{"id":1351,"date":"2017-11-20T09:43:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T09:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stthomasneilston.co.uk\/?p=1351"},"modified":"2019-03-18T08:24:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T08:24:55","slug":"pope-francis-time-before-mass-not-a-moment-for-chit-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/?p=1351","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis: Time before Mass “not a moment for chit-chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has spoken out about ‘chit-chat’ before Mass.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Pope Francis called out the common habit of chatting with people around you before Mass, stressing that this is a time for silent prayer, when we prepare our hearts for an encounter with the Lord.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we go to Mass, maybe we arrive five minutes before, and we start to chit-chat with those in front of us,\u201d the Pope said Nov. 15. However, \u201cit is not a moment for chit-chat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a moment of silence for preparing ourselves for dialogue, a time for the heart to collect itself in order to prepare for the encounter with Jesus,\u201d he said, adding that \u201csilence is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
Continuing his new catechesis on the Eucharist, the Pope recalled his message the week prior, that the Mass is not a show, but a place where we encounter the Lord. In this encounter, he said, silence is what \u201cprepares us and accompanies us.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But to really understand this, first we have to answer a question, he said. And that is: What is prayer?<\/p>\n

Prayer is, \u201cfirst and foremost dialogue, personal relationship with God,\u201d he said. And in prayer, just like in any dialogue, it needs moments of silence \u201ctogether with Jesus.\u201d This, he said, is because it is only in the \u201cmysterious silence of God\u201d that his Word can resound in our heart.<\/p>\n

Francis explained that to pray is not difficult, and is something that Jesus himself taught us to do first of all by example, when in the Gospels he withdraws to a secluded place to pray. And second, he teaches us again when he tells his disciples that the first word in knowing how to pray is \u201cFather.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is \u201cso simple,\u201d the Pope said. \u201cSo we have to learn, \u2018Father.\u2019\u201d Then, we must take on the attitude of a small child before his or her parents. One full of trust and confidence, knowing that God \u201cremembers you and takes care of you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n
The second attitude we should take is one of childlike surprise and wonder. The child, he said, \u201calways asks a thousand questions because he wants to discover the world; in our relationship with the Lord, in prayer, wonder,\u201d he said, telling pilgrims to \u201copen the heart to wonder.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When it comes to prayer, he noted that often we are busy with many different activities or projects and say we don\u2019t have time. \u201cWe lose sight of what is fundamental: our life of the heart, our spiritual life, our life of prayer with the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Jesus surprises us in truth by loving us and calling us even in our weaknesses, he said, adding that just as Christ called his disciples, he also calls us to him at each Mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is therefore the greatest grace: to be able to experience the Mass, the Eucharist. It is the privileged moment to be with Jesus, and through Him with God and his brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This article, written by\u00a0Hannah Brockhaus<\/a>, first appeared on the CNA website<\/a> on Wednesday 15th November 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has spoken out about ‘chit-chat’ before Mass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-ryan-black","has-more-link","post-1351","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-catholic-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p85OtW-lN","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Francis-Nov-2017.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2199,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions\/2199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}