During his homily at Casa Santa Marta, the pope recalled the story of Job and especially how he prayed to God, even when he was going through the most difficult and desolate times, that didn't seem to offer hope.
POPE FRANCIS
'It is a prayer to knock at the door but with strength! â??Lord, my soul is surfeited with troubles. My life draws near to Hell. I am numbered among those who go down into the pit; I am a man without strength.â?? How many times have we felt like this, without strength? And here is the prayer. Our Lord himself taught us how to pray in these dreadful moments. â??Lord, you have plunged me into the bottom of the pit. Upon me, your wrath lies heavy. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.â?? This is the prayer and this is how we should pray in our darkest, most dreadful, bleakest and most crushed moments that are really crushing us. This is genuine prayer. Itâ??s also venting to God, just like Job did about his sons. Like a son.â?
Pope Francis invited those suffering to increase their prayer life, as this is a sign of authentic prayer, and invited others to listen to them in silence, with a spirit of closeness and care.
EXCERPTS OF THE POPE'S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
The popeâ??s homily focused on these dark moments of spiritual desolation that all of us experience at some point and explained how we can overcome them. He said although Job was in deep trouble and had lost everything he did not curse God and his outburst was that of 'a son in front of his father.â?
'Spiritual desolation is something that happens to all of us: it can be stronger or weakerâ?¦ but that feeling of spiritual darkness, of hopelessness, mistrust, lacking the desire to live, without seeing the end of the tunnel, with so much agitation in oneâ??s heart and in oneâ??s ideasâ?¦ Spiritual desolation makes us feel as though our souls are crushed, we canâ??t succeed, we canâ??t succeed and we also donâ??t want to live: â??Death is better!â?? This was Jobâ??s outburst. It was better to die than live like this. We need to understand that when our soul is in this state of generalized sadness we can barely breathe: This happens to all of usâ?¦ whether strong or notâ?¦ to all of us. (We need to) understand what goes on in our hearts.â?
'It is a prayer to knock at the door but with strength! â??Lord, my soul is surfeited with troubles. My life draws near to Hell. I am numbered among those who go down into the pit; I am a man without strength.â?? How many times have we felt like this, without strength? And here is the prayer. Our Lord himself taught us how to pray in these dreadful moments. â??Lord, you have plunged me into the bottom of the pit. Upon me, your wrath lies heavy. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.â?? This is the prayer and this is how we should pray in our darkest, most dreadful, bleakest and most crushed moments that are really crushing us. This is genuine prayer. Itâ??s also venting to God, just like Job did about his sons. Like a son.â?
'First of all, we must recognize in ourselves these moments of spiritual desolation, when we are in the dark, without hope and asking ourselves why. Secondly, we must pray to the Lord like todayâ??s reading from Psalm 87 teaches us to pray during our dark moments. â??Let my prayer come before you, Lord.' Thirdly, when I draw close to a person who is suffering, whether from illness, or whatever other type of suffering and who is experiencing a sense of desolation, we must be silent: but a silence with much love, closeness and caresses. And we must not make speeches that donâ??t help in the end and even can do harm.â?
'We ask the Lord to grant us these three graces: the grace to recognize spiritual desolation, the grace to pray when we are afflicted by this feeling of spiritual desolation and also the grace to know how to be close to people who are suffering terrible moments of sadness and spiritual desolation.â?
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