“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock at the door and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, a door will be opened” Lk 11, 9-10
On this weekend the liturgy makes us celebrate the mystery of prayer and its
importance in our lives.
One of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. And he taught them
Our Father and then gave them a speech on the importance of prayer.
The Our Father is without a doubt, the best prayer we have because it was
delivered by God himself who became flesh. Sometimes I get scared when some
people, albeit with very good intentions, attribute almost magical powers to other
prayers and place the Our Father prayer in the background. I don’t say no
we have beautiful prayers, many of them made by saints, and that help us to
pray better, but none can be compared to the one that Jesus gave us.
Saint Teresa of Ávila told us that whoever wanted to spend an hour of good
prayer, it would suffice to make an Our Father at this time, meditating on his words, and
this would be enough. Surely this is a woman who learned to pray with
Jesus.
The Our Father is a complete prayer. There we give glory to God, not because
He needs our praise, but because for us it is fundamental
recognize his glory so that we can discover who we are and where
we must go In the Our Father we open ourselves to God’s action and express our
trust in his grace. Saying “thy will be done” is very compromising, but it is the
only way to our real happiness. Within this “let it be done”, we present
our needs: daily bread; the forgiveness; the protection. But after
Giving us this wonderful prayer, Jesus insists a lot on the importance of praying.
The central theme of his speech is perseverance. Our prayer must be
persistent. We must do it insistently. It is not enough to say: I already asked for one
time, now I just have to wait. It is in the constancy of prayer that its
effectiveness. The example that Jesus gives us of the man who at dawn insists on the
neighbor until he is taken care of, if not out of friendship, at least not to be bothered anymore,
It’s very clear. We too must ask and ask, call and call until the
Lord listen to us.
However, it is important to be clear that there are three kinds of things that
we can ask God:
a) things that collaborate for our salvation, for our growth as
people;
b) things that are indifferent to life in God, but that will help us to be
happier in certain situations;
c) and other things that, although we do not realize it, will harm us or at least
will endanger our salvation.
As for the former, we can say that God is the first interested in
our salvation. This is the gift that he most wants to give us, and he will not deny anyone that
ask for it
As for the latter, they will depend on our insistence, on the
motivations we have. How we ask for them. how much they really are
important to us. (As a father of a family, he feels pleasure in giving his
son, on some special occasion, something, that you know you want very much
because he always asks for it, even if it is not essential for his life, so God also does
with us).
But if we ask him for something that will not do us good, or can do us
damage, it is natural that he does not grant us, even if we spend our whole lives insisting. God
He is our father and above all he wants to defend and protect us. Just like a child
little boy who asks his parents for a sharp knife, they will certainly deny him,
although he asks through tears, also to us, because he loves us, God some
Sometimes he doesn’t answer us.
But let’s not forget, praying is not just making lists of requests. It is also
thank, recognize the benefits, know everything that God has already done and praise him. And by,
above all, prayer is dialogue, not monologue. We must also be willing to
to listen to God, to contemplate him, to let himself be touched by him.
Prayer must become in our lives “breathing of love”
The Lord bless you and keep you,
The Lord make his face shine on you and have mercy on you.
The Lord turn his loving gaze and give you PEACE.
Bro. Mariosvaldo Florentino, Capuchin.
