Pope Francis asks Catholics to pray in August for the Church to reform “in the light of the Gospel”
The Holy Father, Pope Francis made an appeal in his August prayer intention released on Tuesday, inviting all Catholics around the world to pray in this month so that the Church will receive the grace “to reform herself in the light of the Gospel.”
The prayer intention released on August 3, by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network read: “Let us pray for the Church, that she may receive from the Holy Spirit the grace and strength to reform herself in the light of the Gospel”. The network also released an accompanying video, in which Pope Francis explained the reason behind the prayer intention.
Speaking in Spanish, the pope said: “The specific vocation of the Church is evangelization, which isn’t proselytism, no. Its vocation is evangelization; even more, the Church’s identity is evangelization. We can only renew the Church by discerning God’s will in our daily life and embarking on a transformation guided by the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for the Church, that she may receive from the Holy Spirit the grace and strength to reform herself in the light of the Gospel.
Our own reform as persons is that transformation. Allowing the Holy Spirit, the gift of God in our hearts, to remind us what Jesus taught and help us put it into practice.”
He went on saying: “Let us begin reforming the Church with a reform of ourselves, without prefabricated ideas, without ideological prejudices, without rigidity, but rather by moving forward based on spiritual experience — an experience of prayer, an experience of charity, an experience of service.”
“I dream of an even more missionary option: one that goes out to meet others without proselytism and that transforms all its structures for the evangelization of today’s world.”
