Pope Francis says that we should be tenacious and creative in prayer–and he’s used baseball lingo to make his point.
At a recent daily Mass, Francis said that we should pray in surprising, unexpected ways “even coming ‘out of left field’ as Jesus teaches us.”
He means that prayer can be a surprise; a runner trying to score can’t see the left fielder behind him, so he will be surprised if a good throw nails him at the plate. Francis also means that prayer can be unusual, odd, even weird. That’s another connotation of “left field.” I’m delighted that Francis, a soccer fan, knows baseball too, but I’m not surprised. Baseball is God’s game.
Francis made many other excellent points about prayer in his homily. Read about it here.
Image by Zane Hollingsworth under a Creative Commons license.