Pope Francis’s Five Finger Prayer
Pope Francis is widely known for many things, being pastoral, being humble, being a true shepherd, and the list goes on and on. One thing that can be added to that list should be resourceful because the Holy Father is always giving us tips and aids to help us on our journey to Heaven. One of those tips and tricks is his “five fingered prayer,” and this handy little prayer is great for any situation that you are in because like the title suggests, all you need is your five fingers.
To start this prayer the Holy Father tells us to start with our thumb because that is the closest to us he recommends that we pray for those who close to us which would be our friends and family. Once we have gone through all the things we would like to pray for on behalf of those who are closest to us we would move to our pointer finger. On this finger, the Holy Father recommends that we pray for those who teach us. This could be teachers that we have or had, coaches, bosses, priests, or anyone that taught us something in our life.
Going to our middle finger the Holy Father recommends that we pray for people in governments or leaders, and this could be a simple prayer that politicians pass laws that respect the dignity of workers, the dignity of life, or that politicians turn over unjust or oppressive laws. You can also pray for Pope Francis, Archbishop Schnurr, Bishop Binzer, and Fr. Chris and Fr. Lambert.
After that, we move on to our ring finger, which is considered the weakest finger and so the Holy Father recommends that we pray for the weak and forgotten in the world. This means that we can pray for the poor and homeless, those who have nobody to pray for, those who have died today, and those who are in purgatory. The last finger is the pinky finger and it is the smallest so the Holy Father recommends that we pray for ourselves and for anything that we are struggling with.
This prayer is truly incredible and simple, not only because all you need is five fingers, but because of how powerful of a prayer it is. To anyone who has a hard time praying or doesn’t know what to say, this prayer is perfect for you because you have a topic that goes with each finger to pray. Also, this prayer is a perfect way to help us to understand ourselves and what we hold important because the more we pray this prayer the more we are able to find things in our lives that we repeat. So if you find yourself praying for a certain family member maybe that can lead you to put in an extra effort to become closer or to forgive them, or maybe you find yourself praying for leaders to put an end to abortion, then this can lead to you finding other people and go to the abortion clinic and pray together for an end. So hopefully after reading this you can use this little prayer whether it is right before Mass, while stuck in traffic, or just before you go to sleep this prayer can be used at any time and hopefully it can bring you closer to God and help us on our journey towards Heaven.
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