“The necessity for them to pray always”
This parable can be summed up using the words of St. Paul, “Pray without ceasing.”1 The parable of the widow can only be found in Luke’s gospel. In the parable, the judge has everything, while the woman has nothing except for prayer. It is because of this widow’s faith, expressed through her life of prayer that the judge gave justice to her. Prayer is one of the most important ways to strengthen their faith.
What is prayer? Prayer is “raising one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from Him.”2 Simply put, it’s direct communication with God. Prayer enables us to have a stronger faith life. The more you pray, the stronger your faith will be.
During Pope John Paul the Great’s last trip to America, in St. Louis in 1999, he spoke of the importance of prayer. He talked about the age of “instant communication” and how easy it is for us to get in touch with each other. What are some ways we are able to connect with each other in an instant? But no matter how instant we can get with one another, it will never beat the instantaneous nature of prayer. At any point in time, we can speak to God, and He will hear us. More importantly, prayer allows us to listen to God.
John Paul the Great said, “What is needed is that you talk to him, and listen to him.”[i] Remember, that it is a two way street. It is not fun to have friends who only talk and never listen to you. God wants to speak to our hearts. He is happy that we come to him, but we must be willing to listen to Him so we can grow in our faith. We have two ears and one mouth; we should listen twice as much as we speak to God. Listening instead of speaking is a sign of humility. “Humility is the foundation of prayer. It [prayer] connects us directly to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in a constant exchange of love. When we come to God our Father with love and sincerity, He hears our prayers.”3
But how does God hear and answer everyone’s prayers? God is omnipotent and omnipresent. That means He is everywhere and all powerful. He is not constrained to time or space. In fact, God calls each of us to a stronger faith with Him. God can answer any and all prayers at any moment in time.
MOVIE – “Bruce Almighty”
It is impossible for us to know what it is like to be God. In this movie Bruce is giving the responsibilities of God and is completely overwhelmed. It is hard for us as humans to meet all the demands and requests that people ask of us. When our teachers, parents or bosses ask something of us, we sometimes don’t event answer or obey their requests. Imagine how awesome is our God who not only does listen to each request, but answers it with love and always according to His holy will and according to what is best for us.
I’ve prayed and prayed, and He hasn’t granted my prayer! Why? God is not a genie in a bottle. He doesn’t just grant wishes for us whenever we need them. If we are praying for a request, think about if it would fulfill the will of God or not. We can and should pray for things like our health, as well as the health of others, for an upcoming test and the ability to remember what we studied. But by praying, “God just give me an A”, and not studying, we are not following the proper will. If we are in proper prayer mode, we will know the difference between what we want and what God wants for us.
There’s a country song about thanking God for unanswered prayers. The problem with this song is that God does answer every prayer; it just may not be when we want it or what we want. God hears every prayer, and His answer is sometimes no. He does this because He knows what is best for us. When a child pleads to his/her parents to stay up past their bed time, the parents knows if they allow it then the child won’t get enough sleep, and will be cranky all the next day, or may be too sleepy for school and not learn. Think of a time where you may have wanted something really bad, didn’t get it, but then something even better came along. God knows what is best for all of us. Jesus promised us if you “seek, you will find, knock and it shall be opened for you…”4, but in God’s time not ours. One of the reasons we pray is to unite our will with the holy will of God. We pray the Sign of the Cross at both the beginning and at the end of our prayers. When we pray the Sign of the Cross before and after our prayer we are saying that we pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. In other words we are saying only let this request occur if it is in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and if it is not of their name do not allow this request. We should ask whatever is on our hear and we should ask very directly, but we must always imitate our Lord as in the garden He said, “not my will but Thine be done." (Luke 22:42)
Many people say, “But I still don’t feel like God hears me when I pray.” Over and over again through the Scriptures, Jesus tells us that our Father hears our prayers. In the book of Sirach it says, “Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed. He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, not to the widow when she pours out her complaint...”5. God has never and will never abandon us; we abandon Him.
