Extracts from the Dux Spiritualis by the Venerable Louis
de Ponte SJ
Chapter 2.2.1 THY Kingdom come
How by prayer we impetrate and even now enjoy the Kingdom
of God
In testimony of which Christ Our Lord, whilst engaged in
prayer, revealed to us two advantages of this kingdom. For first we read that
while He prayed heaven was opened to Him, and the Holy Ghost
descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon Him, and a voice came from Heaven; Thou
art my Son, in Thee I am well pleased [cf St Luke iii, 21 seq.].
What does this signify but that prayer is the key that
opens the gate of Heaven that our spirit may enter and learn heavenly secrets,
and that it brings down the Holy Ghost to dwell in our hearts and builds there
the nest in which the heavenly dove resides, filling our souls with His gifts
and graces and making us the children of God by adoption?
Again it was while he was praying that the same Lord was
transfigured with great splendour and glory and was overshadowed by
a bright cloud, from which came the voice of the eternal Father [Cf St
Matthew 17; St Mark ix; St Luke ix].
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For as prayer implores the coming of the Kingdom, it also
receives it; it merits a foretaste of the glories of Heaven; it beatifies us,
first by Hope and afterwards by possession.
Prayer:
Supreme King, bestow on me the gift of prayer that I may
enter Thy Kingdom and obtain the inestimable riches of Thy Grace and Thy Glory.
Amen.
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