In today's audience, Pope Benedict the XVI asked for people the world over to pray for driving safety.
In his closing remarks during his audience today, Pope Benedict XVI asked for people to pray for safe driving around the world.
This week is safety week, initiated by the United Nations. The pope said he would like to give "a word of encouragement to the public institutions that seek to maintain highways safe and to protect human life with appropriate means, and to the people who dedicate themselves to research into new technologies and strategies to reduce the many accidents on the road," all over the world.
He also urged young people to practice prudence and show respect for highway codes.
It just goes to show, there's always something to pray for. If you start listing all the things in this world that could benefit from prayer, well, you’d understand why some religious never stop praying. That is their mission in fact, continual prayer for the souls in purgatory, the humans on earth, peace, justice, those suffering in poverty, from disease. You name it. But the pope’s remarks also highlight another fact. You can pray for the heavies: famine, war, disease, but you can also pray for daily needs. What’s important is you pray and speak with God every day.
Don’t forget to listen either. That’s the hardest part for me, trying to quiet my mind and become open to the presence of Jesus. I’ll sit with every intention of listening, then something will happen. It’s at that precise moment I usually remember where I put that item that’s been lost for a month. I’ll remember a bill I forgot to pay. All these things that seemingly need to be done right now before I forget again. It’s hard to not just take a second to write it down and go back to prayer.
