True faith and prayer open the heart, Pope tells pilgrims
August 12, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: During his Sunday Angelus on August 11, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel reading of the day (John 6:41-51) and contrasted the hardness of heart of those who murmured against Jesus with the openness to the Lord that characterizes authentic faith and prayer.
“They carry out their religious practices not so much in order to listen to the Lord, but rather to find in them the confirmation of what they think,” the Pope said of those who murmured against Jesus. “They are closed to the Word of the Lord, and look for confirmation of their own thoughts.”
The Pope continued:
Let us pay attention to all of this, because at times the same thing can happen to us too, in our life and in our prayer: it can happen to us, that is, that instead of truly listening to what the Lord has to say to us, we look to Him and others only for a confirmation of what we think, a confirmation of our convictions, our judgements, which are prejudices. But this way of addressing God does not help us to encounter God, to truly encounter Him, nor to open ourselves up to the gift of His light and His grace, in order to grow in goodness, to do His will and to overcome failings and difficulties.
“May Mary help us to listen with faith to the Lord’s voice, and to do His will courageously,” the Pope concluded.
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