At noon today in Rome, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims who had gathered in Saint Peter's Square for the usual Sunday appointment.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
This Sunday's gospel (Lk 11:1-13) begins with a scene in which Jesus is praying by himself, apart from others; when he is done, the disciples ask him: Lord, teach us to pray (Lk 11:1); and He responds: When you pray, say 'Father ...' (Lk 11:2). This word is the secret to Jesus' prayer, the key that He himself gives us so that we too can enter into the confidential dialogue with the Father who accompanied him and supported him throughout his life.
Jesus combines two requests with calling upon the Father: hallowed be your name, and may your kingdom come (Lk 11:2). Jesus' prayer, and therefore the prayer of every Christian, is first and foremost an act of recognizing the place we give to God, allowing him to show us his holiness within us and continuing with the creation of his kingdom, beginning with the possibility of exercising his loving reign in our lives.
Another three requests complete this prayer that Jesus teaches us: the Our Father. They are three requests that express our fundamental needs: bread, forgiveness and help to face temptations (cf Lk 11: 3-4). We cannot live without bread, we cannot live without forgiveness and we cannot live without God's help to face temptations. The bread that Jesus asks for is what we need, nothing else; it is the bread of pilgrims, justice, bread that does not accumulate and is not wasted, bread that does not weigh us down on our journey. The forgiveness he asks for is, first of all, what we ourselves receive from God: the awareness that we ourselves are sinners, forgiven through the infinite mercy of God in order to make us capable of truly accomplishing gestures of fraternal reconciliation. If a person does not feel that he himself is a forgiven sinner, he will never be able to share a gesture of forgiveness or reconciliation with someone else. It all begins in the heart, where we encounter the gift of forgiveness from our sins. The final request - do not lead us into temptation - expresses the awareness of our condition, always exposed to the insidiousness of evil and corruption. We all experience temptations!
Jesus' teaching on prayer continues with two parables, with which He takes as an example, the attitude of a friend who is approached by another friend and that of a father who is confronted by his son (cf Lk 11:5-12). Both of them can teach us to be filled with trust in God, who is our Father. He knows our needs even better than we do, but he wants us to present them to him with boldness and insistence, because this is our way of participating in his work of salvation. Prayer is the first and most important instrument of work that is placed in our hands! Being insistent with God is not about convincing him, but rather about strengthening our faith and our patience, our ability to fight with God for the things that are truly important and necessary. In prayer, God and we are joined together; we fight together for important things.
Among these, there is only one, the most important thing that Jesus says in today's gospel, but the thing that we almost never ask for: the Holy Spirit. Give me the Holy Spirit! And Jesus says: If you, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask it of him! (Lk 11:13). The Holy Spirit! We must ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit ... but why do we need the Holy Spirit? The Spirit helps us to live well, to live with wisdom and love, to do the will of God. What a beautiful prayer it would be, this week, if every one of us were to ask the Father: Father, give me the Holy Spirit! Our Lady proves this truth with her life, the life of the Spirit of God. May she help you to pray, to ask the Father, together with Jesus, to help us not to live in a mundane way, but according to the gospel, guided by the Holy Spirit.
After the prayer of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
At this moment, our souls are once again shaken by the sad news about deplorable acts of terrorism and violence which have caused suffering and death. I am thinking about the dramatic events in Munich, Germany and in Kabul, Afghanistan, where many innocent people have lost their lives.
I am close to the families of the victims and the wounded. I invite you to join me in offering our prayers, that the Lord may inspire resolutions for good and fraternity. The more insurmountable such difficulties may seem, and the more obscure the prospects of security and peace, the more insistent our prayer must be.
Dear brothers and sisters,
In these days, many young people from every part of the world are making their way to Kraków, where the Thirty-first World Youth Day will take place. I too will leave on Wednesday of this week, to meet with the young men and women and to celebrate with them and for the the Jubilee of Mercy, through the intercession of Saint John Paul II. I ask you to accompany me with your prayer. Even now, I greet and thank those who are working toward welcoming the young pilgrims, along with numerous bishops, priests, religious men and women and lay people. A special thought goes out to all those who, unable to be physically present, will follow the events through various means of communications. Let us all be united in prayer!
And now, I greet all of you, dear pilgrims who have come from Italy and from many other countries. In particular, those from São Paulo and from São João de Boa Vista in Brazil; the Giuseppe Denti choir from Cremona; and the participants and pilgrims taking part in the cycling pilgrimage from Piumazzo to Rome, an experience that is enriched by your commitment to solidarity. I greet the young people from Valperga and Pertusio Canavese (Torino): continue to strive to live and not merely to get along, as you have written on your shirts.
