Pope Pius XII's Three Prayer Tips for Priests

Source: District of Asia

Speech of His Holiness Pope Pius XII to the Parish Priests and Lenten Preachers of Rome, delivered at Consistory Hall on Saturday, March 13, 1943. After discussing the necessity of prayer at length, he concluded with a threefold exhortation:

  1. If you wish the faithful to pray willingly and with devotion, lead them by example in the church, praying before their eyes. A priest, kneeling before the tabernacle with a dignified posture and deep reverence, becomes a model of edification, a silent admonition, and a compelling invitation for the people to emulate his prayerful conduct.
     
  2. If the faithful inquire how they might swiftly and surely learn to pray well, tell them that prayer finds its most effective support in self-denial, penance, and mercy toward others. This truth is as clear as the fact that good deeds are an essential foundation for a worthy and powerful prayer.
     
  3. Finally, if you ask what we presently expect from our diocesans, we shall answer: their prayers and the offering of their sacrifices to God. Humanity is currently enduring one of its most challenging and painful hours. We are navigating through a tempestuous sea, battered by contrary winds. The Church, born for humanity, will endure with humanity until the end; but it will always have with it its divine Founder, as He promised: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matthew 28:20). In this ocean, the ship of the Church advances among the nations toward the harbor of eternity, with its Apostles, its Head, its doctrine, its Sacraments, and its peaceful action, surrounded by the waves and storms of tempests, during which Christ the Savior mysteriously sleeps. What does the Church do, what do the apostles do in the midst of the terror of the feared shipwreck? They draw near to Christ and awaken Him with their cry and invocation: "Master, we are perishing" (Luke 8:24). This is the prayer and security of the Church, which knows that "the gates of hell shall not prevail" (Matthew 16:18). Prayer, therefore, is the strongest and most invincible weapon against all the dangers and assaults of the world, for even if Christ seems to sleep, His heart always watches with love, with faithfulness, with omnipotence, and He knows how to rise and command the winds and storms at the moment His divine counsel has ordained, in conjunction with our invocation. Let us not fear, but let us pray. Let us also cry out to the Savior: "Arise; why do you sleep, Lord? Arise, and do not reject us to the end. Arise, Lord, help us!" (Psalm 43:24, 27). Let us unite with our prayer the innumerable sacrifices of this sorrowful and solemn hour, the tears, the sufferings, the deaths that grieve humanity. Our prayer will be infused with our tears and, with its heartfelt plea, will move the compassionate heart of Christ, who, in His apparent sleep, watches over His Church, over us, over the world. How could the Church fail in its mission, which, in such circumstances, has always been to implore the grace of God and His mercy through prayer and penance, in union with the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the God-Man?

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