.

Even before that in his apostolic zeal and enthusiasm in his charity towards all, it is in his experience of prayer where we discover what Saint Vincent has loved. Even more: his relationship with the Lord is the place where we come to know who  he loved and by whom he feels infinitely loved.

"You, O my God, who mercifully  created me and that with everlasting love loved me, and love me, and therefore having mercy on me, You have drawn me to you, guide me, move me You according to your infinite mercy in every thought , word, and operation." (see Vol 10 - Page 134)

"... Being a living image of God, the living image of the Holy Spirit, who is infinite love, immense incomprehensible of the Father and the Son: therefore being in the Soul a natural constituent part, which aspires to the infinite Love ... ... ... I am obliged to live a life of Infinite Love in the Infinite Love : therefore I have to adjust all the thoughts of my mind, and affections of the heart with Love to aspire to the infinite Love ... (see Vol 13 - pp. 83 - 84.)

To indicate a place from which springs up the prayer, the Scriptures speak sometimes of the soul or spirit, most often the heart ... It's the heart that prays.

The heart is the dwelling place where I am, where I live (according to the Semitic or Biblical expression: where I  "descend"). It is our hidden center, beyond the reach of our reason and others, only the Spirit of God can scrutinize and know. It is the place of the decision, which is in the depth of our psychic abilities. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the meeting place, since the image of God, we live in the rapport (cf. CCC nos. 2562-2563.)

With great respect and devotion we dare to enter the innermost sanctuary of the heart of St. Vincent, as children who access the site so dear, so secret, so jealous of their parent.
We dare to enter with fear the place which we would not want to desecrate a holy place and at the same time with the right of children who know that in this shrine is kept the most precious wealth that he left us a legacy:

"Desiring greatly to love God
I thus intend to do so in its efficacy to have loved
and to love God to give him infinite glory with  infinite perfection
infinitely from all eternity, for all eternity, infinitely
but at the same time so that I owe in heaven and on earth;
in Heaven to love God supremely ... (Vol 10 - Page 69)

When we enter the shrine of the inner life of St. Vincent - especially through his spiritual diary - we are faced with a mine of desires, intentions, aspirations, creeds, where his choice for God reaches its climax, up to undoing the most vital needs of the human person: "My God ... not the intellect, but God, not the will, but God ... not the will, but God, not sight, but God not to  hear, but God, not  to smell, but God, not the taste, and the speech, but God ... "(Vol. 10 - Page 131)

Looking at his relationship with the Lord in prayer, we understand the motivations, reasons and the way he loved God, but especially how he feels loved by God, the Father most amiable, loving, tender.

None of us ignores that St. Vincent has received a solid education in prayer. We know many episodes of his childhood, especially the way in which his mother was leading him and accompanying him (let us think of the novena to the Holy Spirit). St. Vincent acquired the spirit of prayer by his parents, by the Sacraments, from daily participation in the Eucharist with his father, from spiritual Guide through his desire for assimilation of himself to Christ (the self scourging) and his intense relationship with Madonna, until the Mystical Marriage in which, it is she who takes the initiative.

We can sideline in that of his mystical experience and very personal encounter with the ineffable Mystery, but as children we want to know how he prayed to be leave ourselves to be permeated by his spirit of prayer.

In perfect harmony with the canons of the Christian Tradition, the Prayer style of St. Vincent is just as it describes the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"Great is the mystery of faith." ... This mystery therefore requires that the faithful believe in it, celebrate it and live in a living and personal relationship with God who is living and true . Such rapport is a prayer (cfr. CCC n. 2558)

Hence St Vincent lives, the Prayer as a personal Rapport ; an intensive rapport, intimate, profound, uninterrupted, ineffable, a true immersion in God.

His prayer is a prayer of awareness, full of presence and self-consciousness; richest of all the connotations of the relationship between God and the human person, present in the Revelation: "If you knew the gift of God! "(Jn 4:10). The marveling of prayer is revealed right there at the well where we're going to try our water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being, he seeks us first and he is asking us to drink. Jesus is thirsty, and His demand rises from the depths of God who desires  us .. (cf. CCC 2560)

In the experience of San Vincent, on every page of his diary shines this spiritual truth: it is God who wants and He wants to communicate his great love, His infinite love.

