The fundamental issue of all the spiritual discussion led by the Author is asking as a basic expression of one’s self-awareness. Indeed, as the Antiphon of the First Vespers of Christmas states, “The whole earth longs for His face.” The “earth” of human consciousness structurally expresses itself in longing. If asking is what most describes human nature, then the problem lies in its very content. Tobit says, “Ask [the Lord God] to make all your paths straight and to grant success to all your […] plans.” As experience shows, this good outcome to which every natural tension aspires cannot result, however, from human imagination. It belongs to the freedom of the present Mystery. For this reason, asking has as its content the coming of Christ, enlarging the extent to which we would inevitably constrain our longing. Longing, therefore, finally coincides with asking for the knowledge and love of Christ.
A Christian’s prayer differs from the simple expression of a natural religiosity because it has as its content something that has happened and that permeates it in the present. So, if a prayer’s first word is “asking,” the second word is “memory.” Christian prayer is fulfilled only as memory, that is as the awareness of a great Presence that took the initiative and is capable of saving man. It is born in man as the initiative that comes from being aware of Him, as the expectation of Him. The awareness of an “I” that waits for Him is not automatic but coincides with a wished-for initiative. 
That prayer that marks our day (Angelus, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis) thus becomes an expression of the truth of ourselves. For everything would be nothing without the awareness of His presence that becomes like a rock in prayer; and all our resentment at what life seems to be lacking will crumble against this rock. Christians can thus face reality, no matter how it looks, holding out hope and assurance as they know that Being is positivity. In prayer man “works” with God—in fact, this is the point where “God does, and you do.”
In this volume, the Author retraces some prayers from the Church tradition and comments on them. The text is divided into two major sections: one devoted to the “Canticles” and one devoted to the canonical prayers that mark a Christian’s day, such as the Angelus, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis and Veni Sancte Spiritus. Veni per Mariam. To understand the depth and originality of the Author’s approach, we will consider some of the following as examples.

Jesu, Dulcis Memoria
The appearance of Christ in the world provokes a wave of consolation. Failing to perceive this wave means failing to grasp the true value of what happened and is still happening. The content of this consolation lies in the certainty that God will bring to completion what He has begun. We are only required to feel the seriousness of life, “You, the one who began this work in me, will bring it to completion.” 

As Daylight Breaks o’er the New Morning
The “night” this canticle refers to is identified by the Author with the night of the unconsciousness most people normally experience. Through this night of the world, a Christian longs to keep watch, that is, to awaken to the truth of things. He is like a wayfarer who, as one among others, has recognized the true light of reality. The Fact that happened to him reflects in a greater maturity and willingness to wait for the fulfillment of Christ. “Awaiting the coming of Christ” thus coincides with striving to convert the whole time of our day according to the Christian ideal, therefore flexing all our energies in asking. In between the Benedictus and the Magnificat, time is called to turn into begging. The one who begs, in fact, is a truly free person because, resting all their certainty on the Presence of Christ, they possess everything even though they have nothing. Therefore, at any age of life, keeping watch stands as the most imperious necessity for being ourselves. The “coming of Christ,” coinciding with His second coming, already takes place in a present anticipation. That is why waiting for His coming gives true meaning to the present moment. For every moment of the present is the instant of His glory, manifesting itself as the transfiguration of the content of what human beings do. This transfiguration is the truth of humanity. Therefore, awaiting Christ coincides with awaiting this changed humanity, this humanity that can finally be itself.

Angelus
The entire personality of Our Lady flows from the instant of the Annunciation of the angel. In that “Hail Mary” we can find all the mysterious sentiment of herself she could hold within. The gift of the Spirit within us is the continuance of this annunciation. The most striking thing about Our Lady’s personal history is the moment when the angel departed from her—at that moment the commitment of her reason and freedom was total. The memory of what had just happened to her was permeated with such affectivity and love for the truth that the fear and doubt that might arise could be overcome. All of human history, until the coming of Christ, will be marked by this drama, “The angel departed from her.” For this reason, every Christian is called to renew Mary’s “fiat,” to imitate the attitude Our Lady had when faced with what had happened to her. This means moving every moment from the shore of appearance to the shore of the great Presence. This self-awareness happens to the extent that freedom renews each morning its commitment to participate in the mystery of Our Lady. For nothing is more human than Mary’s “fiat,” nothing is more demanding to human freedom. The greatest miracle in history in which all people are involved began from this—the possibility of loving the Mystery as a fellow traveler. “Be it done unto me according to Thy word” represents, therefore, the most acute expression of charity. In her “fiat” Our Lady, though still knowing nothing, understood everything. We should be eager to understand with our minds and hearts what we already know—in fact, we cannot know until we have understood. Truth becomes important in life when we decide on it and let our hearts step in—therein lies our decision for existence. A Christian is a person who gets up in the morning so that the world can be walked through by the awareness of Christ, that is, by someone wherein the Presence of Christ gives a new face to things. Our Lady was like that. We need to ask Her to extend the measure of our hearts, very often constricted, to Her own measure, so that every fragment of life acquires, as it did for Her, the surge of the Eternal.

Veni Sancte Spiritus. Veni per Mariam
This Christian invocation identifies the yearning desire for the relationship with Christ to coincide with the relationship with reality. God’s method (covenant) and the protagonist of the world He chooses (prophet) are the place where this coincidence occurs. Christ, center of the cosmos and of history, thus becomes the instant you live, the relationship you love. Everything becomes sacred. What happened two thousand years ago in Mary is thus repeated in all the relationships established by the life of a Christian. It is faith that describes this awareness of the Event that remains in history, and that new life called holiness will flow from here.