Faith sometimes falters; what matters is to ask for God's help, says the pope

Everyone, including the pope, experiences trials that can shake his faith; the key to survival is to ask the Lord for help, Pope Francis said.

"When we have strong feelings of doubt and fear and it seems that we are sinking, (and) in the difficult moments of life when everything becomes dark, we must not be ashamed to cry out like Peter: 'Lord, save me'", the pope said on the 9th. August, commenting on the Gospel account of the day in his Angelus address.

In the passage, Matthew 14: 22-33, Jesus walks on the waters of the stormy lake, but the disciples think they see a ghost. Jesus reassures them by saying that it is he, but Peter wants proof. Jesus calls him to walk on the water too, but Peter is frightened and begins to sink.

Peter cries out: “Lord, save me”, and Jesus takes him by the hand.

"This Gospel account is an invitation to trust God in every moment of our life, especially in moments of trial and turmoil," said Pope Francis.

As Peter said, believers must learn "to knock on the heart of God, on the heart of Jesus".

“Lord, save me” is “a beautiful prayer. We can repeat it many times, ”the pope said.

And believers should also reflect on how Jesus responded: immediately reaching out and taking Peter's hand, showing that God "never forsakes us."

"Having faith means keeping the heart turned to God, to his love, to his paternal tenderness in the midst of the storm," the pope told his visitors.

“In dark moments, in sad moments, he is well aware that our faith is weak; we are all people of little faith - all of us, myself included, ”the pope said. “Our faith is weak; our journey can be troubled, hindered by adverse forces ", but the Lord is" present next to us who raises us up after our falls, helping us to grow in faith ".

Pope Francis also said that the disciples' boat on the stormy sea is a symbol of the church, "which in every age encounters headwinds, sometimes very hard trials: we remember certain long and ferocious persecutions of the last century, and still today in certain places. "

“In such situations,” he said, the church “can be tempted to think that God has abandoned it. But, in reality, it is precisely in those moments that the witness of faith, the testimony of love, the testimony of hope shines the most ”.