In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis said Peter's courage, when the high priest forbade him from preaching, stemmed from the power of Jesus' prayer. According to the pope, just as He prayed for Peter, 'Jesus prays for us.'<\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS<\/strong> The pope recalled that by that prayer, Peter could go from being a coward to being brave, with the gift of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n SUMMARY OF PAPAL HOMILY<\/strong><\/p>\n (Source: Vatican News)<\/p>\n \u201cIn many places, one of the effects of this pandemic is that many families find themselves in need, and they are hungry,\u201d Pope Francis said. He made these remarks prior to beginning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday morning. He continued, noting that unfortunately unscrupulous money-lenders are profiting from this situation. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is another pandemic, another virus: It's a social pandemic,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Many families who are not working and do not have food to put on the table for their children, the Pope continued, are prey to usurers who end up taking the little that they have. <\/p>\n \u201cLet us pray,\u201d the Pope said, \u201cfor these families, for their dignity, and let us pray also for the usurers: that the Lord might touch their hearts and convert them. <\/p>\n But the Pope said, the Apostles, and especially Peter, \u201ccourageously and boldly\u201d upheld his faith saying \u201cWe must obey God. We are obedient to God and you are guilty.\u201d <\/p>\n Pope Francis noted that Peter, is the same man who had denied Jesus, \u201cwho was full of fear and was even a coward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow in the world did he arrive at this point?\u201d he asked. It is the Holy Spirit, the Pope explained, citing the Acts of the Apostles, \u201cwhom God has given to those who obey him\u201d (Acts 5:32). <\/p>\n Peter, he continued could have chosen to compromise, to choose a softer tone when preaching with the people in order to be left in peace.<\/p>\n But he chose to undertake a journey in which he showed courage and boldness, the Pope said, noting that \u201cin the history of the Church, the people of the Church have had to do this often in order to save the people of God\u201d. At other times, the Church\u2019s leaders have made compromises to save themselves, rather than \u201cHoly Church\u201d.<\/p>\n Upholding the figure of Peter who refused to compromise his faith, but chose to be courageous, the Pope said \u201che loved passionately, but he was also fearful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a man who was open to God to the point that God reveals to him that Jesus is the Son of God, but then he falls into the temptation of denying Jesus,\u201d the Pope recalled, but then he moved from temptation to grace. <\/p>\n There is a verse, he explained, that will help us understand: \u201cBefore the passion Jesus says to the apostles \u2018Satan desires that you be sifted like wheat\u2019, this is the moment of temptation, you're going to be sifted like wheat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to Peter Jesus says: \u2018but I have prayed for you, so that your faith may not fail\u2019 \u201d the Pope said.<\/p>\n Pope Francis concluded his homily saying that just as Jesus prays for Peter, he prays for all of us. Then he encouraged the faithful not only to pray to Jesus so that He may \u201cgive us one grace or another\u201d but also to contemplate Jesus who shows the Father his wounds.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us think about how Peter was able to progress on this path from being a coward to becoming a courageous person with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thanks to Jesus's prayer, (\u2026) and let us be grateful that He prays for each of us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to have more confidence,\u201d Pope Francis reiterated, \u201cmore than in our own prayers,\u201d in the prayers that Jesus, the intercessor, says for us: \u201cLet us ask for the grace of allowing the Lord to teach us how to ask Him for the grace of praying for each one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 23, 2020. \u201cPeter was able to go from being a coward to being brave with the gift of the Holy Spirit thanks to Jesus' prayer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FtQg0cbpQHQ","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bsantamartahomilia2304eng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bsantamartahomilia2304int.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWe have to have more faith; more than in our prayers, in Jesus' prayer. 'Lord, pray for me'. 'But I am God, I can give you ...' - 'Yes, but pray for me, because You are the intercessor.' This is Peter's secret, 'Peter, I will pray for you so that your faith does not fail.<\/em><\/p>\n