Pope Francis delivers his first catechesis after undergoing colon surgery.

How do we see our grandparents and elderly persons? When was the last time we visited or telephoned an elderly person in order to show our closeness and to benefit from what they have to tell us?

How is it possible that God uses a sinner, a frail and weak person, to do His will? Everything has been prepared in God’s plan.

This situation in Paul’s letter to the Galatians is not far removed from the experience of many Christians today.

With prayer and with life, there remains only to have courage and hope, to to feel the prayer of Jesus strongly and to keep on going.

“A prayer that is alien from life is not healthy. A prayer that alienates itself from the concreteness of life becomes spiritualism, or worse, ritualism.”

Jesus not only wants us to pray as He prays, but assures us that we can always count on His prayer. We must be aware of this: Jesus prays for me.

’Prayer is not a magic wand: It is a dialogue with the Lord.’

In Pamplona, five hundred years ago, all Ignatius’ worldly dreams were shattered in an instant. The cannonball that wounded him changed the course of his life, and the course of the world.

Prayer often co-exists with distraction.