Pope Francis: God is our faithful ally, we can say and ask him everything

At the general audience in the Library of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope reflected on the characteristics of Christian prayer, the voice of a small "I" looking for a "You". In greetings, the Pope recalls the 100th anniversary of the birth of St. John Paul II on May 18, and renews his adhesion to the day of prayer, fasting and works of charity of tomorrow

"The Christian prayer"; it is the theme of catechesis at the general audience this morning, the second with which the Pope wishes to deepen what prayer is. And the initial observation of Pope Francis is that the act of praying "belongs to everyone: to men of all religions, and probably also to those who profess none". And he says that it "is born in the secret of ourselves", in our heart, a word that encompasses all our faculties, emotions, intelligence and even the body. "It is therefore the whole man who prays - observes the Pope - if he prays his" heart ".

Prayer is an impulse, it is an invocation that goes beyond ourselves: something that is born in the depths of our person and reaches out, because it feels the nostalgia of an encounter. And we must underline this: he feels the nostalgia of an encounter, that nostalgia which is more than a need, more than a need; it is a road, a longing for a meeting. Prayer is the voice of an "I" groping, groping, looking for a "You". The meeting between the "I" and the "You" cannot be done with calculators: it is a human encounter and one proceeds groping, many times, to find the "You" that my "I" is looking for ... Instead, the Christian's prayer comes from a revelation: the "You" did not remain shrouded in mystery, but entered into a relationship with us

Vatican source Vatican official source