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Prayer helps people see worldly power and wealth in a new light, said John Paul II. It shows them that “everything is grace,” he said.
At his general audience June 6, attended by 15,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father offered a meditation on a canticle in 1 Chronicles 29. He spoke of “the great temptation to place oneself at the center” when works are accomplished for the Lord.
Thus the Pope continued his series of meditations on the psalms and canticles of the Old Testament that are used in the Liturgy of the Hours.
John Paul II described wealth and power as “a universal temptation.” When man loses sight of God, the Holy Father noted, he can “act as if he were absolute ruler of what he possessed, to make it a source of pride and of abuse of others.”
The prayer in the canticle, in contrast, “brings man back to his condition as ‘one who is poor,’ one who receives everything,” the Pope said.
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- June 17-23, 2001
