Prayer helps to transform the desire of the heart and conform it into God’s will. At times, He prepares our hearts to receive what we truly need, which may be different than what we want, and this preparation requires time. He wants the Holy Spirit to have the opportunity to transform our hearts, to make them more compassionate and loving, to make us more humble. By doing this, God wants the need or concern we are praying for, whether for ourselves or for someone else, to take root in our hearts. He wants us to continually knock on His door, asking for His help and guidance. This parable highlights the intensity God asks of us as we approach Him with our needs. For whoever asks, receives and the one who seeks, finds and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” ( Luke 11:9-10).
Jesus follows the parable with the words, “ask and you will receive seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened to you. Eventually, his friend gets out of bed to give him what he needs, if only for the sake of regaining his sleep. The man continues to knock despite his neighbor’s repeated complaints. The parable of the persistent friend ( Luke 11:5-8) ) describes a man who knocks on his neighbor’s door late at night to ask to borrow three loaves of bread. “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” ( CCC 2613). “the importune widow,” is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and the patience of faith. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: This parable invites us to understand a very important aspect of prayer. If a corrupt judge can succumb to the constant pleadings of a helpless widow, how much more will God hear the persistent pleas of the suffering who pray to Him. The Father is not an unjust judge, he is loving and merciful. Her badgering would eventually lead him to hear her. You can easily visualize the judge’s face cringe when he would see the widow approach him every day, asking the very same thing. The helpless widow pleaded persistently with the corrupt judge, demanding justice from him. Despite her difficult position, she used what means she had to deal with a judge who was unjust and used the Law to serve his own interests. She could easily be ignored and denied justice. The parable of the persistent widow ( Luke 18:1-8) describes a poor widow who was powerless, who had no one to defend her.
In many New Testament passages on prayer, Jesus stresses the need to pray continually, without ever losing heart. When He asked His Father to take the bitter cup of His Passion away from Him, Jesus placed Himself completely in His Father’s hands, asking that the Father’s will be done, not His own. Jesus prayed intensely at the garden of Gethsemane and from the cross.
TRYING THE PATIENCE OF A SAINT LOST JUDGMENT HOW TO
He prayed all night before choosing His disciples and was praying when His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. He prayed before His baptism, at the time of the Transfiguration, and He regularly went off to pray alone. Jesus is often described in the Bible as a man of prayer. Monica on August 27, a saint known for her persevering prayers, it is helpful to better understand the value and importance of patience and persistence in our prayer lives. We are asked to pray always, persistently, despite the apparent silence.Īs we honor St. Our patience may be tested by these difficulties and we may become discouraged. God may seem to be distant or uninterested in our appeals for help and guidance. No matter how long we pray or how many times we ask God for something very dear to our hearts, it seems that we receive no answer. There are times when our prayers are not answered immediately. We become impatient and fail to understand why there is a delay in receiving a response. Long silences often make us anxious and frustrated. With modern technology, we have become accustomed to receiving answers immediately.
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