{"id":23470,"date":"2016-03-15T01:41:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T07:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=23470"},"modified":"2017-04-27T19:40:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T23:40:07","slug":"prayer-from-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/prayer-from-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer from the Heart","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

LENTEN RETREAT
\n Day 30<\/p>\n

\"hot-air-balloon-burner\"<\/p>\n

GOD <\/strong>knows, there have been a million books written on the science of prayer. But lest we become discouraged from the beginning, remember that it was not the Scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the law that Jesus held nearest His heart… but the little ones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Matt 19:14)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So let us approach prayer in the same way, like children who come to love, and be loved on the knee of Christ\u2014on the Father’s knee. <\/em>And so, what is necessary to pray, is to be willing to pray; to learn to pray better, pray more. But more than anything, we have to learn to pray from the heart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Going back to the analogy of the hot air balloon, what is necessary to inflate our “hearts” is the burner of prayer. <\/em>But by this I do\u00a0not mean a mere volume\u00a0of words, rather, it is love <\/em>that inflates the heart.<\/p>\n

When we are baptized\u00a0and\u00a0confirmed into the Christian life, it’s as though God gives to us this burner, as well as an infinite supply of propane, that is, the Holy Spirit. [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. Rom 5:5<\/span><\/span>