National Catholic Register News
Pope Francis dedicated the audience to the prayer of praise, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes as one of the principal forms of prayer, alongside blessing and adoration, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving.
The pope gave his final general audience address of 2020 in the library of the apostolic palace, where the weekly event has been held since October because of rising coronavirus cases in Italy.
When we put prayer first, Pope Francis explained, daily trials turn into opportunities to grow in faith and charity.
In his catechesis, the pope observed that the Psalms present prayer as “the fundamental reality of life.”
Subsidiarity is the idea, deeply rooted in Catholic tradition, that the authority closest to a local need is best suited to tackle the issue.
Speaking to pilgrims in the Vatican’s San Damaso Courtyard, the pope noted that Fr. Malgesini was killed “by a person in need whom he himself helped, a person with a mental illness.”
Pope Francis encouraged Italians, who are under a nearly month-long nationwide home quarantine, to “face every situation, even the most difficult, with fortitude, responsibility, and hope.”
Mourning can have two aspects, Pope Francis said: “for death or for the suffering of someone” and “tears shed over sin – for our own sin, when the heart bleeds for the pain of having offended God and one’s neighbor.”
In his general audience, Pope Francis taught on the first of the eight beatitudes spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Pope Francis had apologized during his Angelus address Jan. 1 for having lost his patience with the woman.
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