Prayer, as a relationship with the Lord, so tender, loving, amiable Father and the most beloved Jesus, enamored of souls, is the most precious gift of the communicative Love of God: My heart can no longer hold to the desire to communicate with the souls , so St. Vincent writes, borrowing the words of the Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret M. Alacoque. (see Vol 10 - Page 85)

His prayer

confessio laudis: proclamation of what God does for him, of how much God loves him: "You, O my God, have loved, and are loving me .... [P. Vol.10. 134]

confessio vitae: The lucid declaration declaration luminous and sincere of his unworthiness and ingratitude, in a constant attitude and recurring, as we teach the doctrine of the Church: "From where do we start praying? From the peak of  our pride and our desire or "from deep within" (Ps. 130.1) of a humble and contrite heart?
Humility is the foundation of prayer. "We not even know what is convenient to ask for" (Rom 8:26). Humility is the necessary disposition to receive freely the gift of prayer: the man is a beggar before God (cf. CCC 2559)

confessio fidei: a solemn act of unconditional trust unto not to be true, so far as to affirm that greater is his unworthiness and his misery, so much the greater is the deluge of grace and mercy that God continues to bestow upon him "I would believe, O my God, to abuse your mercy if I think that your infinite mercy triumphs over my indisposition to be treated by You for your infinite mercy mercifully over so much more abundance of grace that if I could be righteous in the heart ..." ( OO. CC. Vol X - pg. 182)

His prayer is continuous and uninterrupted, "Pray without ceasing. Pray rather constantly with all kinds of prayers and supplications in the Spirit "[cf. 1Thes 17, 5, Ephesians 6.18] as the continuous flow of a river of clear water, moment by moment, breath by breath, without respite.
His Prayer is an intimate dialogue with the Lord and a deep and personal conversation in which he feels to be the subject of an infinite love which is free, unconditional, a love that grows as grows as much as grows his unworthiness to deserve it, or rather the awareness of not being worthy.
His prayer is an experience ineffable, untranslatable into common terms, often made of very short words or silence, because words are not enough, it is a silent contemplation, adoration, a 'mystical experience of personal encounter with Jesus Christ, who is more than beloved Bridegroom of the Soul ...

His prayer is Trinitarian: it is always directed to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is an apostolic prayer for vocations, and each one of his prayer of offering, intercession and blessings are shining examples.

His prayer has been Christ centred, always in union with Jesus for the merits of Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus: “all that you ask for in my name ” [Jh 16, 23].  Thus St.Vincent turns towards the Father: I intend to adore you, love you, thank you and pray you with all affection of the most holy heart of Jesus.


His prayer is Marian; Mary has a place of honour and has a most important role in the spiritual life of St.Vincent Pallotti. There isn’t an invocation to God that has not been expressed as by the merits and the intercession of most Holy Mary,  our more than beloved Mother. His rapport with our Lady gets culminated when  “the great Mother of Mercy, to triumph the Miracle of Mercy over the ingratitude and inconceivable unworthiness of the most miserable of all the subjects of His Kingdom of mercy,  mercifully deigns herself spiritually to espouse and even she gives me as a dowry all that she possesses and she makes known her own Divine Son, she pledges herself that everything may be transformed in the Holy Spirit”.  (cfr. OO. CC. Vol. 10 - Pg. 195)

His prayer is Universal: always for all and with union with all the Angels and Saints, with all the beings..

His is the prayer that is transforming, a full immersion in God, in His love and in His mercy:

    immersed in the blood of Jesus I confess your infinite magnificence, and my so great miseries …  (Vol. 10 - Pag. 29)
    immersed in your infinite mercy…   (Vol. 10 - Pag. 204)
    to arrive to be fully  immersed, and as transformed in your Divine Love and in your infinite Charity, and in your whole being yourself… (Vol. 13 - Pg. 53)
    Wholly wholly immersed in God, so immersed in the purity by essence … (Vol. 13 - Pg. 431)
    For ever  immersed in the sweetest torrent of your true alacrity…(Vol.13 Pg. 568)

We could continue still the list of the infinite

The experience of the relationship with God in prayer delights the heart of St.Vincent  and it renders him capable of holding the Infinite Love, Infinite Mercy, and the Holiness itself of God.

Still further, being a man become prayer, St.Vincent is a great master of Prayer.
Like his disciples we want to do as he has taught us: “ Do as he says”.

In What mode did St.Vincent teach us to pray? With words and above all with the example– as we saw until now.

His teaching, the content of his  Rule, in God the Infinite Love, in his letters in various Month of May – where he make Mary speak – he trains us to develop in ourselves a profound attitude of prayer and the contemplation of the Love of God for us all.

In his school we learn to cultivate a constant attitude of opening ourselves to the presence of God and of our availability to the action of His Spirit.

