Vancouver, 10 August 2019

My dearest children: May Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!

How often we have meditated on “the need to pray always and not lose heart” (Lk 18:1)!

When the apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Our Lord answered, “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father…’” (Lk 11:2). Jesus himself begins his prayer by addressing the Father: in praise and thanksgiving (cf. Mt 11:25-26; Jn 11:41); at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 17:5); in Gethsemane (cf. Lk 22:42); and on the Cross (cf. Lk 23:34, 46). St Josemaría wanted everyone “to pray genuinely, as God’s children.”[1] In union with Jesus Christ – through him and in him – we reach God the Father (cf. Jn 14:6), simply, sincerely, and trusting in his all-powerful love.

Setting out daily on a life of prayer means letting ourselves be accompanied, in good times and in bad, by the person who understands us the best and loves us the most. Conversation with Jesus Christ opens up to us new perspectives, new ways of seeing things, which are always more filled with hope. “As you see,” our Father wrote to us, “that the means by which we do everything is only that: prayer.”[2]

I am begging the Holy Spirit to renew constantly, and especially now, the way we pray. The initiative belongs to him: “The living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer.”[3]

Continue to accompany me on my trip through the United States and Canada; its spiritual effectiveness also depends on the prayer of each and every one of you.

A very affectionate blessing from

your Father

[1] Friends of God, no. 243.

[2] Letter, 19 March 1967, no. 149.

[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2567.