During his address before the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, Pope Francis invited the faithful to pray with constancy in order to strengthen their faith citing ejaculatory prayers as a way to fill the day with prayer.
Newsroom (18/10/2022 20:10, Gaudium Press) During the Angelus this Sunday, October 16, Pope Francis recalled Our Lord’s question “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8).
The Pope said that Our Lord’s questioning is serious and grave. If He were to come “He would see, unfortunately, so many wars, poverty, and inequalities,” but also many technological advances and people rushing about without time.
Francis took the opportunity to ask about what Jesus Christ would find in the personal lives and hearts of each of the faithful. “What priorities would you see?”
As a solution to rekindling a weakened faith, Our Lord offers a remedy “Prayer. Yes, prayer is the medicine of faith, the reconstitutor of the soul. But it must be constant prayer,” Francis explained.
Next, the Holy Father made an analogy between faith and a plant. He explained that it is necessary to nurture faith every day, or risk letting it wither away.
One great example is the Angelus,
For those who do not live in religious communities and claim a lack of time to dedicate to prayer, Pope Francis suggested a somewhat forgotten spiritual practice – ejaculatory prayers.
Ejaculatory prayers “are very short prayers, easy to memorize, that we can repeat often during the day, in the course of various activities, to stay ‘in tune’ with the Lord,” the Pope explained.
‘Lord, I thank you and offer you this day’,
‘Come, Holy Spirit’ </strong>
‘Jesus, I trust in you and love you’
were some of the examples invoked by the Pope during his speech. Scripture is full of such prayers, for example:
‘Lord I believe, help my unbelief
‘Begone Satan’
‘Lord have mercy’
‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want’
These short prayers are like the little messages like those we are used to sending to others, the Pope explained.
However, we must be open to God’s answers: “Let us not forget to read his answers. The Lord always answers. Where can we find them? In the Gospel, which must always be at hand to be opened every day, to receive a Word of life addressed to us.”
The Pope concluded his speech by asking the intercession of Our Lady so that she may teach us to pray always and without discouragement. (FM)
