Pondering Prayer

To find true peace and contentment we must give our heart, soul and will to God – for God’s good pleasure.

Prayer is not a magic wand that fulfills your desires, but it is what helps you keep the faith when you don’t understand God’s will, Pope Francis said.

Jesus is showing how important and necessary it is to pray tirelessly, all the time and not just every now and then, “when I feel like it,” the pope said. 

“We all experience moments of exhaustion and discouragement, above all when our prayers don’t seem to work,” he said.  Contrary to the stubborn judge, he said, God speedily secures “the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night,” according to the Gospel of St. Luke (18:1-8).

But that doesn’t mean God will respond when “and in the ways that we want. Prayer is not a magic wand,” the pope said. When Jesus prayed that his father spare him from “the bitter cup of his passion,” he also put himself fully in God’s hands, asking that the father’s will — not his own — be done. 

“Prayer is what keeps the faith; without it, faith wavers,” Pope Francis said. And it is in prayer that people experience the compassion of God who comes to his children “filled with merciful love.”

Live simply, Care deeply, Speak kindly, and Love generously!

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]