Tag Archives: prayer

Wrestling with Prayer

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I think that lots of us wrestle with prayer. A friend of mine has been separated from her husband for several years, and has prayed that God would reunite them. She hasn’t seen any movement on the issue and her husband seems to be moving on. She asked me “At what point should I stop praying for my desire and simply ask for acceptance of the situation?”  Tough question.  Equally as difficult are the questions about illness and dying – our own or that of a loved one. At what point do we move from prayers for healing and a cure of a serious illness, and begin to ask God for a peaceful and happy death?  Just like in life, so too we are often betwixt and between in prayer.  It seems to me that when praying for personal concerns, two questions often confuse us. 

– How persistent should we be in prayer, and

– How boldly should we pray

How long should we persist in making a request to God? For some it seems like we reach a point when persevering in prayer amounts to pestering God, being overly pushy – or worse yet, is it a case of  refusing to accept God’s will? When does persistent praying indicate faith, and when does it indicate a  stubbornness bent on changing God instead of ourselves?

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On Prayer

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“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. (Luke 18:10). In today’s gospel we encounter a Pharisee and tax collector in prayer. Interestingly, the pericope follows the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8).  While the common thread is certainly prayer, there are other aspects which bind together these two narratives. One of Luke’s ongoing themes is the inclusivity of the Gospel. In these two parables, God who hears all prayers is addressed by a (saintly and probably poor) widow and the sinful (and probably rich) male tax collector. Luke continues to demonstrate that the Reign of God is open to all – a message of keen importance to his Gentile audience. Continue reading →

Complain or Pray

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From Pope Francis’ 2020 homily on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul:

“It is pointless, even tedious, for Christians to waste their time complaining about the world, about society, about everything that is not right. Complaints change nothing. Let us remember that complaining is the second door that closes us off from the Holy Spirit, as I said on Pentecost Sunday. The first is narcissism, the second discouragement, the third pessimism. Narcissism makes you look at yourself constantly in a mirror; discouragement leads to complaining and pessimism to thinking everything is dark and bleak. These three attitudes close the door to the Holy Spirit. Those Christians did not cast blame; rather, they prayed.

We today can ask: “Are we protecting our unity, our unity in the Church, with prayer? Are we praying for one another?” What would happen if we prayed more and complained less, if we had a more tranquil tongue? The same thing that happened to Peter in prison: now as then, so many closed doors would be opened, so many chains that bind would be broken… (cf. Acts 12:10-17).

Let us ask for the grace to be able to pray for one another. Saint Paul urged Christians to pray for everyone, especially those who govern (cf. 1 Tim 2:1-3). “But this governor is…,” and there are many adjectives. I will not mention them, because this is neither the time nor the place to mention adjectives that we hear directed against those who govern. Let God judge them; let us pray for those who govern! Let us pray: for they need prayer. This is a task that the Lord has entrusted to us. Are we carrying it out?  Or do we simply talk, abuse and do nothing? God expects that when we pray we will also be mindful of those who do not think as we do, those who have slammed the door in our face, those whom we find it hard to forgive. Only prayer unlocks chains, as it did for Peter; only prayer paves the way to unity.

The arc of prayer

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In the epic novel The Lord of the Rings, the elves of Lothlorien admit that they are losing their forest lands. But they battle on. They describe their struggle as “fighting the long defeat.” This is the source of the comment made by Paul Farmer, who fought a “losing battle” for health care for the poor. Farmer was a physician and medical anthropologist who co-founded “Partners in Health”, an NGO committed to the idea that good public health and medicine was possible to poor areas of the world. In Tracy Kidder’s biography of Farmer (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Farmer says, “I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat, and I’m not going to stop because we keep losing… I actually think sometimes we may win… So, you fight the long defeat.” His life and work reminds me of the persistent widow. Continue reading →

St Augustine on Prayer

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Just a quick note with a link to a very long read on the topic of prayer: St. Augustine’s Letter 130, “To Proba, a Devoted Handmaid of God.” It is at least a 30 minute read, robust in its treatment of prayer and filled with Scriptural references. You can find the letter online here.

The letter begins as such:

Recollecting your request and my promise, that as soon as time and opportunity should be given by Him to whom we pray, I would write you something on the subject of prayer to God, I feel it my duty now to discharge this debt, and in the love of Christ to minister to the satisfaction of your pious desire. I cannot express in words how greatly I rejoiced because of the request, in which I perceived how great is your solicitude about this supremely important matter.

I think it will take a little “stick-to-it-ness” to follow Augustine’s thought and to absorb all that he offers on the topic of prayer. I also think it will be impossible not to walk away with some “seeds” that will give you fruit for reflection.

Prayer: a context

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This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Lectionary Cycle C. With the geographical note, “in a certain place” Luke has separated this narrative from the immediate context of Chapter 10 (the conclusion of the mission of the 72, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the encounter with Martha and Mary). Luke now presents three episodes concerned with prayer:

  • the first (Luke 11:1–4) recounts Jesus teaching his disciples the Christian communal prayer, 
  • the “Our Father”; the second (Luke 11:5–8), the importance of persistence in prayer; and
  • the third (Luke 11:9–13), the effectiveness of prayer. 

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Being people of prayer

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In the epic novel The Lord of the Rings, the elves of Lothlorien admit that they are losing their forest lands. But they battle on. The describe their struggle as “fighting the long defeat.” This is source of the comment made by Paul Farmer, who recently passed away. Farmer fought a “losing battle” for health care for the poor. In Tracy Kidder’s biography of Farmer called Mountains Beyond Mountains, Farmer says, “I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat, and I’m not going to stop because we keep losing… I actually think sometimes we may win… So, you fight the long defeat.” Continue reading →