in the monasteries is the force that drives the mission

At the general audience, Francis spoke of the profound connection between the enclosure and the proclamation of the Gospel. “The heart of nuns and monks is like an antenna that captures what is happening in the world and thus prays interceding.” The memory of the Armenian people “who, clinging to the cross of Christ, have suffered so much throughout history.”

Vatican City () – The nuns and monks “are the real force that pushes the people of God forward, they are a bit like a reserve that we have in the Church.” This is what Pope Francis said today, addressing the faithful during the general audience on Wednesdays in Saint Peter’s Square.

Continuing the catechetical cycle on the testimonies of apostolic zeal, after reflecting on the examples offered by Saint Paul and the martyrs, Francis invited to observe the testimony of nuns and monks, “sisters and brothers who renounce themselves and the world to imitate Jesus on the path of poverty, chastity, obedience and to intercede on behalf of all”.

“We could ask ourselves”, he pointed out, “how can people who live in monasteries help to announce the Gospel? Wouldn’t they do better to use their energies in the mission, going out and preaching outside the monastery? In reality – the Pontiff replied -, the monks are the beating heart of the proclamation: their prayer is oxygen for all the members of the Body of Christ, it is the invisible force that sustains the mission”.

The Pontiff cited the figure of Saint Teresita of the Child Jesus, not by chance proclaimed patron saint of the missions. Describing his vocation, he wrote: “I understood that only love drives the members of the Church to action and that, if this love had been extinguished, the apostles would no longer proclaim the Gospel, the martyrs would no longer have shed their blood. I understood and knew that love embraces in itself all vocations. So, with great joy and ecstasy of the soul, I shouted: in the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love”.

This love embraces the world, translating into intercessory prayer. In this sense, she recalled the “universal solidarity” of which Saint Gregory of Narek, an Armenian monk who lived around the year 1000 and was a Doctor of the Church, spoke. “He left us a prayer book – Francis recalled – in which is poured the faith of the Armenian people, the first to embrace Christianity; a people who, clinging to the cross of Christ, have suffered so much throughout history “.

“In the communities of nuns and monks – continued the Pontiff – there is this universal solidarity: everything that happens in the world finds a place in their hearts and they pray. The heart of the monks is like an antenna that captures what happens in the world and thus they pray interceding for that. Thus they live in union with the Lord and with everyone”.

“I have voluntarily taken upon myself all the sins, from those of the first father to the last of his descendants,” wrote Gregory of Narek. “These are the great evangelizers,” the Pope commented, “by word and example, by intercession and daily work, they are a bridge for all people and all sins.”

“The monks”, added the Pope, “also cry with tears, for their sins and for those of the world. They pray and intercede with their hands and hearts held high. Hence the custom of the people, when they meet a consecrated or a consecrated woman, to say: pray for me. Because they know well that there is a prayer of intercession there. It will do us good -Francis concluded- to visit some monasteries, because there their hands are always busy with work and prayer. May the Lord give us always new monasteries, monks and nuns who encourage the Church with their intercession”.

Finally, as every week, during his greeting to the faithful, the Pontiff invited them “not to forget to pray for the tormented Ukraine.”