Year of Prayer 2024: 10 reflections from Pope Francis

In preparation for the Jubilee of Hope 2025, Pope Francis proposed that this year 2024 be dedicated to prayer to rediscover “the great value and absolute necessity” it has in the life of each person, the Church and the world.

The Holy Father inaugurated the “Year of Prayer” on January 21, and there have been numerous occasions on which he has invited the faithful to place themselves before the presence of the Lord.

1. Prayer is as important as breathing

The Holy Father expressed that “prayer is not an activity that must be carried out only in moments of rest, but also during our daily lives.”

This is what he stated with a tweet on his official X account in September 2020, where he stated that prayer “is like the breath of our living relationship with God.”

2. Prayer makes life beat

During these last few months, Pope Francis has shared various messages on his profile on the aforementioned social network with some reflections on the importance of praying, all published with the hashtag #YearofPrayer.

Yesterday, July 1, the Pontiff pointed out that “prayer makes life beat,” although it may seem an abstract reality, far from problems.

“Prayer is essential, because we cannot get ahead alone. We are not omnipotent, and when someone believes they are, they fail,” she stated.

3. Prayer transforms us

Pope Francis also specified that prayer “transforms us,” since it “appeases anger, sustains love, multiplies joy and instills the strength to forgive.”

Likewise, he explained that it is not about “a flight from tasks”, but rather it is “a help to do the good that we are called to do here and now.”

4. Don’t forget to take care of your soul

The Holy Father also stressed the importance of taking care of the “most valuable part” of each person: the soul and the heart.

“Try to listen to it in silence. And, in silence, following the rhythm of your heart, talk to God,” he wrote on June 24.

5. God knows what we need before we ask for it

In the month of February, Pope Francis gave as an example the Bible verse (Mt 6:7-8), in which the evangelist warns that when praying we should not “chatter” like the Gentiles, and proposes the prayer of Our father.

For this reason, the Holy Father recalled that “the Lord has warned us that when we pray we should not waste words, believing that in this way we will be heard. He has taught us, rather, to entrust ourselves to the Father, who already knows what we need before we ask him.

6. A “brave and insistent” prayer

before prayer of the Angelus In October 2021, Pope Francis stressed that prayer is “brave and insistent” to be effective, since the Lord “is impatient to pour out his joy into our hearts.”

He also lamented that “many of us when we pray do not believe that the Lord can perform the miracle.”

7. Pray before important decisions in life

During a audience with religious In the Vatican, the Holy Father assured that without prayer “one does not sustain oneself nor does one know where to go.”

For Pope Francis, “it is in faithful and persevering prayer, particularly in Adoration, when everything acquires harmony, when one grasps one’s objectives more clearly, finding in the Lord the strength and light to carry them out according to his designs.”

For this reason, he stressed the importance of maintaining “a prolonged dialogue with the Lord every day, and then an invocation to Him before each important moment, each meeting, each decision.”

8. Pray without “makeup the soul”

At a General Hearing 4 years agoPope Francis encouraged “not to put makeup on the soul to pray” but to go to the Lord “as we are, with the beautiful things and with the ugly things.”

“And don’t forget this, to pray well we must pray as we are, not with makeup, not putting makeup on the soul to pray: ‘Lord, this is how I am.’ Go to the Lord as we are, with the beautiful things, and with the ugly things, that no one knows, but that we know inside,” he noted.

9. The essential task of the Church

For the Holy Father, as he explained during a General Audience with a catechesis dedicated to the topic of “the prayer teacher church”, the essential task of the Church is “to pray and educate to pray.”

Furthermore, on that same occasion he warned that when the devil “wants to fight the Church, he does so first by trying to dry up its sources, preventing them from praying.”

3. The prayer that Pope Francis prays every night before going to sleep

Just 3 years after being elected Pontiff, he shared a “personal” confession with the faithful.

“At night, before going to bed, I pray this short prayer: ‘Lord, if you want, you can purify me.’ And I pray five ‘Our Fathers’, one for each wound of Jesus, because Jesus has purified us with his wounds,” he explained.

“But if I do this,” Pope Francis assured, “you can do it too, at home, and say: ‘Lord, if you want, you can purify me’ and think of the wounds of Jesus and say an ‘Our Father’ for each. And Jesus always listens to us.”