Vatican City, Jan 9, 2019 / 05:13 am
Persevere in prayer, remembering that God the Father is waiting to answer his children – even if the result is to change the person, not the circumstance, Pope Francis said at the general audience Wednesday.
"How many times have we asked and not obtained – we all experience it – how many times have we knocked and found a closed door? Jesus urges us, in those moments, to insist and not to give up," the pope said Jan. 9.
"Prayer," he continued, "always transforms reality, always. If things do not change around us, at least we change, change our heart. Jesus promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to every man and to every woman who prays."
In his continuing catechesis on the 'Our Father,' Pope Francis reflected on Jesus' instructions about prayer in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, when he teaches his disciples "to pray and to insist in prayer."