At 7:00am local time this morning (2:00am EDT), the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass inside the chapel at the Casa Santa Marta.
Let us pray today for people who because of the pandemic, have begun to experience economic difficulty, because they are not working and all this stress falls on their families. Let us pray for those who have this problem.
This father asks for health for his son (cf Jn 4: 43-54). The Lord reproaches everyone, but he also reproaches his man: If you do not see signs and wonders, you do not believe (cf Jn 4: 48). Instead of being silent, the official goes on and says to him: Lord, come before my child dies (Jn 4: 49). And Jesus replies: Go, your son will live (Jn 4: 50).
These are three things necessary to make a real prayer. The first is faith: If you have no faith ... And many times, prayer is only oral, with the mouth, but it does not come from the faith of the heart; or is it a weak faith? ... We can think of another father, the father of the demon-possessed son, when Jesus replied: Everything is possible for him who believes; as the father clearly said, I believe, but increase my faith (cf Mk 9: 23-24). Faith in prayer. Praying with faith, both when we pray outside (from a place of worship), and when we come here (praying in our hearts), the Lord is there: do I have faith or is it a habit? We are careful in prayer: do not fall into a habit without the awareness that the Lord is there, that I am speaking with the Lord and that He is capable of solving the problem. The first condition for true prayer is faith.
The second condition that Jesus teaches us is perseverance. Some people ask, but grace does not come: they do not have this perseverance, because after all they do not need it, or they do not have faith. And Jesus himself teaches us the parable of that gentleman who comes to his neighbour to ask for bread at midnight: the perseverance of knocking on the door (cf Lk 11: 5-8). Or the widow who faces the unjust judge: she insists and insists and insists: this is perseverance (cf Lk 18: 1-8). Faith and perseverance go together, because if you have faith, you can be sure that the Lord will give you what you ask. And if the Lord makes you wait, knock, knock, knock ... in the end the Lord will give grace. But this is not all, the Lord does not do this because he is saying: it is better than we wait, no. He does this (waits) for our sake, so that we take him seriously. We need to take prayer seriously, not be like parrots: blah blah blah and nothing more. Jesus himself reproaches us: Do not be like pagans who believe in the efficacy of prayer and in words, many words (cf Mt 6: 7-8). No. There is perseverance there. This is faith.
And the third thing that God wants in prayer is courage. Someone may think: does it take courage to pray and to stand before the Lord? It does. It takes courage to be there asking and moving forward, indeed, almost ... - almost, I don't mean a heresy - but almost as if we are threatening the Lord ... like the courage of Moses standing before God when God wanted to destroy the people and make him the leader of another people. He said: No. I am with the people (cf Ex 32: 7-14). Courage ... the courage of Abraham, when he negotiated the salvation of Sodom: And if there were 30, and if they were 25, and if they were 20 ... : there, courage (cf Gen 18,22-33). This virtue of courage takes a long time. Not only for apostolic actions, but also for prayer.
Faith, perseverance and courage. In these days, in which it is necessary to pray, pray more, we can think that if we pray like this: with faith, that the Lord can intervene, with perseverance and courage. The Lord does not disappoint, does not disappoint us. He makes us wait, he takes his time, but he doesn't disappoint. Faith, perseverance and courage.
After the completion of the Mass, the Holy Father spent some time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. His Holiness offered the following prayer, leading all those who were united with him in prayer via various media:
My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. I love you above all things and I desire you in my soul. Since I cannot receive You sacramentally now, at least spiritually come to my heart. As you have already come, I embrace you and I join myself to you. Do not let me ever be separated from you.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the celebration of the Mass
Let us pray today for people who because of the pandemic, have begun to experience economic difficulty, because they are not working and all this stress falls on their families. Let us pray for those who have this problem.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 23 March 2020
This father asks for health for his son (cf Jn 4: 43-54). The Lord reproaches everyone, but he also reproaches his man: If you do not see signs and wonders, you do not believe (cf Jn 4: 48). Instead of being silent, the official goes on and says to him: Lord, come before my child dies (Jn 4: 49). And Jesus replies: Go, your son will live (Jn 4: 50).
These are three things necessary to make a real prayer. The first is faith: If you have no faith ... And many times, prayer is only oral, with the mouth, but it does not come from the faith of the heart; or is it a weak faith? ... We can think of another father, the father of the demon-possessed son, when Jesus replied: Everything is possible for him who believes; as the father clearly said, I believe, but increase my faith (cf Mk 9: 23-24). Faith in prayer. Praying with faith, both when we pray outside (from a place of worship), and when we come here (praying in our hearts), the Lord is there: do I have faith or is it a habit? We are careful in prayer: do not fall into a habit without the awareness that the Lord is there, that I am speaking with the Lord and that He is capable of solving the problem. The first condition for true prayer is faith.
The second condition that Jesus teaches us is perseverance. Some people ask, but grace does not come: they do not have this perseverance, because after all they do not need it, or they do not have faith. And Jesus himself teaches us the parable of that gentleman who comes to his neighbour to ask for bread at midnight: the perseverance of knocking on the door (cf Lk 11: 5-8). Or the widow who faces the unjust judge: she insists and insists and insists: this is perseverance (cf Lk 18: 1-8). Faith and perseverance go together, because if you have faith, you can be sure that the Lord will give you what you ask. And if the Lord makes you wait, knock, knock, knock ... in the end the Lord will give grace. But this is not all, the Lord does not do this because he is saying: it is better than we wait, no. He does this (waits) for our sake, so that we take him seriously. We need to take prayer seriously, not be like parrots: blah blah blah and nothing more. Jesus himself reproaches us: Do not be like pagans who believe in the efficacy of prayer and in words, many words (cf Mt 6: 7-8). No. There is perseverance there. This is faith.
And the third thing that God wants in prayer is courage. Someone may think: does it take courage to pray and to stand before the Lord? It does. It takes courage to be there asking and moving forward, indeed, almost ... - almost, I don't mean a heresy - but almost as if we are threatening the Lord ... like the courage of Moses standing before God when God wanted to destroy the people and make him the leader of another people. He said: No. I am with the people (cf Ex 32: 7-14). Courage ... the courage of Abraham, when he negotiated the salvation of Sodom: And if there were 30, and if they were 25, and if they were 20 ... : there, courage (cf Gen 18,22-33). This virtue of courage takes a long time. Not only for apostolic actions, but also for prayer.
Faith, perseverance and courage. In these days, in which it is necessary to pray, pray more, we can think that if we pray like this: with faith, that the Lord can intervene, with perseverance and courage. The Lord does not disappoint, does not disappoint us. He makes us wait, he takes his time, but he doesn't disappoint. Faith, perseverance and courage.
After the completion of the Mass, the Holy Father spent some time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. His Holiness offered the following prayer, leading all those who were united with him in prayer via various media:
Prayer to make a spiritual communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. I love you above all things and I desire you in my soul. Since I cannot receive You sacramentally now, at least spiritually come to my heart. As you have already come, I embrace you and I join myself to you. Do not let me ever be separated from you.
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