Pope at Audience: Prayer cultivates
flowers of rebirth
Pope Francis continues his catechesis on prayer, turning his
thoughts to the prayer of the just.
By Francesca Merlo
Pope Francis began his General Audience on Wednesday telling
the faithful that “God’s plan regarding humanity is for the good”, even though
“we experience the presence of evil” in our everyday lives.
The Pope recounted two stories from the book of Genesis that
describe the emergence and expansion of evil and sin across successive
generations.
The first, in the first chapters of Genesis, is the story of
Adam and Eve. In doubting God’s intentions “their hearts yield to the
temptation of the evil one”, said the Pope. However, “the experience goes in
the opposite direction”: “their eyes are opened and they discover that they are
naked”.
The second, from Genesis chapter 4, is the story of Cain and
Abel. “Cain is envious of his brother” and sees him as a rival, said the Pope.
“Evil enters within his heart and Cain does not succeed in controlling it”,
leading to his murder.
Pope Francis went on to explain that though Cain’s
descendants develop “arts and crafts”, “violence develops as well”.
We too still experience the presence of wickedness in the
world, said the Pope.
Pope Francis then went on to recount a third account in the
Bible. He described it as one that is “less apparent, humbler and devout, that
represents the redemption of hope”. It is a story involving Abel, Seth, Enoch
and Noah, who acted humbly and prayed to God with sincerity.
The peacemaking power of prayer
Pope Francis described these men, “who pray in the first
pages of the Bible” as “peacemakers”. He explained that when prayer is
authentic, it “liberates from the instinct toward violence”. Authentic prayer
is “a gaze directed toward God, so that He might return to take care of the
human heart”, said the Pope, adding that “prayer cultivates flowerbeds of
rebirth in places where human hatred was only capable of sowing a desert”.
Prayer is a seed of life and of dialogue with God
Pope Francis then told of a story he had heard regarding a
man, “a head of government” of the past who proclaimed himself an atheist.
He said “He had no religious sense in his heart,” but he
remembered listening to his grandmother praying when he was a child. “At a
difficult time in his life,” the Pope continued, “that memory came back to his
heart and he began to pray with the words used by his grandmother.”
There, the Pope said, “he found Jesus; prayer is a chain of
life”.
Taking his cue from this story he said prayer is a seed of
life and that is why it is so important to teach children to pray.
Saying it gives him pain to see children who do not know how
to make the sign of the cross,” the Pope urged parents to teach their children
to pray: “Then, perhaps, they can forget, take another path; but that one
remains in their hearts, because it is a seed of life, the seed of dialogue
with God.”
Prayer transforms a heart of stone into a heart of flesh
Pope Francis explained that for this reason throughout
history, righteous men and women of prayer – often misunderstood or
marginalised – have ceaselessly offered up intercession for the world, invoking
God’s power to bring about healing and growth. “The world lives and grows
thanks to God’s power that these servants of His attract through their prayer”,
said the Pope.
He concluded his Catechesis by saying that it is through
these servants of God that His path and story are “passed down to the ‘remnant’
of humanity”, who have asked that He “transform their hearts of stone to hearts
of flesh”.
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