Pray daily for guidance of the Holy Spirit, Pope exhorts audience

May 15, 2013

The truth “isn’t a possession,” Pope Francis told his weekly public audience on May 15. “It is an encounter with a Person.”

“We are living in an age when we are rather skeptical regarding truth,” the Pope told the crowd that gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday audience. He recalled the cynical question of Pontius Pilate: “What is truth?” The great irony, the Pope continued, is that “Pilate is unable to understand that the Truth is in front of him, he is unable to see, in Jesus, the face of truth, which is the face of God.”

Pope Francis told the crowd that Catholics should seek the truth, especially during the current Year of Faith. He challenged the audience, saying:

In this Year of Faith let us ask ourselves if we have actually taken a few steps to get to know Christ and the truths of faith more, by reading and meditating on the Scriptures, studying the Catechism, steadily approaching the sacraments.

“Don’t be a ‘part-time’ Christian,” the Pope exhorted the crowd. He asked how many people pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Then he asked the members of the crowd whether they would promise to make that daily prayer. “Will you do it?” he asked. When the crowd answered, he replied: “I can’t hear you,” prompting a louder reply: “Yes!”

The Pope’s address was centered on the gift of the Holy Spirit, as he urged the faithful to prepare for the feast of Pentecost on Sunday. As the audience began, he released two white doves into the sky above Rome.

 

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Further information:

• Audience: Do not be ‘part-time’ Christians (Vatican Radio)
• General Audience: the Holy Spirit’s Action (VIS)