Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Following the example of what Jesus has done throughout his life, to the point of Calvary, " in our prayer we learn to enjoy the beauty of being friends, even children of God, to call upon him with the confidence and trust that has a child toward their father. " And that despite "the absence of a father, the problem of a father who is not present for his children, which is a widespread problem in our time and the father figure is often not perceived as sufficiently positive in people's everyday lives' '

Prayer, in particular what St. Paul says about it, was again at the center of Benedict XVI 's reflections to over 20 thousand people in St. Peter's Square for the general audience.

"St. Paul - said the Pope, who illustrated two songs from the letters to the Corinthians, and Romans - says that the Holy Spirit is the great teacher of prayer" and urges us to turn to the Father as Abba, the familiar term by which children address their parent. "So did Jesus throughout his life, abandoning himself with the trust, confidence and affection of a child towards his father" and "from the very outset of its journey the Church accepted this made it is own in the Our Father, when we say: Thy will be done. "

"This indicates a filial relationship of deep trust as that of children, like that of Jesus to the Father, even if the relationship is different" Him being the immortal child, and our filial adoption to which, thanks to him, all humans are called. The fatherhood of God, the Pope continued, "for some is a projection of our fathers to heaven, but is the contrary and the Gospel shows how a real father is, so that we can wonder at, and also learn true fatherhood".

The fatherhood of God, said Benedict XVI, has two dimensions: "Our father is because he is the creator of everything; man is a miracle of God, is willed by him and is personally known to him." For him, " we human beings are not anonymous, impersonal, but we have a name."

"But that's not enough. The Spirit of Christ gives us a second dimension of the fatherhood of God, because Jesus is the Son in the full sense", who "becoming a human being like us" welcomes us in his humanity and his own to be the Son, so that we too might enter the same belonging to God "Certainly our being children of God does not have the fullness of Jesus: we must become so more and more, along the path of our whole Christian life, growing up in following Christ, in communion with Him to enter ever more deeply into the loving relationship with God, who sustains our lives. This is the fundamental reality that is disclosed when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and He makes us turn to God calling Him Abba, Father ".

The two passages of St. Paul on the action of the Holy Spirit in our prayer, "are two steps that correspond, but also contain a different hue. In Galatians, in fact, the Apostle says that the Spirit within us cries' Abba Father, while in the Letter to the Romans he tells us to cry Abba Father. St. Paul wants us to understand that Christian prayer is never one-way from us to God, not only our actions, but an expression of a reciprocal relationship in which God acts first: it is the Spirit who cries out in us, and we can cry out because of the impulse of the Holy Spirit. "

"Thus we understand that the prayer of the Spirit of Christ in us and ours in Him, is not just an individual act, but an act of the whole Church. As we approach the Father in our interior chamber, in silence and recollection, we not alone, we never are. Those who speak with God are not alone. We are in the great prayer of the Church, we are part of a great symphony that the Christian community spread all over the earth and raises in every age to God, some musicians and instruments are different - and this is an element of wealth - but the melody of praise is unique and in harmony. Whenever, then, we cry and say, Abba Father, the Church, the whole community of men in prayer, support our petition and our prayer is prayer of the Church. "

"Let us learn in our prayer - the Pope concluded- to enjoy the beauty of being friends, even children of God, to be able to turn to Him with the confidence and trust of a child towards parents who love him. Let us open our prayer to the Holy Spirit so we may cry to God Abba, Father and so our prayer may change, constantly converting our thoughts, our actions to make them more consistent with those of Jesus Christ. "