Praying to Pray

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 28-29, 2007

Gen 18:20-32; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11;1-13

Prayer
What is a prayer? "Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment" (CCC 2697) Prayer is a conversation with God. All religions in the world express there acts of worship, faith and belief through prayer. There are different kinds of prayer – vocal prayer and mental prayer. Vocal prayer is when we utter words aloud (eg rosary, novena, etc) and mental prayer is when we talk to God in the silence of our hearts. (note: in the Catholic tradition, expressions of prayer are through vocal prayer, meditation and contemplation)

Sometimes we do not see the importance of prayer. Oftentimes we do not know how to pray or what we have to pray for. Like Jesus’ disciples in today’s Gospel we need instructions how to pray, what to pray for and why we need to pray.

In response to the request of his disciples, Jesus repeated the commonly spoken of as the Lord’s Prayer, “from which it appears that above all we are to pray that God may be glorified, and that for this purpose we may be worthy of His kingdom, living in conformity with His will.” We ask for nothing unless it be in accordance with God’s divine will. Inasmuch as we pray for spiritual guidance we also ask God for temporal things – food, health, strength, shelter, etc., so that we may continue to serve God and our neighbours. Finally, there are the evils which we should pray to escape, the penalty of our sins, the dangers of temptation, and every manner of physical or spiritual affliction, so far as these might impede us in God's service.


Persistence in prayer
We have to be persistet in praying. The First Reading shows what persistence means. We heard Abraham bargaining with God. Jesus recommends the same shrewdness in the Gospel. He gives the famous parable of knocking on the door of a friend at a late hour to borrow some bread. The friend refuses because he and his family are all in bed. Jesus says, “If he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”

Why do we have to be persistent? Why we need to pray over and over again? Why bargain?Because of love. When we love someone, we want to spend time with her/him; we never wish to lost contact with the person we love. Love requires us to be always in presence of the object of our love be it physical, emotional or spiritual presence.

Blessed Mother Teresa gave a tip when our prayer life runs dry, she said, “The only remedy for the lack of prayer is to pray again.”

Does God listen to our prayer?
The answer is yes. Yes, God always answers our prayers. Jesus himself says, “ask and you will receive.” However, though we trust the words of Jesus why it seems many of our prayers remain unanswered. When we do not receive what we are praying for. We must not stop praying. For prayer enlightens our mind, increases our trust in God and even changes our attitude into goodness. Most of all prayer deepens the degree of our intimacy with God.

God always answers our prayers. His answer is either yes or no, but always God answers our prayer in the way that is best for us. When Jesus says “ask and you will receive” he does not specify precisely what we ask for. He just says, “ask and you will receive.” Sometimes we receive what we ask for, sometime we do not.

Sometimes we are unaware that what we praying for may not be good for us, or might harm somebody else, or might prevent us from growing as a person. In that case God’s answers us or gives us something, something better than what we asked for.


The Serenity Prayer (Reinhold Niebuhr)

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

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Hi to Jordan Samantha, my niece and model for this entry. :)
CCC- Catechism of the Catholic Church