He recalled that before the audience he met the parents of Fr. Roberto Malgesini, who was stabbed to death Sept. 15 while serving the homeless in the northern Italian city of Como.
He said: "The tears of those parents are their own tears, and each one of them knows how much he or she has suffered in seeing this son who gave his life in service to the poor."
"When we want to console somebody, we cannot find the words. Why? Because we cannot arrive at his or her pain, because her sorrows are her own, his tears are his own. The same is true of us: the tears, the sorrow, the tears are mine, and with these tears, with this sorrow, I turn to the Lord."
He continued: "All human pains for God are sacred. So prays the prayer of Psalm 56: 'My wanderings you have noted; are my tears not stored in your flask, recorded in your book?' Before God, we are not strangers or numbers. We are faces and hearts, known one by one, by name."
"In the Psalms, the believer finds an answer. He knows that even if all human doors were barred, God's door is open. Even if the whole world had issued a verdict of condemnation, there is salvation in God."
The pope observed that problems sometimes remained unresolved despite our prayers. In such situations, it is important to remember that "the Lord listens."
"Those who pray are not deluded: they know that many questions of life down here remain unresolved, with no way out; suffering will accompany us and, after one battle, others will await us. But if we are listened to, everything becomes more bearable," he said.
"The worst thing that can happen is to suffer in abandonment, without being remembered. From this prayer saves us. Because it can happen, and even often, that we do not understand God's plans. But our cries do not stagnate down here: they rise up to Him, He who has the heart of a Father, and who cries Himself for every son and daughter who suffers and dies."
He concluded: "If we maintain our relationship with Him, life does not spare us suffering, but we open up to a great horizon of goodness and set out towards its fulfillment. Take courage, go ahead with prayer. Jesus is always beside us."