When Pope Francis for the first time has appeared The world on the balcony of the Basilica of St. Peter humbly asked to be faithful to “pray for me”. These simple words have become punctuation marks of his pontificate when virtually all his speeches, greetings, weekly blessings and occasional conversations ended with dismissing.
Now, 12 years since his election 13th March 2013 and the Moon to the day he entered the hospital with life -threatening pulmonary infections, the Roman Catholic World DBei for his challenge and praying for his Pope.
Although the Vatican says the state of the Pope has seen “A slight improvement” Every evening, Vatican Cardinal Prayers are led by Francis. The parishes around the world, from his native Argentina to distant nations, which he made a priority to visit and worship, hold a prayer meeting. Even Francis’ opponents in the hierarchy of the Church, the prelate, who degraded and fired and who waged war against the Pope’s vision – often how to pray and worship – quietly say their prayers.
“At the moment, even people from various ideological or theological tendencies, prayer connects them,” said Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukw, Secretary of the Vatican Office for evangelization.
He said that Francis’s constant attraction over the last dozen years of praying for him was an expression of his humility that “like any other person needs prayer” and God’s help. It was also an expression of Francis’ trust that people, often from other vortex, had the same communication line with God as him.
“It’s not a matter of selfishness,” said Archbishop. “It is a question of human solidarity.”
Prayer was the life of faith, a currency between earthly and spiritual empires, since time immemorial. For František, the first Jesuit Pope of the Church, she played a major role in a pastoral vision that attracts people close to the Church by emphasizing the blessing and simple dedication of dedication over church rules and traditions.
He often taught that the openness of God’s will, the form of prayer, was central to his decision and preached that the church that prayed together remains together.
Now, with his breathing, harassed and his body still weak, it is the Pope’s own gloomy health, which has become another motivation for prayer that they believe that the Church must prosper.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the square,” Francis told last week at his only public address since his hospitalization 14 February. “From there I accompany you.” In recent days, he has watched and participated in the videos in spiritual exercises in the Vatican, where his slight condition appears over all interviews and rituals.
As Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the highest basilica of St. Peter, on Tuesday evening he entered the Vatican for one of these meditations and prayer services for František, said that prayer was “breath of the soul” and that he and other church leaders praying for the Pope prayed “for the breath we needed.”
Cardinal Francis Arinz, former leader of the church service under Pope John Paul II. And Pope Benedict XVI, said the prayer was paramount. He said in the Bible, followers who prayed to Jesus, “got what they ask.” He said, he said “we need God; We are not almighty. It’s normal. ”
Catholics Rank-and-File agreed. In the Church of San Zaccaria in Venice, an old woman held a rosary, whom Francis said. She said she included him in her prayers. Her 90 -year -old priest, Reverend Carlo hay, said he prayed for František every day, but if the Pope did not end with recovery, it would not mean that prayer failed.
“God can intervene in a way that differs from what we hope,” the father of hay said.
Carol Slaksi, the author with her husband, Philip, I Litt, from “Prayer: History,“He said there were many different types and styles of prayer – petitions and adoration, unspoken and sung, associated with victim or ritual. It was clear that prayer was accompanied by humanity from the beginning and that its grades had returned, at least to the caves’ drawings.
For the Catholic Church, she said that prayer, like the doctrine, has developed for centuries. “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi,” she said, remembering of the early Christian formulation that meant that prayer and faith were the same.
In the following centuries, the hermit monks in Egypt prayed in Egypt to survive hunger and elements. The monastery in the Middle Ages became what she called “prayer laboratories” where “they make every prayer”. In the 12th century St. Dominic of Guzman, the founder of the Dominican Order, said the Virgin Mary gave him the Rosary Beads to maintain the number of recitation of Hail Mary.
Prayer had different forms, but the petition for help or miracles actually got into the overdrive, she said, “When the enemy is coming and is about to throw away your city or when the plague kills everyone.” When the disaster was turned away, the prayer received credit.
After Pope Pius led the league of Christian warriors to pray the rosary before won over a larger Turkish invasion in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the turning point in the history of Europe thanked the Church by the Virgin Mary by creating a holiday.
The Church still turned to prayer in the face of the greatest challenges in the world.
In 2020, when death on Covid rose sharply, Francis stood alone between the wooden cross used to avert the plague of the 16th century and the empty square of the Basilica of Sts. Peter offer scary prayers for the recovery of the world. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi remembered this opportunity and told the Italian bishops this week that it is now “united in prayer for him”.
The call came to Vincenzo de Simone, 69, from Naples in Italy, when she stood on St. Peter’s Square in Rome and recited the prayer of Hail Mary.
“That’s a historical moment,” she said, adding that the Pope’s illness was a special motivation for Catholics around the world to pray for him.
Archbishop Nwachukwu said that it was that Jesus, who explicitly made a prayer of faith, wanted to tell his followers that God was present, where two or three people gathered to pray.
On Tuesday evening, the Cardinals after the day of spiritual exercises and prayers for Francis after the day of spiritual exercises and prayers, which said that a monk should be stored that should be hard work.
“After two hours,” said Claudio Ggerotti, a prefect of the Church Office for the Eastern Church, “we are exhausted.”
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The first night of prayers of the rosary on the stairs of the Basilica of St. Peter, Cardinal Raymond Burke of the United States, who in the past suggested that the Pope threatens to become a heresy, praying quietly in the front row.
On Tuesday evening, Francis left out of power, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, a former head of the church office for worship, evening prayers for Francis. When he crossed St. Peter Square, he worked on his beads.
“I’m praying right now,” he said.
Emma Bubola contributed messages from Venice and Elisabetta allowed from Rome.
