Christian prayer is not “man talking to God on the other end of the phone, it’s God praying in us.” This was Pope Francis’ explanation during the Wednesday general audience of November 6. At the start of the audience, he asked the faithful to pray for the people of Valencia and other regions of Spain devastated by floods last week.
Before beginning his traditional Wednesday morning catechesis, Pope Francis placed a white rose in front of a small statue of “Our Lady of the Forsaken,” patroness of Valencia, the Spanish state that suffered the most severe flooding. The death toll from the storm is at 217, but perhaps nearly 100 more people are still missing.
“Today we pray especially for Valencia and the other regions of Spain that are suffering because of the floods,” said Pope Francis. At the end of the audience, he asked the crowd to join him in praying a “Hail Mary” for the victims of this catastrophe.
“Mali, mala, male petimus”
“We don’t know how to pray,” Pope Francis asserted in his catechesis from the Square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The head of the Catholic Church, continuing his cycle of catecheses on the Holy Spirit, sought to sum up this human weakness in a Latin formula: “Mali, mala, male petimus.”
The reason for this weakness of our prayer was expressed in the past in 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 it in mind, because it contains in itself an entire treatise, these three things. We human beings, according to that saying, “mali, mala, male petimus,” which means, being bad (mali), we ask for the wrong things (mala) and in the wrong way (male).
Regularly leaving aside his notes, the Pope insisted that prayer should always be a free act, enjoining believers not to “pray like slaves” or like “parrots.”
“You pray when the Holy Spirit helps you to pray; you pray when you feel in your heart the need to pray. And when you don’t feel anything, stop and ask yourself: ‘Why don’t I feel the will to pray, what’s going on in my life?’” he advised.
We pray to God through God
To those who are afraid of being “rebuked by God” because of their sins, and who are “no longer able to find peace,” the Pope invited: “You know what: God doesn’t know grammar […], before we finish uttering the word ‘forgiveness,’ the Father forgives us.”
“The Holy Spirit reveals himself as ‘Paraclete,’ that is, as our advocate and defender. He does not accuse us before the Father, but defends us,” he insisted.
Describing the process of Christian prayer in greater depth, the Argentine pontiff pointed out that Jesus assures us that by seeking “first the kingdom of God, the rest […] will be given in addition.”
He lamented that Christians often look “first for more, that is, [their] own interests” and forget to “ask for the kingdom of God.”
Finally, he assured us that it is the Holy Spirit who “gives true prayer.” What’s more, “it’s God who prays in us; we pray to God through God.”
Pray for the suffering
As he regularly does, the Pope concluded the general audience by asking Catholics to pray for “martyred Ukraine,” which is “suffering so much.”
He also called on Catholics not to forget Myanmar, Israel, and Gaza, mentioning a massacre of 153 civilians without giving further details. Addressing the Polish faithful in particular, he asked them to pray “for the victims of wars, injustices and calamities.”
And today we celebrate...