Habemus Papam! A Disposition of Prayer

Habemus Papam!

With the introduction of Pope Leo XIV to the world, we can expect all sorts of speculation to swirl: Who is this man? How does he think? How will he serve?

Despite the temptation to get caught up into the often-politicized whirlwind, the Church is called to continue in a disposition of fervent, faithful prayer.

The electors have completed the task before them, and now the Holy Father has his. But for the rest of us, the vast majority of the Catholics in the world, there seems to be little we can do.

But, in fact, ours is not such a passive role as it may seem. Sometimes we can slip into thinking that our prayers don’t actually “do” anything: we know that God will have his way, and that his wisdom is sovereign over human affairs. So what good actually are our prayers? If God’s going to do what he wants to do, regardless, are our prayers really all that important?

But this is to misunderstand human and divine action. God doesn’t get his way in spite of us; he gets his way because of us. Our prayers, our Mass offerings, our rosaries and devotions are precisely the means he uses to do what he wants to do in the world. To pray, right now, for the holiness of the successor to Saint Peter is a task we’re called upon for, not because it’s a nice sentiment or the right thing to say we’re doing, but because it can actually change the outcome towards the kingdom – much more than our opinionating, speculating, chattering, or immersing ourselves in Church politics ever could.

At the opening Mass of the Conclave, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re called on each and every one of us to remember this: that prayer is act – in fact, the noblest, most efficacious of acts. “To pray,” he said, “by invoking the Holy Spirit, is the only right and proper attitude to take as the cardinal electors prepare to undertake an act of the highest human and ecclesial responsibility and to make a choice of exceptional importance. This is a human act for which every personal consideration must be set aside, keeping in mind and heart only the God of Jesus Christ and the good of the Church and of humanity.”

So let’s join the universal Church in prayer over the course of these days, “that the pope elected may be he whom the Church and humanity need at this difficult and complex turning point in history.”

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of the Church, intercede with her maternal intercession, so that the Holy Spirit will guide and strengthen Pope Leo XIV.

The final installment of our series on the papacy was published just moments before white smoke rose over the Vatican. “The Papacy Seen Through the Eyes of Faith” is now available.

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