Appeal before the General Audience

I wished to greet the Virgen de los Desamparados [Virgin of the Forsaken], Our Lady who takes care of the poor, Patron Saint of Valencia; Valencia, which is suffering greatly, and also other parts of Spain, but especially Valencia, which is underwater and suffering. I wanted her to be here, the Patroness of Valencia. This small image that the Valencians themselves gave to me. Today, let us pray especially for Valencia and for the other areas of Spain that are suffering because of the water.

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The following text includes parts that were not read out loud, but should be considered as such.
 

Cycle of Catechesis. The Spirit and the Bride. The Holy Spirit guides the people of God towards Jesus our hope 12. “The Spirit intercedes for us”. The Holy Spirit and Christian prayer

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit, in addition to the Word of God and the Sacraments, is expressed in prayer, and it is to this that we wish to dedicate today’s reflection: prayer. The Holy Spirit is both the subject and object of Christian prayer. That is, he is the One who gives prayer and he is the One who is given by prayer. We pray to receive the Holy Spirit, and we receive the Holy Spirit in order to truly pray, that is, as children of God, not as slaves. Let us think a little about this: pray as children of God, not as slaves. One should always pray with freedom. “Today I have to pray for this, this and this, because I promised this, this and this. Otherwise, I will go to hell”. No, that is not prayer! Prayer is free. You pray when the Spirit helps you to pray. You pray when you feel the need to pray in your heart, and when you do not feel anything, stop and ask yourself: “Why do I not feel like praying? What is happening in my life?”. But spontaneity in prayer is what always helps us the most. This means praying as sons and daughters, not as slaves.

First of all, we must pray to receive the Holy Spirit. In this regard, Jesus has a very precise word in the Gospel: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit” to those who ask him?” (Lk 11:13). Everyone, each one of us, knows how to give good gifts to little children, whether they are our children, our grandchildren or our friends. The little ones always receive good gifts from us. And will the Father not give the Spirit to us? This gives us courage and we can move forward. In the New Testament, we see the Holy Spirit always descend during prayer. He descends upon Jesus in the baptism in the Jordan, while he “was praying” (Lk 3:21), and he descends at Pentecost upon the disciples, while they “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer” (Acts 1:14).

It is the only “power” we have over the Spirit of God. The power of prayer: He cannot resist prayer. We pray, and he comes. On Mount Carmel, the false prophets of Baal — remember that passage from the Bible — were frantic about invoking fire from heaven on their sacrifice, but nothing happened because they were idolators. They worshipped a god that does not exist. Elijah began to pray, and the fire descended and consumed the offering (cf. 1 Kings 18:20-38). The Church follows this example faithfully: Every time she turns to the Holy Spirit, she implores, “Come, Come”. Come! And she does this especially at Mass, so that he may descend like dew and sanctify the bread and wine for the Eucharistic sacrifice.

But there is another aspect, which is the most important and encouraging for us: the Holy Spirit is he who gives us true prayer. Saint Paul affirms this: “the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness because we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will” (cf. Rom 8:26-27).

It is true, we do not know how to pray, we do not know. We have to learn every day. The reason for this weakness in our prayer was expressed in the past with just one word, used in three different ways: as an adjective, as a noun and as an adverb. It is easy to remember, even for those who do not know Latin, and it is worth keeping in mind, because it contains an entire treatise in itself. We human beings, according to the saying, “mali, mala, male petimus ”, which means, being bad (mali ), we ask for the wrong things (mala ) and in the wrong way (male ). Jesus says, “Seek first his kingdom… and all these things shall be yours as well” (Mt 6:33). Instead, we seek the extra, namely, our interests — many times — and we completely forget to ask for the kingdom of God. Let us ask the Lord for the kingdom, and everything comes with him.

