ROME — Pope Francis insisted Wednesday on the centrality of prayer in a Christian’s life, declaring that prayer has a way of turning all things to good.
Prayer “possesses primacy: it is the first desire of the day, something that is practised at dawn, before the world awakens,” the pope proposed in his weekly general audience in the Vatican. “It restores a soul to that which otherwise would be without breath.”
“A day lived without prayer risks being transformed into a bothersome or tedious experience” where “all that happens to us could turn into a badly endured and blind fate.”
Through prayer, the many occurrences of every day — both good and bad — take on new meaning, the pontiff suggested.
“Prayer is primarily listening and encountering God,” he said. “The problems of everyday life, then, do not become obstacles, but appeals from God Himself to listen to and encounter those who are in front of us.”
Prayer, therefore, “has the power to transform into good what in life could otherwise be condemnation; prayer has the power to open the mind and broaden the heart to a great horizon,” he said.
There is, however, need for constancy in prayer if it is to bear good fruit, Francis continued.
“We are all capable of sporadic prayers, which arise from a momentary emotion,” he said, “but Jesus educates us in another type of prayer: the one that knows a discipline, an exercise, assumed within a rule of life.”
“Consistent prayer produces progressive transformation, makes us strong in times of tribulation, gives us the grace to be supported by Him who loves us and always protects us,” he said.
To pray well, one must retire for a time from the hustle and bustle of daily life, to find a place of solitude, Francis said, because “in silence God speaks.”
It is the inner life “where actions find meaning,” rescuing us from superficiality and anxiety, he said.
Finally, prayer “is the place where we perceive that everything comes from God and returns to Him,” the pope said.
“Sometimes we human beings believe that we are the masters of everything, or on the contrary, we lose all self-esteem, we go from one side to another,” he said. “Prayer helps us to find the right dimension in our relationship with God, our Father, and with all creation.”