Our interior glance refines us and makes us capable to contemplate the prodigies of grace and the mercy of God, which appear in ourselves and around us; The optimum condition are created in which the power of God and the awareness of our misery, frailty, incapacity, can be finally met and enable us to grow.

It is not at all possible to expose here the whole vastness of the teachings of St.Vincent in the merit of prayer, we limit ourselves to some of the elements, with a great fear to draw some part alone his richness.

Let us take into consideration all that he has taught us to initiate the day , how to live the meditation, how to adore and rather to breath the presence of God.
“Make that o Lord your cult and the ecclesiastical ceremonies may be exercised in an exact, perfect and holy way” This has been a desire of St.Vincent from the sign of the cross in the morning until the last act of the day. His aspirations always intend towards the most sublime perfection.

As soon as we wake up, he invites us to:

    To kiss the most holy Crucifix which we have under the pillow;
    To take the holy water, marking upon us a healthy sign of the Cross;
 
   
With the trust to be fortified with the power of the Father.
illumined with the Wisdom of the Son,
and  sanctified with the virtue, and charity of the Holy Spirit.

It seems that he does not insist strongly enough in proposing the sign of the cross he had learned - in turn - from St Francis de Sales, which he calls devout and very effective practice and he reformulates in a more extended and customized version:


By myself I can do nothing, with You I can everything,
for your glory I want to do everything,
to you endless glory, honor, love, reverence
To me the scorn, shame, suffering. (cfr. Vol. 10 - Page 122)

As an expert Master of Prayer, he suggests us also the attitudes to cultivate :

    sincerely distrusting  of our own forces;
    With complete trust in God;
    With the purity of intention and by being animated by the purity of charity;
    With a true sense of despising oneself;


The Motivations:

    To grow by trusting the grace;
    To pass the day with fullness, and with the perfection of holy works;

The occasions:

    Each time, that we feel any sign of community;
    In the temptations of any kind;
    At the beginning and in proceeding of the  operations more or less enduring.

He invites us further to promote in the faithful,  a voice, and by printing.

Even in covering ourselves and in our walking style he exhorts us pray:

    The Psalm 94   with more lively and effective desire that all the beings  – who are, and who will be until the end of the world – may know, and may they render          homage, adoration, e even until the perfect obedience to the Most High:
    The Psalm 66     to obtain for ourselves, and for all the mercy, and the grace of O.L.J.C and the Eternal Life;
    The Psalm 116   With the tune of his voice to be heard of and with a more lively desire that all the peoples, and all the nations, may arrive to praise the Most High;
    The Psalm 50   T o give an iniziative to all the works of the day with a spirit of true humility, and penance.
   
He exhorts us to :

    to make continuous acts of adoration, love, gratitude, as the devotion and trust inspire us ;
    to renew and flourish the faith in the presence of God:
   
My God, I am unworthy of this gift of faith and the practice of your  divine Presence … My God, my adorations merit to be rejected by You, I intend to adore you from all eternity and for all eternity from every infinite moment of which you are One in Essence, Triune in Persons infinite in the attribute and I adore you with the Adoration of all Angels and Saints and of  of their most holy Queen Mary, and of all creatures, I intend to adore you, love you, thank you, and pray with all the affections of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

He recommends us the adoration of the most Holy Sacrament and suggests us:

   to stand in silence, with humble confidence, and great concentration, by listening to Jesus speaking to us: "I will not put any more measure to my thanks for those souls, who will be looking at to my heart."

He exhorts us to give great importance to daily meditation:

 to pray for to obtain the light and thanks to meditate with fruit;
 to have a clear purpose of meditation;
 to cultivate inner silence;
 to ask pardon of faults committed in meditation;
 to thank for the gifts and the light received;
 to pray for the gift to maintain and increase the fruits of meditation.

I ask forgiveness from the Lord and to St. Vincent for all limits and inadequacy of this sharing.

We conclude, turning to St. Vincent with the final part of the prayer mentioned at the beginning:

I pray o Father, that there in me and all your children your
spirit of humility and charity.
As Jesus Christ prayed for his disciples,
So you too pray for us all, the Holy Trinity,
for he may free us from evil, sanctify us in the Truth and confirm
in the Union.

For the personal reflection

1.  To learn how to pray, I must know what kind of relationship I have
with the Lord.

2.   How my relationship to the Family of St. Vincent Pallotti has
influenced, enriched and  deepened my relationship with the Lord and
the style of my prayer life?

3.   For my future life, what attitudes I want to cultivate  for a life of prayer
that is intense and profound?