This morning's General Audience began at 9:15am in Saint Peter's Square where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.
Each week, the Audience begins with a short reading from Scripture and then the Holy Father speaks to the crowd. In his speech today, the Pope continued the newest cycle of catechesis on Holy Mass, focusing today on the theme: The Mass is a prayer.
Having summarized His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
We continue with the catechesis on the Holy Mass. In order to understand the beauty of the Eucharistic celebration, I want to begin with a very simple aspect: the Mass is a prayer; in fact, it is prayer par excellence, the highest, most sublime form of prayer, and at the same time, it is the most concrete form of prayer. In fact, it is the encounter of love with God through his Word and the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is an encounter with the Lord.
But first, we must answer a question. What is the true meaning of prayer? First of all, it is a dialogue, a personal relationship with God. Man was created to exist in a personal relationship with God and to discover his full potential only in the encounter with his Creator. The path of life leads us toward this definitive encounter with the Lord.
The Book of Genesis affirms that man was created in the image and likeness of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a perfect fulfillment of love that is united. From this relationship, we can understand that all of us were created to enter into a perfect relationship of love, a continual process of giving of ourselves and receiving from God through which we discover the fullness of our being.
When Moses, standing before the burning bush, received his call from God, he asked God to reveal his name. And what did God reply? I am who am (Ex 3:14). This expression, in it's original meaning, expresses both presence and favour; in fact, immediately afterward, God adds: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ex 3:15). In this same way, Christ also calls to his disciples, calling them to stay with him. This therefore is the greatest grace: to be able to experience the truth that the Mass, the Eucharist is the most privileged moment for being with Jesus, and through him, with God and with our brothers and sisters.
Prayer, like every real dialogue, is also knowing when to remain silent - in every dialogue, there are moments for silence - present with Jesus but in silence. When we go to Mass, perhaps we sometimes arrive five minutes before the Mass begins and we chat with those who are seated beside us. But this is not the moment for chatter: it is a moment for silence in order to prepare ourselves for the dialogue. It is a moment for recollection in our hearts in order to prepare ourselves for the encounter with Jesus. Silence is so important! Try to remember what I said last week: we are not going to a concert, we are going to meet with the Lord and silence helps us to prepare ourselves, it is part of the experience. Remain in silence with Jesus. From the mysterious silence of God comes his Word which resounds in our hearts. Jesus himself teaches us how it is truly possible to be with the Father and he shows us this truth through his own prayer. The Gospels show us Jesus who went away to places set apart in order to pray; the disciples, seeing his intimate relationship with the Father, felt the desire to participate in such an encounter, and they asked him: Lord, teach us to pray (Lk 11:1). We heard these words in the reading proclaimed at the beginning of this audience. Jesus replied, explaining that the first thing that is needed in order to pray is to know how to say Father. We should be careful: if we cannot call God our Father, we will never be able to pray. We need to learn how to say Father, how to place ourselves in His presence with filial confidence. But in order for us to learn, we must first recognize the fact that we need to be taught, and we must say with simplicity: Lord, teach us to pray.
This is the first point: to be humble, to recognize ourselves as children, to rest in the Father's presence, to trust Him. In order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven, we must make ourselves small, like children ... in the sense that children are trusting, they know that someone is caring for them, providing something for them to eat, what they will wear and so on (cf Mt 6:25-32). This is the first attitude: trust and confidence, like a child relates to his or her parents, knowing that God remembers you, that He is taking care of you, of you, of me, of all of us.
The second predisposition, which is also fitting for children, is to allow ourselves to be surprised. A child will always ask thousands of questions because he or she wants to discover the world; he or she will even wonder about small things because everything is new for him or her. In order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven, we must allow ourselves to marvel. In our relationship with the Lord, in prayer - I wonder - do we allow ourselves to marvel or do we think that prayer is the act of speaking with God like parrots? No, it is an act of entrusting ourselves and opening our hearts in order to allow ourselves to be filled with wonder. Do we allow ourselves to be surprised by our God, who is always a God of surprises? An encounter with the Lord is always a living experience, it is not like a museum meeting. It is a living encounter and we go to Mass not to a museum. We go to Mass in order to experience a living encounter with the Lord.
The gospel presents a certain person named Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-21), an old man, an authority in Israel, who goes to Jesus in order to get to know him; and the Lord speaks with him about the need to be reborn from above (cf Jn 3:3). What does this mean? Can we be re-born? Is it possible to return to the point of having a taste for life, to experiencing joy, to marvelling at life, even in the face of much tragedy? This is one of the fundamental questions of our faith, a desire that is found in the heart of every believer: the desire to be born again, to experience the joy of starting over. Have we ever experienced this desire? Have we all wanted to be born again in order to encounter the Lord? Do you have this desire within you? In fact, we can easily lose it, as a result of many different activities, many projects being worked on at the same time, in the end, we don't have a lot of time and we lose sight of what is most important: the life of our hearts, our spiritual life, our life that is found and nurtured in the encounter with the Lord in prayer.
In truth, the Lord surprises us by showing us that He loves us even in our weakness. Jesus Christ ... is the victim of atonement for our sins; not only for our sins, but for everyone's sins (1 Jn 2:2). This gift, a source of true consolation - for the Lord always forgives us - this gift, consolation, is truly consoling. It is a gift that is given us through the Eucharist, the nuptial banquet in which the Bridegroom encounters our fragility. Can I say that when I receive communion at Mass, the Lord encounters my fragility? Yes! We can say this because it is true! The Lord encounters our fragility in order to bring us back to our first calling: the call for each of us to be created in the image and likeness of God. This is the environment of the Eucharist, the environment of prayer.
