“Your word was my delight and the joy of my heart”
Jeremiah 15:16
Duns Scotus Bible Centre
Audience: Praying for Peter and the Church
The story of the Lord’s liberation of Peter from prison tells us that the Church, each one of us, “goes through a night of trial”, but that it is the unceasing vigilance of prayer that sustains us, said Pope Benedict Wednesday as he continued his lessons on the power of prayer as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles.
The story of the Lord’s liberation of Peter from prison tells us that the Church, each one of us, “goes through a night of trial”, but that it is the unceasing vigilance of prayer that sustains us, said Pope Benedict Wednesday as he continued his lessons on the power of prayer as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles.
In a very personnel comment on the narrative, the Pope who is the 264th Successor of St Peter, told the thousands who crammed into St Peter’s Square for the Wednesday audience: “I, too, from the first moment of my election as the Successor of St. Peter, I have always felt supported by the prayers of you all, by the prayer of the Church, especially by your prayers, especially during difficult times thank you from my heart”. Applause greeted the Holy Father’s words.
He continued “With constant and trusting prayer the Lord frees us from the chains, guides us through every night of captivity that can gnaw at our hearts, gives us the peace of heart to face the difficulties of life, even rejection, opposition, persecution”.
But this only if "the whole community together speaks with God, truly praying assiduously and unanimously. Even the discourse on God, in fact, may lose its inner strength and witness dries up if they are not animated, supported and accompanied by prayer, by the continuity of a living dialogue with the Lord. An important reminder for us and for our communities, both small ones such as the family, as well as more extensive ones such as the parish, the diocese, the whole Church. It makes me think that they prayed in this community of James, but prayed badly, only for their own passions[…]. We must continually learn to pray well, really pray, directed towards God and not towards our own good".
(from Vatican Radio, 09/05/2012 12.38.27)