I wish you all a good Sunday. And please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
(original text in Italian)
Greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis
prior to the recitation of the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
This Sunday's gospel (Lk 11:1-13) begins with a scene in which Jesus is praying by himself, apart from others; when he is done, the disciples ask him: Lord, teach us to pray (Lk 11:1); and He responds: When you pray, say 'Father ...' (Lk 11:2). This word is the secret to Jesus' prayer, the key that He himself gives us so that we too can enter into the confidential dialogue with the Father who accompanied him and supported him throughout his life.
Jesus combines two requests with calling upon the Father: hallowed be your name, and may your kingdom come (Lk 11:2). Jesus' prayer, and therefore the prayer of every Christian, is first and foremost an act of recognizing the place we give to God, allowing him to show us his holiness within us and continuing with the creation of his kingdom, beginning with the possibility of exercising his loving reign in our lives.
Another three requests complete this prayer that Jesus teaches us: the Our Father. They are three requests that express our fundamental needs: bread, forgiveness and help to face temptations (cf Lk 11: 3-4). We cannot live without bread, we cannot live without forgiveness and we cannot live without God's help to face temptations. The bread that Jesus asks for is what we need, nothing else; it is the bread of pilgrims, justice, bread that does not accumulate and is not wasted, bread that does not weigh us down on our journey. The forgiveness he asks for is, first of all, what we ourselves receive from God: the awareness that we ourselves are sinners, forgiven through the infinite mercy of God in order to make us capable of truly accomplishing gestures of fraternal reconciliation. If a person does not feel that he himself is a forgiven sinner, he will never be able to share a gesture of forgiveness or reconciliation with someone else. It all begins in the heart, where we encounter the gift of forgiveness from our sins. The final request - do not lead us into temptation - expresses the awareness of our condition, always exposed to the insidiousness of evil and corruption. We all experience temptations!
Jesus' teaching on prayer continues with two parables, with which He takes as an example, the attitude of a friend who is approached by another friend and that of a father who is confronted by his son (cf Lk 11:5-12). Both of them can teach us to be filled with trust in God, who is our Father. He knows our needs even better than we do, but he wants us to present them to him with boldness and insistence, because this is our way of participating in his work of salvation. Prayer is the first and most important instrument of work that is placed in our hands! Being insistent with God is not about convincing him, but rather about strengthening our faith and our patience, our ability to fight with God for the things that are truly important and necessary. In prayer, God and we are joined together; we fight together for important things.
Among these, there is only one, the most important thing that Jesus says in today's gospel, but the thing that we almost never ask for: the Holy Spirit. Give me the Holy Spirit! And Jesus says: If you, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask it of him! (Lk 11:13). The Holy Spirit! We must ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit ... but why do we need the Holy Spirit? The Spirit helps us to live well, to live with wisdom and love, to do the will of God. What a beautiful prayer it would be, this week, if every one of us were to ask the Father: Father, give me the Holy Spirit! Our Lady proves this truth with her life, the life of the Spirit of God. May she help you to pray, to ask the Father, together with Jesus, to help us not to live in a mundane way, but according to the gospel, guided by the Holy Spirit.
After the prayer of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
At this moment, our souls are once again shaken by the sad news about deplorable acts of terrorism and violence which have caused suffering and death. I am thinking about the dramatic events in Munich, Germany and in Kabul, Afghanistan, where many innocent people have lost their lives.
I am close to the families of the victims and the wounded. I invite you to join me in offering our prayers, that the Lord may inspire resolutions for good and fraternity. The more insurmountable such difficulties may seem, and the more obscure the prospects of security and peace, the more insistent our prayer must be.
Dear brothers and sisters,
In these days, many young people from every part of the world are making their way to Kraków, where the Thirty-first World Youth Day will take place. I too will leave on Wednesday of this week, to meet with the young men and women and to celebrate with them and for the the Jubilee of Mercy, through the intercession of Saint John Paul II. I ask you to accompany me with your prayer. Even now, I greet and thank those who are working toward welcoming the young pilgrims, along with numerous bishops, priests, religious men and women and lay people. A special thought goes out to all those who, unable to be physically present, will follow the events through various means of communications. Let us all be united in prayer!
And now, I greet all of you, dear pilgrims who have come from Italy and from many other countries. In particular, those from São Paulo and from São João de Boa Vista in Brazil; the Giuseppe Denti choir from Cremona; and the participants and pilgrims taking part in the cycling pilgrimage from Piumazzo to Rome, an experience that is enriched by your commitment to solidarity. I greet the young people from Valperga and Pertusio Canavese (Torino): continue to strive to live and not merely to get along, as you have written on your shirts.
I wish you all a good Sunday. And please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
(original text in Italian)
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