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages and he himself greeted each group of pilgrims in attendance. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from England, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Hong Kong and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Each week, the Audience begins with a short reading from Scripture and then the Holy Father speaks to the crowd. In his speech today, the Pope continued the newest cycle of catechesis on Holy Mass, focusing today on the theme: The Mass is a prayer.
Having summarized His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.
Scripture for today's Audience
Lk 11:1-4
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.
Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
We continue with the catechesis on the Holy Mass. In order to understand the beauty of the Eucharistic celebration, I want to begin with a very simple aspect: the Mass is a prayer; in fact, it is prayer par excellence, the highest, most sublime form of prayer, and at the same time, it is the most concrete form of prayer. In fact, it is the encounter of love with God through his Word and the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is an encounter with the Lord.
But first, we must answer a question. What is the true meaning of prayer? First of all, it is a dialogue, a personal relationship with God. Man was created to exist in a personal relationship with God and to discover his full potential only in the encounter with his Creator. The path of life leads us toward this definitive encounter with the Lord.
The Book of Genesis affirms that man was created in the image and likeness of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a perfect fulfillment of love that is united. From this relationship, we can understand that all of us were created to enter into a perfect relationship of love, a continual process of giving of ourselves and receiving from God through which we discover the fullness of our being.
When Moses, standing before the burning bush, received his call from God, he asked God to reveal his name. And what did God reply? I am who am (Ex 3:14). This expression, in it's original meaning, expresses both presence and favour; in fact, immediately afterward, God adds: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ex 3:15). In this same way, Christ also calls to his disciples, calling them to stay with him. This therefore is the greatest grace: to be able to experience the truth that the Mass, the Eucharist is the most privileged moment for being with Jesus, and through him, with God and with our brothers and sisters.
Prayer, like every real dialogue, is also knowing when to remain silent - in every dialogue, there are moments for silence - present with Jesus but in silence. When we go to Mass, perhaps we sometimes arrive five minutes before the Mass begins and we chat with those who are seated beside us. But this is not the moment for chatter: it is a moment for silence in order to prepare ourselves for the dialogue. It is a moment for recollection in our hearts in order to prepare ourselves for the encounter with Jesus. Silence is so important! Try to remember what I said last week: we are not going to a concert, we are going to meet with the Lord and silence helps us to prepare ourselves, it is part of the experience. Remain in silence with Jesus. From the mysterious silence of God comes his Word which resounds in our hearts. Jesus himself teaches us how it is truly possible to be with the Father and he shows us this truth through his own prayer. The Gospels show us Jesus who went away to places set apart in order to pray; the disciples, seeing his intimate relationship with the Father, felt the desire to participate in such an encounter, and they asked him: Lord, teach us to pray (Lk 11:1). We heard these words in the reading proclaimed at the beginning of this audience. Jesus replied, explaining that the first thing that is needed in order to pray is to know how to say Father. We should be careful: if we cannot call God our Father, we will never be able to pray. We need to learn how to say Father, how to place ourselves in His presence with filial confidence. But in order for us to learn, we must first recognize the fact that we need to be taught, and we must say with simplicity: Lord, teach us to pray.
This is the first point: to be humble, to recognize ourselves as children, to rest in the Father's presence, to trust Him. In order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven, we must make ourselves small, like children ... in the sense that children are trusting, they know that someone is caring for them, providing something for them to eat, what they will wear and so on (cf Mt 6:25-32). This is the first attitude: trust and confidence, like a child relates to his or her parents, knowing that God remembers you, that He is taking care of you, of you, of me, of all of us.
The second predisposition, which is also fitting for children, is to allow ourselves to be surprised. A child will always ask thousands of questions because he or she wants to discover the world; he or she will even wonder about small things because everything is new for him or her. In order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven, we must allow ourselves to marvel. In our relationship with the Lord, in prayer - I wonder - do we allow ourselves to marvel or do we think that prayer is the act of speaking with God like parrots? No, it is an act of entrusting ourselves and opening our hearts in order to allow ourselves to be filled with wonder. Do we allow ourselves to be surprised by our God, who is always a God of surprises? An encounter with the Lord is always a living experience, it is not like a museum meeting. It is a living encounter and we go to Mass not to a museum. We go to Mass in order to experience a living encounter with the Lord.
The gospel presents a certain person named Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-21), an old man, an authority in Israel, who goes to Jesus in order to get to know him; and the Lord speaks with him about the need to be reborn from above (cf Jn 3:3). What does this mean? Can we be re-born? Is it possible to return to the point of having a taste for life, to experiencing joy, to marvelling at life, even in the face of much tragedy? This is one of the fundamental questions of our faith, a desire that is found in the heart of every believer: the desire to be born again, to experience the joy of starting over. Have we ever experienced this desire? Have we all wanted to be born again in order to encounter the Lord? Do you have this desire within you? In fact, we can easily lose it, as a result of many different activities, many projects being worked on at the same time, in the end, we don't have a lot of time and we lose sight of what is most important: the life of our hearts, our spiritual life, our life that is found and nurtured in the encounter with the Lord in prayer.
In truth, the Lord surprises us by showing us that He loves us even in our weakness. Jesus Christ ... is the victim of atonement for our sins; not only for our sins, but for everyone's sins (1 Jn 2:2). This gift, a source of true consolation - for the Lord always forgives us - this gift, consolation, is truly consoling. It is a gift that is given us through the Eucharist, the nuptial banquet in which the Bridegroom encounters our fragility. Can I say that when I receive communion at Mass, the Lord encounters my fragility? Yes! We can say this because it is true! The Lord encounters our fragility in order to bring us back to our first calling: the call for each of us to be created in the image and likeness of God. This is the environment of the Eucharist, the environment of prayer.
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages and he himself greeted each group of pilgrims in attendance. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from England, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Hong Kong and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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