Hajja Salesjana October-December 2019

10 H AJJA S ALESJANA Image by StockSnap from Pixabay During one of his Wednesday audiences, 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. “When we go to Mass, maybe we arrive five minutes before, and we start to chit-chat with those in front of us,” the Pope said. However, “This is not a moment for chit-chat.” “It 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,” he said, adding that “silence is so important.” (…) The Mass is not a show, but a place where we encounter the Lord. In this encounter, he said, silence is what “prepares us and accompanies us.” But to really understand this, first we have to answer a question, he said. And that is: What is prayer? Prayer is, “first and foremost dialogue, personal relationship with God,” he said. “And in prayer, just like in any dialogue, it needs moments of silence together with Jesus.” “This,” he said, “is because it is only in the mysterious silence of God that his Word can resound in our heart.” “The Mass needs silence, not chit-chat” – Pope Francis By Hannah Brockhaus (CNA/EWTN News)