What if I’m doing good things with my time and don’t have time for prayer (I’m too busy to pray)? We are never too busy to pray. Praying is like eating or drinking; after a while without it we begin to starve. If we are not praying, we are starving ourselves from God. There’s a story of Blessed Mother Theresa; Her sisters came to her and requested they cut just an hour of prayer in the morning so they can attend to the sick and dying. They told her than they needed more time with the sick and the poor. Blessed Mother Theresa said, “You’re right. We do need more time so that we can help them!” Mother Theresa then said, “Let’s pray two hours instead of one”. This extra hour of prayer gave the sister the grace and strength necessary to serve more efficiently, and instead of keeping them from helping the people, it actually helped improve the quality of care for the sick and dying. They were able to treat everyone. We are never too busy for prayer. Even if we are doing God’s work, He asks us to pray to Him. Saint Louis, the King of France, was the father of eleven children, a crusader and the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world. His biographer, who served in his court for many years, wrote that Saint Louis went to Mass daily and prayed morning and evening prayer (Liturgy of the Hours) daily. This would have been about a two-hour commitment to prayer. A person once asked Saint Louis how he managed to run his kingdom and still find time to pray. He responded by saying that he would not be able to run his kingdom if he did not make time to pray. There is also a story of Saint Isidore the Farmer. Isidore was a poor married man supporting a wife and child. He was a servant his whole life and worked the fields of a landowner. He made a commitment to God to attend Mass each day prior to work. This commitment to go to daily Mass however caused him to be late each day. The other workers attempted to get him in trouble by saying to the owner that he was not doing his part of the work. Miraculously each day one of two things would occur. Either angels would push the plow of Isidore without him present or the angels would push the plow with Isidore causing him to work twice as fast. Either way, Isidore was rewarded for going to Mass and putting Jesus first, his work was always finished. The Church places Saint Isidore’s feast on May 15, because in many countries this is the time of planting. Saint Isidore is the patron of laborers and farmers.
Think about your prayer life and think, “how often do I pray?”
ACTIVITY - How many Hours do you spend on the following?
Eating, Sleeping, Activities (Sports, Dance, Groups, Clubs, etc.), Studying, In School, Entertainment (TV, Internet, Movies, Music, Hanging out with Friends), Prayer. When putting down the hours remember there are only 24 hours in a day, so all of your hours should add up to 24. Try to use the week days rather than the weekends since they are more consistent. What percentage is prayer in your life? Once a pastor on a radio show made a comparison between the Sabbath, day of rest and our prayer life. He said that after we eat and sleep there are about 14 hours left in each day. If we are to give one day (the Sabbath) completely to God, what if we divided the one day, the 14 hours over a week. The pastor’s theory is simple, if it is difficult to give 14 hours to God in one day, what if we tried to give 2 hours each day of the week.
How do I pray? What sort of prayers should I do or say? The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that when Jesus prays, He is teaching us how to pray. Every thought, word, and deed Jesus does is a way for us to pray because He is God. When the disciples asked how to pray, he taught them the Our Father. This prayer is so important to the Church, that we pray it at every Mass. The Church, which is guided by the Holy Spirit, gives us an enormous wealth of prayers to use. We can pray together or individually by ourselves. The Church teaches us that the most appropriate places for prayer are personal or family spaces, monasteries, places of pilgrimage, and above all the church, where we can worship our lord in Eucharistic adoration.6 It is good to give praise and thanksgiving to God everyday. We can pray before and after meals, pray when we see an ambulance go by for the people they are helping and their lives, pray for safe travels when we are traveling, or in-between class periods we can pray a Hail Mary or a decade of the rosary. There is never a time we can’t connect ourselves with God.
Search: Our Father and Sacrament Series
Think of one way you can improve your prayer life this coming week.
1 2 Thes 5:17
2 CCC 2559
[i] Address of John Paul II to the Young People at the Kiel Center St. Louis, Janurary 26, 1999
3 CCC 2559
4 Matthew 7:7
5 Sirach 35:13-14
6 CCC 2696