If you’ve always wanted to pray with the Pope, now there’s an app for that.
Pope Francis unveiled “Click to Pray” app this weekend. Exactly what it sounds like, the praying app allows people (if they’re the praying sort) from around the world to come together to pray about a certain issue.
While it is better to pray than not to pray at all, this blogger supposes that having such an app is rather innocuous, or is it not? Clicking on a prayer app to satisfy a curiosity or to displace a momentary boredom does not adequately prepare one for true prayer. True prayer begins with earnestness rooted in humility before God. Merely clicking on Bergoglio's prayer app is no different from clicking on any other app since the purpose of Bergoglio's app is to have people pray about "a certain issue" and in the case of Bergoglio, likely a political or a tragic one.
True prayer, defined here, is not an ephemeral wish list that comes and goes like news of the day. Rather, it arises from a continuous relationship with God, an extremely close one, one that is unique and personal that characterizes every prayer.
True prayer is unique not because content of the prayer is one of a kind but because everyone has a certain set of challenges and limitations and for a prayer to be a true prayer, one has to necessarily bring to one's consciousness all of one's challenges and limitations while praying. This cannot be done mechanically or perfunctorily. One's entire body, mind and soul have to be fully engaged.
True prayer is personal because the relationship between oneself and God is built on one's love for God and God's love in return. This is no different from a child's personal relationship with a parent. This personal parental relationship also holds true when the parent is the God the Father Himself.
To say that a prayer can be like a communal wish list to fix problems of the world and mitigate its tragedies is to mock what is true prayer as defined here. A prayer without deep thought and feeling, humility and love, vulnerability and dependence, concentration and active communication with God--not Bergoglio's app--is a mockery.
This, sadly, does not seem to concern Bergoglio in the least.
For Bergoglio, the number of hits on his app would be a gauge of his popularity on a daily basis. What an ego trip it would be for him if he were to see see millions of smart phone users logging in. One day, perhaps, everyone will realize that Satan that is in this world is far more popular than Christ ever was in His day. If Christ were to put His words in an app for smart phone users, He would not have a huge following because what He teaches is neither popular nor political.
Bergoglio, however, has remained popular with many people, including many of the mob-mentality youth, despite his refusal to be transparent with Vatican finances, corruption and sex scandals, but his willingness to secularize everything that is holy without exception has helped. To have his kind of worldly popularity, he must have the backing of the prince of darkness. And why would not the prince of darkness support him? He is after all in charge of the Catholic Church and it is the Church that the prince of darkness wants to destroy.
Admittedly, there had been many popes in the past who had been tempted and likely none had been successful in rejecting every single temptation the prince of darkness had put forth. What makes Bergoglio different from his predecessors is that he has become its pawn willingly without reservation, with God's permission of course, something this blogger does not understand.
[1] https://lifehacker.com/pray-with-pope-francis-using-this-vatican-approved-app-1831912700
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