Next to him is the Virgen de los Desamparados, the Madonna who takes care of the poor, patron saint of Valencia. Pope Francis begins the general audience with a thought for the Spanish city “which suffers so much” and adds that “I wanted the patron saint of Valencia to be here, the little image that the Valencians themselves gave me”. He asks us to pray “in particular” for the city devastated by the flood and “for the other parts of Spain that are suffering from the water”. Then he continues the catechesis on the Holy Spirit explaining that it is He who teaches us to pray. And that we must pray for everyone, “even for the mother-in-law”. The Pontiff underlines that «the Holy Spirit is at the same time the subject and object of Christian prayer. That is, He is the One who gives prayer and He is the One who is given by prayer. We pray to receive the Holy Spirit and we receive the Holy Spirit to be able to truly pray, that is, as children of God, not as slaves. Let’s think about this: pray as children of God, not as slaves” Which means praying with freedom, not out of duty. Pray with your heart and «when you don’t feel the desire to pray», warns the Pope, «stop and ask yourself why you don’t feel like praying, what is happening in your life. This means praying as children and not as slaves.”
The first thing to do is invoke the Spirit. «There is, in this regard, a very precise word of Jesus in the Gospel: “If you therefore, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who give it to him. they ask!”». We too experience knowing how to give good things to little ones, as parents, as grandparents, as uncles. Then God will give us the Spirit all the more. «In the New Testament», recalls the Pontiff, «we see the Holy Spirit always descending during prayer. It descends on Jesus in the baptism in the Jordan, while “he was in prayer” and it descends on the disciples at Pentecost, while “they were persevering and united in prayer”. That of prayer is «the only “power” we have over the Spirit of God». If we pray, he comes. Prayer cannot be resisted. We pray and he comes.” Remember that «on Mount Carmel the false prophets of Baal were agitated to invoke fire from heaven on their sacrifice, but nothing happened because they were idolaters, they worshiped a God who does not exist; Elijah began to pray and the fire came down and consumed the holocaust. The Church faithfully follows this example: it always has on its lips the imploring “Come!” every time he turns to the Holy Spirit. He does it especially in the Mass so that it may descend like dew and sanctify the bread and wine for the Eucharistic sacrifice.”
But there is one aspect, «the most important and encouraging for us: the Holy Spirit is the One who gives us true prayer. Saint Paul states this: “The Spirit helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray properly, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groans; and he who searches hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because he intercedes for the saints according to God’s plans.”
The Spirit teaches us to pray even if we don’t know how. «The reason for this weakness of our prayer was expressed in the past with a single word, used in three different ways: as an adjective, as a noun and as an adverb. It’s easy to remember, even for those who don’t know Latin, and it’s worth keeping in mind, because it contains an entire treatise on its own. We human beings, said that saying, “mali, mala, male petimus”, which means: being bad (mali), we ask for the wrong things (mala) and in the wrong way (male). Jesus says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be added to you”; instead we seek first of all the surplus, that is, our interests, many times, and we completely forget to ask for the kingdom of God. We ask the Lord for the Kingdom and everything comes with Him.”
The Holy Spirit, however, “comes to the aid of our weakness, but he does something much more important: he certifies to us that we are children of God and puts on our lips the cry: ‘Father!'”. We cannot say “Father”, “Abba”, without the strength of the Holy Spirit”. Praying, the Pontiff underlines, is not like talking on the telephone with God, «no, it is God who prays in us! We pray to God through God. Praying means placing ourselves within God and allowing God to enter within us. It is precisely in prayer that the Holy Spirit reveals himself as “Paraclete”, that is, advocate and defender. He does not accuse us before the Father, but defends us. Yes, he convinces us that we are sinners, but he does it so that we can enjoy the joy of the Father’s mercy, not to destroy us with sterile feelings of guilt. Even when our heart reproaches us for something, He reminds us that “God is greater than our heart”. And that’s why he forgives us before we can even finish the word “forgiveness.” «We are all sinners», repeats Francis, «but perhaps we think of some of you who are afraid of the things you have done, who are afraid of being rebuked by God and cannot find peace. Put yourself in prayer, call the Holy Spirit and He will teach you to ask for forgiveness. God doesn’t know much grammar and when we ask for forgiveness he doesn’t let the word forgiveness finish and he has already forgiven us, we say “for..” and the Father has already forgiven us.”
And if the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, he also teaches us to intercede for our brothers, to pray for a sick person, for a person, even for the mother-in-law. «This prayer is particularly pleasing to God because it is the most free and disinterested. When everyone prays for everyone, it happens that everyone prays for everyone; prayer multiplies. Here is such a precious and necessary task in the Church, particularly in this time of preparation for the Jubilee: to unite with the Paraclete who “intercedes for us all”. But we must not “pray like parrots”. We must say “Lord, but with your heart, help me Lord, I love you Lord and when you pray to our Father, pray with your heart, not with your lips”.
Finally he has a Hail Mary recited for Valencia in front of the Madonna de los Desamparados. and makes people pray “for peace”. «Let’s not forget the tormented Ukraine», he says, «which suffers so much, let’s not forget Gaza and Israel. The other day 153 civilians walking along the street were machine-gunned. Very sad. Let’s not forget Myanmar and let’s not forget Valencia.”
