Pope Francis: Prayer, self-knowledge enables us to grow

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Source: Vatican News

Pope Francis encouraged Christians to strive toward self-knowledge by engaging in patient soul-searching, in order to discover what we are most sensitive to, as well as recognise what is truly important for us, during his catechesis at the General Audience with pilgrims in St Peter's Square today.

He said: "Often, we do not know how to discern because we do not know ourselves well enough, and so we do not know what we really want."

The Holy Father noted that underlying spiritual doubts and vocational crises are not infrequently caused by an insufficient dialogue between religious life and our human, cognitive and affective dimensions.

He illustrated this by referring to a writer on spirituality who underlined how many difficulties on the theme of discernment are indicative of problems of another kind, which need to be recognised and explored. The author expressed his conviction that the greatest obstacle to true discernment and to true growth in prayer is not the intangible nature of God, but the fact that "we do not know ourselves sufficiently, and do not even want to know ourselves as we really are" as "almost all of us hide behind a mask, not only in front of others, but also when we look in the mirror."

"Forgetfulness of God's presence in our lives goes hand in hand with ignorance about ourselves, of our personality traits and our deepest desires."

Knowing ourselves is not difficult, but it is hard work... It implies patient soul-searching. It requires the capacity to stop, to "deactivate the autopilot", to acquire awareness of our way of acting, of the feelings that dwell within us, of the recurrent thoughts that condition us, often unconsciously."

More so, he continued, it requires distinguishing between emotions and spiritual faculties, separating between "I feel" and "I am convinced," and knowing that "I feel like" is not the same as "I want."

In this way, he explained, we come to recognise that the view we have of ourselves and of reality is at times somewhat distorted.

The Pope insisted that "to realise this is a grace!" because, very often, it can happen that erroneous convictions about reality, based on past experiences, strongly influence us, limiting our freedom to strive for what really matters in our lives.

Pope Francis explained that similar to the way passwords are required to enter into computer programmes in our age of information technology, even the spiritual life has "passwords," - words that "touch the heart because they refer to what we are most sensitive to."

He warned that the tempter also knows these keywords and thus, it is important that we too know them to avoid finding ourselves "where we do not want to be" because "temptation does not necessarily suggest bad things, but often haphazard things, presented with excessive importance."

In this way, explained the Pope, temptation hypnotises us with the attraction that these things stir in us, things that are beautiful but illusory, that cannot deliver what they promise, leaving us in the end with a sense of emptiness and sadness. These may include degrees, careers, relationships - things praiseworthy in themselves, but toward which, if we are not free, make us risk harbouring unrealistic expectations.

"From this misunderstanding often comes the greatest suffering, because none of those things can be the guarantee of our dignity," the Pope said, stressing the importance of knowing ourselves and what we are most sensitive to in order to be able to protect ourselves from those who present themselves with persuasive words to manipulate us, as well as to recognize what is really important to us.

Pope Francis then upheld that examination of conscience is an aid that can help us on this path.

He described it as "the good habit of calmly rereading what happens in our day, learning to note in our evaluations and choices what we give most importance to, what we are looking for and why, and what we eventually find."

It also helps us to learn to "recognise what satiates the heart," stressed the Pope, for "only the Lord can give us confirmation of what we are worth" and "there is no obstacle or failure that can prevent His tender embrace."

Pope Francis concluded by stressing that Prayer and self-knowledge enable us to grow in freedom, as they are basic elements of Christian existence, as well as precious elements for finding one's place in life.

He appealed for prayers for "martyred Ukraine" and asked for the gift of peace.

He then greeted the English-speaking pilgrims taking part in Audience, especially those from England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Australia, India, Vietnam and the United States of America. He offer a special greeting to the new seminarians from the Pontifical Beda College and to the Catholic Association of Preachers from England. "Upon all of you I invoke the joy and peace of Christ our Lord. God bless you!"

Read the official text of Pope Francis' address and catechesis here: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2022/10/05/221005b.html

Watch the General Audience on the Vatican Youtube channel here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xCtyVWJ9KI