Lives can change if people pray courageously, pope tells pilgrims.

Vatican city: (UCAN) The prayers of the faithful, not the pope, bishops, priests or nuns, have the power to make miracles happen in the most impossible situations, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass.

Saints, like St. Monica, have proven that lives can change if people pray courageously and believe that God "can do everything," he said Jan. 12, Catholic News Service reported.

The pope recalled Hannah's tearful prayers to God for a child as he reflected on the day's first reading (1 Sm 1: 9-20) during his homily at the Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Her prayer, he said, exemplifies "the courage of a woman of faith" who prays as if she were putting everything she had on the line.

"There are so many good women like that in the church," the pope said. "Let us think of a great one, St. Monica, who with her tears was able to obtain the grace of conversion for her son, St. Augustine. There are so many who are like that."

Source: UCAN