Pope's Audience: "Mass is not simply listened to; it is celebrated and lived".General Audience: Praise God always, in good times and in bad.Pope to diplomats: "Education is the antidote to individualistic culture".Pope Francis addressed the faithful around the world from the Library of the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday morning, February 10.
Prayer in ordinary life
In the previous catechesis, the Holy Father reflected on how Christian prayer is "anchored" in the liturgy. On this occasion, Francis emphasized how from the liturgy prayer returns to daily life: "on the streets, in the offices, in the means of transport... And there the dialogue with God continues: those who pray are like those in love, who always carry the loved one in their hearts, wherever they may be".
The Pope affirms that "in fact, everything is taken up in this dialogue with God: every joy becomes a reason for praise, every trial is an occasion for a request for help".
Therefore, "prayer is always alive, like an ember of fire, even when the mouth does not speak. Every thought, even if it is apparently "profane", can be impregnated with prayer".
The Mystery Of God
In the same vein, he also addressed the prayerful aspect of intelligence, pointing out that "it is a window onto the mystery: it illuminates the few steps that lie before us and then opens up to the whole of reality, which precedes and surpasses it". For the Pope, "this mystery does not have an unsettling or distressing face: the knowledge of Christ makes us confident that where our eyes and the eyes of our mind cannot see, there is not nothingness, but infinite grace.
Christian prayer instills in the human heart an invincible hope: "whatever experience touches our path, God's love can turn it into good".
Each day that begins, if it is welcomed in prayer, is accompanied by courage.
Pope Francis
The Pope then reflected on the importance of facing the present with joy: "There is no other wonderful day than the day we are living today. And it is prayer that transforms it into grace, or rather, that transforms us: it pacifies anger, sustains love, multiplies joy, instills the strength to forgive. At some point it will seem to us that it is no longer we who live, but that grace lives and works in us through prayer. Each day that begins, if it is welcomed in prayer, is accompanied by courage, so that the problems to be faced are not obstacles to our happiness, but calls from God, occasions for our encounter with Him".
Pray for all
Pope Francis also encourages us to pray always for everything and everyone, both for our loved ones and for our enemies: "Prayer disposes us to a superabundant love. Let us pray above all for unhappy people, for those who weep in loneliness and despair that there is still a love that beats for them.
In short, that "prayer works miracles; and the poor then sense, by the grace of God, that even in their precarious situation, the prayer of a Christian has made present the compassion of Jesus: He in fact looked with great tenderness on the tired and lost crowd like sheep without a shepherd (cfr. Mc 6,34).
We are fragile beings, but we know how to pray: this is our greatest dignity. And when a prayer is according to the heart of Jesus, it obtains miracles.
Pope Francis
Prayer from our fragility
The Holy Father wanted to remind us that by loving the world in this way, we encounter the mystery of God: "It is necessary to love each and every person, remembering in prayer that we are all sinners and at the same time loved by God one by one. By loving this world in this way, loving it with tenderness, we will discover that every day and every thing has hidden in it a fragment of the mystery of God".
Finally, the Pope concluded his catechesis by alluding to the philosopher Pascal: "Man is like a breath, like grass (cfr. Salt 144,4; 103,15). The philosopher Pascal wrote: "It is not necessary that the whole universe be put together to crush it: a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill it".
"We are fragile beings, but we know how to pray: this is our greatest dignity. And when a prayer is according to the heart of Jesus, it obtains miracles".
