{"id":994,"date":"2012-09-05T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/pope-reflects-on-prayer-in-book-of-the-apocalypse\/"},"modified":"2012-09-05T17:12:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T17:12:00","slug":"pope-reflects-on-prayer-in-book-of-the-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pope-reflects-on-prayer-in-book-of-the-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope reflects on prayer in Book of the Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2012 \/ 11:12 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Pope Benedict XVI says the final book of the Bible, which he referred to as the Book of the Apocalypse, provides Christians with a vision of a Church fully in communion with Jesus Christ in prayer.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Apocalypse presents us with a community gathered in prayer, because it is in prayer that we gain an increasing awareness of Jesus\u2019s presence with us and within us,\u201d the Pope said during his Sept. 5 general audience at the Vatican.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe more and the better we pray with constancy and intensity, the more we are assimilated to him, and the more he enters into our lives to guide them and give them joy and peace. And the more we know, love and follow Jesus, the more we feel the need to dwell in prayer with him, receiving serenity, hope and strength for our lives,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\tPope Benedict flew in by helicopter from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo to deliver his reflections to over 8,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican\u2019s Paul VI Audience Hall. The address formed another chapter in the Pope\u2019s continuing exploration of the \u201cschool of prayer\u201d in the story of salvation.<\/p>\n

\tHe told the audience that the Book of Revelation \u201cis a difficult book, but one of great richness\u201d which presents the reader \u201cwith the living breathing prayer of the Christian assembly, gathered together \u2018on the Lord\u2019s day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIn it a reader presents the assembly with a message entrusted by God to John the Evangelist,\u201d the Pope noted. \u201cFrom the dialogue between them a symphony of prayer arises which is then developed in many different forms up until the conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPope Benedict outlined how the first part of the Bible\u2019s last book presents three different but successive phases of the great assembly at prayer.<\/p>\n

\tThe first highlights that \u201cprayer is, above all, a listening to God who speaks.\u201d In a modern world where we are often \u201cengulfed\u201d by \u201cso many words\u201d we are often unused to listening and, especially, to \u201cadopting an interior and exterior attitude of silence so as to attend to what the Lord wishes to say to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThese verses also teach us that our prayers, often merely prayers of request, must in fact be first and foremost prayers of praise to God for his love, for the gift of Jesus Christ which brought us strength, hope and salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope suggested that this first phase also reminds us that constant prayer \u201crevives in us a sense of the Lord\u2019s presence in our life and history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPrayer, even that pronounced in the most extreme solitude, is never a form of isolation and it is never sterile, it is a vital lifeline which nourishes an increasingly committed and coherent Christian existence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\tIn the second phase of the first part of Revelation we then witness how \u201cthe relationship with Jesus Christ is developed further,\u201d Pope Benedict taught.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Lord makes himself visible, he speaks and acts, and the community, increasingly close to him, listens, reacts and accepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tFinally, in the third phase, the Pope pointed to a \u201cChurch in prayer\u201d that, in accepting the word of the Lord, is \u201ctransformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe assembly listens to the message, and receives a stimulus for repentance, conversion, perseverance, growth in love and guidance for the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pope finished his general audience by addressing the assembled pilgrims in several different languages.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPrayer with others, liturgical prayer in particular, will deepen our awareness of the crucified and risen Jesus in our midst,\u201d he told English speaking pilgrims. \u201cThus, the more we know, love and follow Christ, the more we will want to meet him in prayer, for he is the peace, hope and strength of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe then led the pilgrims in the singing of the Our Father in Latin before imparting his apostolic blessing and returning to Castel Gandolfo by helicopter.<\/p>\n

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

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

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2012 \/ 11:12 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says the final book of the Bible, which he referred to as the Book of the Apocalypse, provides Christians with a vision of a Church fully in communion with Jesus Christ in prayer….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nPope reflects on prayer in Book of the Apocalypse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, Sep 5, 2012 \/ 11:12 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI says the final book of the Bible, which he referred to as the Book of the Apocalypse, provides Christians with a vision of a Church fully in communion with Jesus Christ in prayer....\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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