© Vatican Media
Santa Marta: Pope Encourages ‘Invasive’ Prayer
Prayer is not a Magic Wand
“In prayer be intrusive. Do not get tired,” Pope Francis encouraged during his homily at Mass October 11, 2018, at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. Prayer demands will, consistency, determination, he insisted in his homily reported by Vatican News.
Commenting on the Gospel (Lk 11: 5-13) of the friend who comes to ask for three loaves in the middle of the night, the Pope invited to pray “with courage”: “when we pray, we have a need, normally, a need. The friend is God: a rich friend who has bread, he has what we need. As if Jesus said, “In prayer be intrusive. Do not get tired. ” But do not get tired of what? To ask. ‘Ask, we will give you’. ”
But “the prayer is not like a magic wand”, it is not enough to say two Our Father and voila: “The prayer is a work: a work that asks us will, which asks us constancy, which we ask to be determined, without shame. Why? Because I knock on my friend’s door. God is a friend, and with a friend, I can do that. A constant, invasive prayer. For example, how many years did she pray like that, with tears, for the conversion of her son? The Lord finally opened the door. ”
The pope once again told the story of this Buenos Aires worker whose daughter was dying and who prayed all night in front of the Marian shrine of Luján, constantly begging. The next day, her daughter was cured. He also gave the example of capricious children who insist when they want something – “I want it! I want it! And finally, the parents give in.
Will God be angry? asked the pope. And to answer with the words of Jesus: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father of heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
God is indeed “a friend: he always gives good. He gives in addition: I ask you to solve this problem and he solves it and he also gives you the Holy Spirit. More. Let’s think a little: how do I pray? Like a parrot? Do I pray with the need of the heart? Am I fighting with God in prayer because he does not give what I need if it is right? Learn from this passage of the Gospel how to pray, “concluded Pope Francis.
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