2023-04-26 13:15:00
April 26, 2023 / 6:15 a.m.
Pope Francis highlighted the power of intercession that nuns and monks have during the general audience on Wednesday, April 26 in St. Peter’s Square.
“The monks are the beating heart of the proclamation: their prayer is oxygen for all the members of the Body of Christ, it is the invisible force that sustains the mission.”
Therefore, he asked the faithful to visit the monasteries to learn to live in spiritual harmony, since those consecrated in these places “always have their hands full with work and prayer.”
Thus, the Holy Father continued his catechetical cycle on evangelization and the apostolic zeal of the believer.
In this last general audience in April, he focused his meditation on the theme “Witnesses: monasticism and the power of intercession.”
The heart of the monks and nuns
“Between monks and nuns there is universal solidarity, whatever happens in the world finds a place in their hearts and they pray.”
The heart of the consecrated “is a heart that captures like an antenna, they catch a glimpse of what is happening in the world and intercede for it,” he added.
Likewise, he indicated that “these are the great evangelizers; the monasteries. ‘How is it possible that they live locked up and evangelize?’ It is true, because with the word, the example, the interception and the daily work they are a bridge of intercession for all the people and the sins”.
“Let’s think a little about this, if I may, ‘reserve’ that we have in the Church.” The contemplative religious – insisted the Pontiff – “are the true force that drives the people of God”.
Contemplatives renounce themselves
He stressed that after the martyrs (the theme of the last audience), “there is another great testimony that runs through the history of faith: that of the nuns and monks, sisters and brothers who renounce themselves and the world to imitate Jesus in the path of poverty, chastity, obedience and to intercede in favor of all”.
Meanwhile, he stated that “the monks are the beating heart of the announcement.” For this reason, she observed that “it is not by chance that the patron saint of the missions is a nun, Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus” (1873-1897).
He then stressed that contemplatives “pray and work in silence for the whole Church.” This love for all “translates into his intercessory prayer.”
In this regard, he cited the example of Saint Gregory of Narek, who lived around the year 1000. The most moving aspect of this Doctor of the Church, according to the Pope, is that he prayed for all men, good and bad, so that God have mercy and pity on them.
Finally, the Holy Father prayed: “May the Lord give us new monasteries, give us monks and nuns who carry the Church forward with their intercession!”
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