Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful
encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily
becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties,
and our fervour dies out. The Church urgently needs the deep breath of prayer,
and to my great joy groups devoted to prayer and intercession, the prayerful
reading of God’s word and the perpetual adoration of the Eucharist are growing
at every level of ecclesial life. Even so, “we must reject the temptation to
offer a privatized and individualistic spirituality which ill accords with the
demands of charity, to say nothing of the implications of the
incarnation”. There is always the risk that some moments of prayer can
become an excuse for not offering one’s life in mission; a privatized lifestyle
can lead Christians to take refuge in some false forms of spirituality.
--Pope Francis Evangelii
Gaudium #262, November 24, 2013.
