Pray more, complain less

“What would happen if we prayed more and complained less?” Pope Francis asked August 2 on his official profile on X, formerly Twitter. In his tweet, he invited the faithful to ask the Lord for “the grace to know how to pray for one another”.

The tweet was part of his exhortations for the Year of Prayer 2024 that he inaugurated in January to prepare for the upcoming Jubilee of Hope 2025.

Jesus’s ‘flesh’

In a letter published on August 4, Pope Francis praised the reading of literature:

“The urgent task of proclaiming the Gospel in our time demands that believers, and priests in particular, ensure that everyone be able to encounter Jesus Christ made flesh, made man, made history. We must always take care never to lose sight of the ‘flesh’ of Jesus Christ: that flesh made of passions, emotions and feelings, words that challenge and console, hands that touch and heal, looks that liberate and encourage, flesh made of hospitality, forgiveness, indignation, courage, fearlessness; in a word, love.

“It is precisely at this level that familiarity with literature can make future priests and all pastoral workers all the more sensitive to the full humanity of the Lord Jesus, in which his divinity is wholly present.”

What is most precious

Reflecting on the Sunday, August 4, gospel, Pope Francis said material things do not lead to fulness of life; charity does.

“The message of a father and a mother, their most precious legacy, is not money, but the love with which they give their children everything they have, just as God does with us, and in this way, they teach us to love.”

The pope suggested we look at our own relationship with material things and whether we are bound to them or we freely share them with others to express our love and joy, while also saying ‘thank you’ for the gifts we receive.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)