Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - St. Paul’s attitude makes us understand that "all the difficulties we meet in following Christ and bearing witness to His Gospel can be overcome by opening ourselves trustingly to the action of the Lord ... In this moment of intense contemplative prayer , St. Paul clearly understood how to face and experience each event, especially those involving suffering, difficulty and persecution: at the moment we feel our own weakness the power of God becomes manifest, a power which does not abandon or leave us alone but becomes our support and our strength." These are the words expressed by the Holy Father Benedict XVI during the catechesis on the prayer in the Letters of St. Paul, during his General Audience held on Wednesday, June 13.
As our union with the Lord grows and our prayer becomes intense, we too come to focus on the essential and to understand that it is not the power of our own means that creates the Kingdom of God, but God Who works miracles through our very weakness. We must, therefore, have the humility not to rely simply on ourselves, but to work with the help of the Lord, in the vineyard of the Lord, trusting Him as fragile 'earthen vessels'."
Recalling the experience of St. Paul’s contemplative prayer, the Holy Father underlined: "Only faith, opening ourselves trustingly to the action of the Lord, in the goodness of God Who never abandons us, is the guaranteed that we do not work in vain. So the Grace of God was the force that accompanied St. Paul in tremendous efforts to spread the Gospel and his heart entered Christ's heart, becoming able to lead others to Him who died and rose for us. In prayer we open, then, our souls to the Lord so that He comes to dwell in our weakness, turning it into force for the Gospel." (SL) (Agenzia Fides 14/6/2012)
