A 2nd Pentecost: Pope speaks on how to pray when facing difficulty

Pope Francis offered Mass for politicians, that they would seek the good of their countries, and not just of their parties.

In his morning Mass of April 20, the pope drew from the example of the Apostles to speak about how to face difficulties with openness to the Holy Spirit.

The reading of today follows from Peter and John’s run-in with the chief priests and leaders of the people, when they “went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.”

When the early Christians heard the report they “raised their voices to God with one accord.”

The Holy Father noted what Scripture says:

As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

“A second Pentecost happened here,” he said. “Faced with difficulties, with a closed door, not knowing how to go forward, they go to the Lord, they open their hearts, and the Spirit comes, and he gives what they need. They go out to preach with courage, and go forward.

“This is to be born of the Spirit, this is not being detained by the ‘therefore’ — in the ‘therefore’ of the things I’ve always done.”

The pope said that this is to be “born anew,” as Jesus preached to Nicodemus.

And how does a person prepare to be born anew? Through prayer. Prayer is what opens the door to the Spirit, and gives us freedom, this boldness, this courage of the Holy Spirit. And you never know where it will take you. But it’s the Spirit.May the Lord help us to be always open to the Spirit, because it is Him who will bring us forward in our life of service to the Lord.

The Holy Father’s intention for the Mass was for politicians:

Let us pray today for the men and women with a vocation to politics. Politics is a high form of charity. Let us pray for the political parties of the various countries, so that in this time of pandemic, they will seek together the good of the country, and not the good of their individual party.