Pope Francis: Persevere in prayer

Source: Vatican News Service

Pope Francis focussed on the importance of prayer on Saturday. In his Twitter message he said: "If we dedicate more time to prayer, our hearts will reveal the lies with which we deceive ourselves, and we will find true consolation in God."

Later, he encouraged members of the 'Fontaine de la Miséricorde' Association from Switzerland, to persevere in prayer with constancy and regularity, during an audience with them in the Consistory Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

Here is the official English text of the Holy Father's comments, provided by the Vatican:

Dear friends,

I am glad to meet you on the occasion of your pilgrimage to Rome. I address my cordial greeting to the members of the "Fontaine de la Miséricorde", as well as to all the people you welcome and accompany through the "Schools of prayer" and fraternal formation.

With you I give thanks to the Lord, who has enabled you to experience His mercy and has led you to seek and to propose means for it to remain " rooted in your hearts and enable us to approach with serenity the events of our daily lives "(cf. Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera, 3). I invite you, therefore, to persevere in prayer with constancy and regularity. You know this: it is the heart-to-heart encounter with the Lord, listening to His Word, that enables us to be reborn every day in the living water of His mercy that springs from His open heart. May you too, through your sacramental life, become witnesses of God's mercy, that is for all men a call to recognize the beauty and joy of being loved by Him.

Finally, I encourage you, through fraternal life and with the help of the Holy Spirit, to "promote a culture of mercy based on the rediscovery of encounter with others, a culture in which no-one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters" (ibid 20).

With this hope, I entrust you to the Lord and to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and, as I ask you to pray for me, I impart to you my apostolic blessing, which I willingly extend to all the members of the Fontaine de la Miséricorde.