{"id":1054,"date":"2012-09-12T15:24:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/our-prayers-are-never-wasted-pope-benedict-says\/"},"modified":"2012-09-12T15:24:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T15:24:00","slug":"our-prayers-are-never-wasted-pope-benedict-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/our-prayers-are-never-wasted-pope-benedict-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Our prayers are never wasted, Pope Benedict says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Vatican City, Sep 12, 2012 \/ 09:24 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Pope Benedict XVI used his weekly General Audience to explain that there is no such thing as wasted prayer.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe can be sure that there is no such thing as a superfluous or useless prayer. No prayer is lost,\u201d said the Pope to over 8,000 pilgrims in the Vatican\u2019s Paul VI Audience Hall Sept. 12.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhen faced with evil we often have the sensation that we can do nothing, but our prayers are in fact the first and most effective response we can give, they strengthen our daily commitment to goodness. The power of God makes our weakness strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPope Benedict was continuing his weekly exploration of prayer in the story of salvation with a particular focus on the second part of the Book of the Apocalypse, the concluding book of the Bible.<\/p>\n

\tWithin its passages, he explained, the Christian assembly is called \u201cto undertake a profound interpretation of the history in which it lives\u201d so that it may learn \u201cto discern events with faith\u201d a thus \u201ccollaborate in the advancement of the kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThus the assembly is invited to ascend into heaven \u201cin order to see reality with the eyes of God.\u201d\u00a0 God\u2019s plan for history and mankind, however, is contained in a scroll which is \u201chermetically sealed with seven seals and no one can read it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIt ultimately requires \u201cChrist, the Lamb, who immolated in the sacrifice of the cross but stands in sign of his resurrection\u201d to \u201cprogressively open the seals so as to reveal the plan of God, the profound meaning of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThis episode, said the Pope, should remind us all \u201cof the path we must follow to interpret the events of history and of our own lives.\u201d Both as individuals and a community we should realize that in \u201craising our gaze to God\u2019s heaven in an unbroken relationship with Christ\u201d in prayer we can learn \u201cto see things in a new way and to grasp their most authentic significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWhile this \u201crealistic examination of the present time in which they are living\u201d can lead to the discovery of great evil and injustice in the world, the Church \u201cis invited never to lose hope,\u201d said Pope Benedict, as \u201cthe power of God has entered man's history, a power capable not only of counterbalancing evil, but also of overcoming it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cGod became so close as to descend into the darkness of death and illuminate it with the splendor of divine life. He took the evil of the world upon himself to purify it with the fire of his love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThis is why as Christians \u201cwe can never be pessimists,\u201d concluded Pope Benedict, as prayer \u201ceducates us to see the signs of God, his presence and his action\u201d or rather \u201cit educates us to become lights of goodness, spreading hope and indicating that the victory is God\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope then addressed the enthusiastic gathering in several different languages before leading pilgrims in the singing of the Our Father in Latin and imparting his apostolic blessing.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vatican City, Sep 12, 2012 \/ 09:24 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI used his weekly General Audience to explain that there is no such thing as wasted prayer.<\/p>\n

\t“We can be sure that there is no such thing as a superfluous or useless prayer….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nOur prayers are never wasted, Pope Benedict says<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, Sep 12, 2012 \/ 09:24 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI used his weekly General Audience to explain that there is no such thing as wasted prayer. “We can be sure that there is no such thing as a superfluous or useless prayer....\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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