Friday, October 18, 2013

When Does God Hear and Answer Our Prayers?

Jesus does not give us a tidy answer to solve the mystery of why God seems so distant at times and does not answer our prayers as we think He should (Exodus 17:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:2Luke 18:1-8). Saint Paul was persistent in his prayer for healing of his “thorn in the flesh,” yet God’s answer was to learn strength in the weakness that thorn gave him. On the cross, Jesus himself lifted a cry to the silent heavens that seemed to go unanswered… until Easter gave us all a new perspective of Good Friday. So this seems to be the point Jesus is teaching us about prayer today. Keep praying, not because prayer forces God to answer, but because prayer keeps us in relationship with our heavenly Father who can be trusted, even on the darkest days when prayers seem to go unanswered.

- Deacon Robert

“Being Christian is not just obeying orders but means being in Christ,
thinking like him, acting like him, loving like him; it means letting him
take possession of our life and change it, transform it and free it from the
darkness of evil and sin… Let us show the joy of being children of God, the
freedom that living in Christ gives us which is true freedom, the freedom
that saves us from the slavery of evil, of sin and of death!”
~ Pope Francis