Yes, the Holy Spirit comes to aid us in our weakness. He does something more important still: He testifies to us that we are children of God and puts on our lips the cry: “Father!” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). We cannot say “Father, Abba ” without the strength of the Holy Spirit. Christian prayer is not man at one end of the telephone, speaking to God on the other end; no, it is God who prays in us! We pray to God through God. To pray means to place oneself inside God, so that God enters into us.

It is precisely in prayer that the Holy Spirit is revealed as the “Paraclete”, that is, advocate and defender. He does not accuse us before the Father, but defends us. Yes, he defends us. He convinces us of the fact that we are sinners (cf. Jn 16:8), but he does so in order to make us able to savour the joy of the Father’s mercy, not to destroy us with fruitless feelings of guilt. Even when our heart reproaches us for something, he reminds us that “God is greater than our hearts” (1 Jn 3:20). God is greater than our sin. We are all sinners, but think: perhaps some of you — I don’t know — are very afraid because of the things they have done, afraid of being reproached by God, afraid of many things and unable to find peace. Pray, call to the Holy Spirit, and he will teach you how to ask for forgiveness. And do you know something? God does not know much grammar, and when we ask for forgiveness, he does not let us finish! “For…” and there, he does not let us finish saying the word forgiveness. He forgives us first, he always forgives, and he is always beside us to forgive us, even before we complete the word forgiveness. We say “for…” and the Father always forgives us.

The Holy Spirit intercedes and he also teaches us how to intercede, in turn, for our brothers and sisters — he intercedes for us and teaches us how to intercede for others. He teaches us the prayer of intercession : praying for this person, praying for that sick person, for the one who is in prison, praying… even praying for one’s mother-in-law! And pray, always. Always. This prayer is particularly pleasing to God because it is the most gratuitous and altruistic. When someone prays for everyone — as Saint Ambrose used to say — everyone prays for someone; prayer multiplies (De Cain et Abel, I, 39.). This is how prayer is. This is a task that is so precious and necessary in the Church, particularly during this time of preparation for the Jubilee: to unite ourselves to the Paraclete who “intercedes for all of us according to God’s plans”.

But do not pray like parrots, please! Do not say, “Blah, blah, blah…”. No. Say, “Lord”, but say it with your heart. “Help me, Lord”, “I love you, Lord”. And when you pray the Lord’s Prayer, pray “Father, You are my Father”. Pray with the heart, not the lips; don’t be like parrots.

May the Holy Spirit help us in prayer, which we need so much. Thank you.

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Special greetings:

I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially the groups from England, Ghana, the United States of America, Malaysia and the Philippines. I also greet the priests coming from England and Wales, who are celebrating significant anniversaries of priestly Ordination. Upon all of you and upon your families I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

Lastly, as usual, my thoughts turn to young people, to the sick, to the elderly and to newlyweds. I encourage everyone to live their daily life in fidelity to the Gospel, sustained by faith and hope. And let us pray for peace. Let us not forget martyred Ukraine which is suffering so much. Let us not forget Gaza and Israel. The other day, 153 civilians were gunned down on the street. It is very sad. Let us not forget Myanmar. And let us not forget Valencia or Spain. As I mentioned earlier, the Virgen de los Desamparados, Our Lady of the Forsaken, Patron Saint of Valencia, is here today. She is presiding. Let us pray a Hail Mary for Valencia. Hail Mary ….

And let us pray to the Lord to always live with hope.

I offer my blessing to all of you!

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Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

In our continuing catechesis on the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, we now consider the role of the Spirit in prayer. In the Gospels, Jesus teaches us to pray for the gift of the Spirit, who dwells in our hearts and testifies that, in union with the risen Lord, we are truly sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. Guided by the Spirit, we truly pray as we ought, both personally and in the Church’s celebration of the Liturgy. As the “Paraclete”, our Advocate and Comforter, the Holy Spirit not only intercedes for us, but also enables us, in the unity of Christ’s mystical Body, to do the same for the needs of our brothers and sisters. As we look forward to the coming Holy Year, let us ask the Spirit to bestow upon us, and upon the whole human family, his gifts of holiness, unity, justice and peace.