SW News: Cardinal Robert Sarah spoke on the significance of prayer and promoting a close relationship with God and fellow Christians on May 25 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas' end-of-year Mass for students and professors.

Cardinal Sarah voiced alarm about the risks of church separation and emphasized the need for true love and unity, such as that found between all three of them in the Trinity. He emphasized the need for devoting one's whole existence to Jesus, as Jesus did to the Father, with actions such as genuine devotion to prayer and concern for the needs of others serving as visible signs of such dedication.

According to Cardinal Sarah, Jesus' prayer as high priest at the Last Supper reveals that he intended his followers to be one big God family by warning against the spirit of separation, hatred, and contempt and indicating that the devil is at the root of everything that divides people. The Father acknowledged that Jesus' call for unity was challenging, but he underscored its importance.

He exhorted students to go out into the world with a renewed missionary resolution to communicate the Gospel courageously, emphasizing Christ's sacrifice on the cross as the most powerful example of how prayer and concrete evidence of self-sacrificial love may alter the world.

Cardinal Sarah encouraged students in his presentation to "lift their eyes" to God and "enter into the realm of the divine" to shift their prayer emphasis from worldly worries to the Father.

According to the Cardinal, learning more about God helps people love Him more. He encouraged Pontifical University students to follow in St. Paul's footsteps and fearlessly pick up the cross for the Lord. "Pick up the cross if you want to gain eternal glory and God's entire presence," he added.

Cardinal Sarah concluded his lecture by urging students to become trustworthy ambassadors of the risen Christ by pursuing an intimate and profound connection with the Lord and with one another.

The Angelicum, or Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, is one of Rome's seven pontifical colleges, with 1,000 students from over 100 different countries.