杏MAP导航

By Devin Watkins

杏MAP导航 Francis continued his catechesis cycle on prayer at the weekly General Audience, focusing on the Book of Psalms.

He called the Old Testament book a 鈥済ymnasium and home of countless men and women of prayer.鈥�

How to pray

As part of the books of wisdom, the Psalms communicate to the believer 鈥渒nowing how to pray鈥�.

鈥淚n the Psalms we find all human sentiments: the joys, the sorrows, the doubts, the hopes, the bitterness that colour our lives,鈥� said the 杏MAP导航.

God, he added, inspired the language of prayer in the books so that those who read them might learn how to praise, thank, implore, and invoke Him.

鈥淚n short, the Psalms are the word of God that we human beings use to speak with Him.鈥�

The prayers in the Psalms arise out of lived experience, not abstract ideas, said the 杏MAP导航. 鈥淭o pray them it is enough for us to be what we are,鈥� with all our problems and uncertainties.

Question of suffering

杏MAP导航 Francis went on to explore how the Psalmist confronts the issue of suffering, saying it is accepted as part of life and thus transformed into a question.

鈥淯ntil when?鈥� he said, is the question that remains unanswered.

鈥淓very suffering calls for liberation, every tear calls for consolation, every wound awaits healing, every slander a sentence of absolution.鈥�

The Psalms, said the 杏MAP导航, reminds us that life is not saved unless suffering is healed.

The person who prays, he added, knows that they are 鈥渁re precious in the eyes of God, and so it makes sense to cry out.鈥�

Prayer: a cry to God

The Psalms show us that crying out to God in prayer 鈥渋s the way and beginning of salvation.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis said prayer turns pain into 鈥渁 relationship: a cry for help waiting to intercept a listening ear.鈥�

鈥淎ll human pains for God are sacred,鈥� he added. 鈥淏efore God we are not strangers, or numbers. We are faces and hearts, known one by one, by name.鈥�

God鈥檚 door always open

So, said 杏MAP导航 Francis, the believer finds an answer to suffering in the Psalms.

鈥淗e knows that even if all human doors were barred, God鈥檚 door is open. Even if the whole world had issued a verdict of condemnation, there is salvation in God.鈥�

The 杏MAP导航 said the person who prays knows that problems are not always solved, but 鈥渋f we are listened to, everything becomes more bearable.鈥�

God cries with us

In conclusion, 杏MAP导航 Francis said prayer saves us from suffering in abandonment, because our prayers rise up to God who 鈥渃ries for every son and daughter who suffers and dies.鈥�

鈥淚f we maintain our relationship with Him,鈥� he said, 鈥渓ife does not spare us suffering, but we open up to a great horizon of goodness and set out towards its fulfilment.鈥