Pope Francis said as a reminder to Christians that an essential ingredient for living an alert and joyful life is prayer. The Pope said this on the first Sunday of advent.
“Be awake, guard your heart,” the Pope said in his message before the Angelus 28 November. “And let’s add an essential ingredient: the secret to being watchful is prayer.”
“In fact, Jesus says: ‘Keep awake at all times praying’ (Luke 21:36). It is a prayer that keeps the lamp of the heart burning. Especially when we feel that enthusiasm is cooling, prayer rekindles it, because it brings us back to God, to the center of things,” he added.
The Pope also emphasized that “prayer awakens the soul from sleep and focuses it on what matters, on the end of existence.”
“Even on the busiest days, let’s not neglect prayer,” he urged, recommending an easy prayer to say during Advent: “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”
“Let’s repeat this prayer throughout the day, and the soul will remain alert,” he said.
From St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis delivered his weekly Angelus reflection on the day’s Gospel according to St. Luke, in which Jesus warns his disciples about the end of the world and his second coming.
“The Gospel of today’s liturgy, the first Sunday of Advent, that is, the first Sunday of preparation for Christmas, speaks to us of the coming of the Lord at the end of time,” the pope explained.
“Jesus announces desolating events and tribulations, but precisely at this point he invites us not to be afraid,” Francis continued. “Why? Because will everything be okay? No, but because he will come. Jesus will come back, Jesus will come, he promised it. He says thus: ‘Rise up and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is near.’”
The Pope warned people not to become “sleepy Christians,” who let their hearts become lazy and “their spiritual life soften into mediocrity.”