After reflecting on the Host of Martyrs, Pope Francis continued his Wednesday audience series on “The Passion for Evangelization” by looking to another group of faithful witnesses: Nuns and monks. Similar to the martyrs, Nuns and monks run throughout the history of faith, with some themselves being martyrs. In his April 26, 2023, audience, the Pope emphasized the power of intercession. Nuns and monks are people who have dedicated their lives to religious observance through prayer, meditation, and service to the community. They renounce themselves and the world to “imitate Jesus on the path of poverty, chastity, and obedience,” and they intercede on behalf of all.
The beating heart of proclamation
Given their lifestyle, one may wonder how these individuals are helping to proclaim the Gospel and evangelize. Wouldn’t it be better if they directed their efforts into the mission and went out into the world? Pope Francis answers that “their prayer is the invisible force that sustains the mission of spreading the Gospel.’’ Nuns and monks are the beating heart of proclamation. In writing about discovering her vocation, St. Therese of the Child Jesus said, “I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood it was Love alone that made the Church’s members act, that if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood. I understood that love comprised all vocations”.
Love, and the power of intercession
The Holy Father notes in particular the universal solidarity of Nuns and monks, saying, “Whatever happens in the world finds a place in their heart, and they pray.” He further describes how Nuns and monks live cloistered to serve as a bridge of intercession for all people and for sins, weeping for their own sins and for the sins of the world, interceding with raised hands and hearts. Nuns and monks take the difficulties of the world upon themselves and pray for others as Jesus did.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, intercessory prayer is “a prayer of petition that leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners” (CCC, 2634). Dr. Edward Sri explains that underlying the power of intercessory prayer is the love placed into the prayer and the love of God who answers them.
St. Gregory of Narek
Pope Francis offers St. Gregory of Narek, a Doctor of the Church, as an example of the power of monastic life. St. Gregory was an Armenian monk who lived around the year 1000 and spent almost his whole life in the monastery of Narek, to interceding for sinners, the poor, and those in need of the Lord’s healing. “There [in the monastery] he learned to peer into the depths of the human soul and, by fusing poetry and prayer together, marked the pinnacle of both Armenian literature and spirituality,” said Pope Francis.
St. Gregory was a professor of theology and wrote a mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs called The Book of Prayer. St. Gregory sensed a profound solidarity with the whole Church and the mission of preaching the Gospel to all peoples and described his poem as “an encyclopedia of prayer for all nations”. The Book of Prayer has since become a classic of Armenian literature and has been translated into 30 languages. Through this book, Pope Francis says, “The faith of the Armenian people, the first to embrace Christianity, is poured out; a people that, joined to the cross of Christ, has suffered so much throughout history.”
The Holy Father concludes his audience by encouraging everyone to visit a monastery so that we may deepen our own spiritual lives and be inspired by the spiritual dedication of those called to the vocation of monastic life. He prays that the Lord would give us new monasteries, new monks, and new Nuns so that they can carry the Church forward through their intercession.