In order to be attentive to Jesus’ work in us, we need to train ourselves to watch for him.Earlier this week, Pope Francis used Twitter to recommend a simple Advent prayer.
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Pope’s 3-word prayer and when to say it in Advent
On December 3, he’s offered new advice through the social media platform, this time on how to recognize God’s work in our lives.
The Holy Father suggested that it requires practice — or training — to recognize Jesus’ presence in our days.
And, as he’s noted on other occasions, we have to first be aware of our deep need for the Lord.
He said:
The first step of faith is to tell God that we need him, that we need him to be close to us. Thus, if we ask Jesus to come close to us, we will train ourselves to be watchful.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) December 3, 2020
The pope has often reiterated how necessary it is to understand our condition as sinners in need of the Savior.
In a homily earlier this year, the Holy Father stressed John’s assertion that “if we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves.” Here, he warned,
there is something that deceives us: to say ‘we’re all sinners,’ like saying ‘good morning’ or ‘have a nice day’ — a habit, even a social [norm], and with this, we don’t have a real awareness of sin. No. I’m a sinner because of this [sin], this, and this. Concrete.
