Lesson from Fr. Paulus | God Likes Confident Prayer

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today's Gospel, Jesus is politely telling us that we are weak pray-ers. But he also gives us the remedy for our weakness.

This parable comes after a conversation he had with some Pharisees. In that conversation, they asked him when the Kingdom of God would finally come. Jesus probably detected impatience behind that question, as if they were criticizing God for being careless or lazy.

We can relate to that kind of impatience. We can tend to give up on God too easily. We approach God with less confidence than this determined widow had in approaching a crooked judge. Behind the words of our prayer lurks a subtle tendency to doubt God. We think that just because he doesn't answer us in the way we expect him to, he isn't answering us at all.

That shows a lack of faith, a truncated vision of God. Today Jesus is reminding us that we should have unlimited faith and confidence in God. No prayer that we utter goes unheard. God is never out of his office; he's never on vacation. He is longing for us to bombard him with our prayers. He is eagerly searching for hearts that trust him enough to ask him unceasingly for everything they need. He always answers our prayers, even when the answer is "no".

Because God is our Father, all-wise, all-loving, and all-powerful, there should be no limit to our confidence in him. And so, as St Luke tells us, we should "pray always without becoming weary."

Being constant in our prayer, just like the widow with her petitions to the judge, just like Moses' interceding for victory in the battle against the Amalekites: constant in thanksgiving, constant in repentance, constant in praise, and constant in bringing to God every need that comes our way. Constancy built on confidence - that's the path to becoming better pray-ers.

St Monica's Tears

St. Monica is one of history's most famous pray-ers - the perfect example of consistent and confident prayer. Her son, St Augustine, was a brilliant student with a promising future among the intellectuals of the Roman Empire.

She had tried to bring him up in the Christian faith, but when Augustine came of age, he informed his mother that he had become a Manichean - this was one of the pagan philosophical religions that were anti-Christian. The news devastated her. It seemed that her oldest son was a spiritual lost cause. But she didn't give up on him yet.

She spared no efforts to save him, taking him to meet with eminent theologians, arguing with him herself, disciplining him by taking away family privileges, and always, day after day, year after year, praying for him. Many times, she spent entire nights in prayer. And when she did allow herself a few hours of rest, she cried herself to sleep. But nothing seemed to help.

Only after ten years of darkness, frustration, and unceasing prayer was her prayer answered: her son came back to the Church and became one of history's holiest and most influential saints. Actually, every one of her prayers before then had been answered as well. God was saying, "Not yet."

This experience taught St. Augustine confidence and constancy in prayer. He summarizes this lesson later, while writing about leaving home. He left in secret, so that his mother wouldn't go with him. She didn't want him to go, for fear of the pagan influences he would encounter. Reflecting on that incident, he wrote:

• "That night I stole away without her; she remained praying and weeping.
  
• "And what was she praying for, O my God, with all those tears, but that you should not allow me to
  sail!
  
• "But you saw deeper and granted the essential part of her prayer: you did not do what she was at
  that moment asking, that you might do the thing she was always asking."
  

Filling Up Life's In-Between Times
It is much easier than we think to follow Christ's directions on this point, to "pray always without becoming weary." First, it is necessary for each of us to spend some time every day alone with God, reflecting on a passage from the Bible, praying a decade of the Rosary, or praying for our loved ones.

That's what gives order and direction to our lives. If Christ really is someone important to us, which he is, that's why we are here today - we will make a point of spending time with him. But God has designed prayer to be flexible enough to fit into everything else we do as well. God is always thinking of us, always guiding us, like a mother with her toddler, or a coach with his players on the practice field.

And so, we really can always pray. Maybe not while we are in the meeting - but yes, while we are walking to and from the meeting. Maybe not while we are writing the report - but yes, while we are driving to and from work. Maybe not while we are running the play on the football field - but yes, while we are running back to the side-lines.

Our days are filled with a thousand little moments when we are alone with ourselves. Jesus wants to be part of those moments. He wants us to share those moments with us, because he wants to share his life with us - as he will prove once again today by coming to us in Holy Communion.

This week let's fill up all those in-between times with prayer: thanking God, asking him for what we need, and promising him that we will follow him no matter where he asks us to go.