Wednesday, April 26 2023 18:35

ArmInfo. St. Gregory Narek was an Armenian monk who lived a thousand years ago and left us a prayer  book in which the faith of the Armenian people, the first people to adopt Christianity, was assimilated. A people who, holding fast to the cross of Christ, suffered a lot in the course of history.

This was stated by Pope Francis at his weekly General Audience, which this  time was dedicated Saint Gregory of Narek.

As Vatican News  reports, "the Holy Father's catechesis focused in  particular on Saint Gregory of Narek, a medieval Armenian monk who,  he said, offers a shining example of the universal, all-embracing  love which Christians are called to."

According to the source, the Pope began by asking what contribution  those who live in a monastery can make to the Church's mission of  announcing the Gospel. "Wouldn't it be better," he asked, "if they  dedicated their energies to mission?".  Having raised the question,  the Pope's answer was a resounding no.

"Monks and nuns," he stressed, "are the "beating heart of the  Church's proclamation [of the Gospel]: their prayer is oxygen for all  the members of the Body of Christ, the invisible force that sustains  the mission."

It is not a coincidence, the Holy Father said, that the Patron Saint  of Mission, Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, is a nun.  As another  example of this calling, Pope Francis offered Saint Gregory Narek, a  tenth century Armenian monk.  Saint Gregory, the Pope said, spent  almost his entire life in the monastery of Narek, where he "learned  to peer into the depths of the human soul and, by fusing poetry and  prayer together, achieved the pinnacle of both Armenian literature  and spirituality." What most strikes him about the saint, the Holy  Father went on, is his "universal solidarity" - his identification  with all people and his decision to dedicate his life to praying for  them.  He sees the faults of humanity not primarily in others, the  Pope continued, but in himself, writing in his masterpiece the Book  of Lamentations that "I have voluntarily taken upon myself all  faults, from those of the first father down to the last of his  descendants, and I have held myself responsible for them".

This universal solidarity, Pope Francis stressed, was not exclusive  to St Gregory, but is rather a feauture of the lives all nuns and  monks, who, "like Jesus, take on the world's problems, the  difficulties, the illnesses, many things, and pray for others."  Cloistered religious, he said, are always busy - with work, and with  prayer.  The Pope thus ended his catechesis with an encouragement to  his listeners to visit monasteries whenever possible - "it'll do you  good!".