General Audience of October 19: Reflection of Pope Francis

On the occasion of the general audience of Wednesday, October 19, 2022, Pope Francis returns to address the theme of discernment. The importance of your choices, of knowing how to follow the compass of life and analyze everything that happens, even the negative things. The Holy Father’s catechesis focuses on these topics.

The general audience of Wednesday, October 19 takes place in St. Peter’s Square where Pope Francis, in front of a crowd of faithful, returns to speak about the importance of discernment. On this occasion, the Holy Father provides a new “tool” to be able to choose between good and evil: to look at one’s own interiority.

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The Pontiff, in fact, invites us to reflect on our own life and our thoughts, even the most negative ones. “Our life is the most precious book given to us” and only by knowing how to read each page well can we appreciate even the “little miracles” it offers us.

Review your life story

As Pope Francis immediately introduced during the general audience, the “book” of our life is able to provide the answers often sought everywhere, without satisfactory results. “Read your life. Read inside, how was your path. With serenity. Come back to yourself”. This is the exhortation of the Holy Father, who invites us not to neglect anything that represents our history and our journey. For this reason, the Pontiff invites us to stop and re-read all the “toxic” moments, those that brought negativity, the thoughts that gave discouragement and the feeling of uselessness. Each aspect has its value and everyone must learn to: “Broaden the plot of the story, learn to notice other things, make it richer, more respectful of complexity. Also managing to grasp the discreet ways in which God acts in our lives”.

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Discernment also places reflections on the actions that are carried out. Even things deemed unimportant, such as a reading, a service or a meeting, as suggested by Pope Francis, can convey inner peace and joy. “Stopping and acknowledging this is essential. To stop is to recognize: it is important for discernment, it is a work of collecting these precious and hidden pearls that the Lord has sown on our earth”. And the Holy Father tends to underline another aspect during the General Audience, recalling how good does not come in an impetuous and noisy way. But how, rather, it is calm, slow and discreet. “We don’t see it but it makes us live, and we only notice it when it passes”.

The Final Message to the General Audience

Being able to re-read your life carefully also allows you to have a fresh, different look. It allows you to see the “small miracles”, those that are often underestimated, because from them you can seize new opportunities. And, in this respect, he recalls how important it is to become aware of one’s past and to learn to tell one’s life to others: “It is – the Pope affirms – one of the most beautiful and more intimate.

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And before concluding his catechesis at the general audience, Pope Francis urges us to ask ourselves a few questions. At the end of each day, let’s ask ourselves, “What happened in my heart today? “. Asking ourselves what brings joy and pain and thus learning to discern what is happening within us. “Discernment is the narrative reading of the beautiful and dark moments, the consolations and the desolations that we experience during our life. In discernment, it is the heart that speaks to us of God, and we must learn to understand his language”.