Pdf: Letter from the Prelate (20 April 2024)

My dear children: may Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!

Three months have gone by since the Pope invited us, in preparation for the upcoming Jubilee, to “rediscover the great value and absolute need of prayer in one’s personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world” (Angelus, 21 January 2024).

With God’s grace, we can make this rediscovery every day in different ways. At times, we will rediscover our Lord’s look, which leads us to a wordless contemplation that stems from love. At other times, prayer will involve a greater personal effort and struggle against everything that can distract us from our Lord. And frequently our dialogue with God will be expressed in the vocal prayers we learned in childhood and that lead us to have a constant attitude of adoration and petition.

In any case, all these ways of praying will be nourished by the same spirit, as Saint Josemaría told us: “I would go as far as to say, without fear of being mistaken, that there are many, countless, ways of praying. But I would like all of us to pray genuinely, as God’s children” (Friends of God, no. 243). The awareness of our divine filiation will help us to always pray with the trust and simplicity of small children.

I would like to insist especially on the prayer of petition. We have so many things to pray for, as I have been repeating to you in recent months: peace in the world, the Church, the Work. It is a mystery that God counts on us to ask him for things. It is not because he needs this, but because the very fact of asking is already something good for us, since thus we are acknowledging that we cannot do it alone and we open ourselves to receiving divine grace. And therefore I ask you again to continue praying for the work related to adapting the statutes. As I usually say, it will go well, because omnia in bonum. But if we pray more, it will go better.

Your Father blesses you with all his affection.

Rome, April 20, 2024