Pray always and do not lose heart.

Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always and not losing heart:

"Once there was a judge in a certain city who respected neither God nor man. A widow in the city kept coming to him saying, 'Give me my rights against my opponent.' For a time he refused, but finally he thought, 'I care little for God or man, but this widow is wearing me out. I am going to settle in her favor or she will end by doing me violence.' "

The Lord said, "Listen to what the corrupt judge has to say. Will not God then do justice to his chosen who call out to him day and night? Will he delay long over them, do you suppose? I tell you, he will give them swift justice. But when the Son of Man comes will he find and faith on the earth?"

There is so much here again. We are called to pray always. A subject for a full retreat rather than a simple post. Still I think a few concepts are worth throwing out. Jesus shows us in the parable that persistence turns the apathetic and undevout heart. How much more can the grace of God work in the heart that persists in prayer? I have trouble with the traditional concept of prayer of petition in some ways. The way it has often been presented is that we need to pray to God so that he will hear our petition and help us. More or less a spiritual version of the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I suppose in some ways this parable could be seen to support this image. I have trouble with it because it doesn't fly with the image of God as a God of unconditional love. God already wants what is best for us. He already knows better than we do what we need. So why then do we need to pray for our needs and hopes?

I, of course, have no special gift of wisdom or insight to know with any certainty but I will share with you what makes sense with a God that I believe to truly love us without conditions. I was actually a child when I wrestled with what seemed to me to be a contradiction, this God of love who commanded us to pray for justice with persistence. Would a God of Love really need to be swayed to act with justice toward his children? Of course not. Yet in many places in Scripture Jesus clearly exhorts us to pray and to pray for each other as well as to pray "always." It seemed that the Spirit gave me the following understanding.

God extends grace to all of us for whatever we need. The passion of  God's Love is eternally generous and eager. God is however also a respecter of our free will. He wants us to chose grace so that our relationship may be that much deeper. Often our hearts are stubborn. We want things our way and we generally believe we know what is best for whatever cause we lift up in prayer. God's vision is of course eternal and His vision is also by definition full and true. Our stubbornness needs to be softened, our hearts need to be opened to a grace already given. So God as Creator asks us his creatures to participate in healing each other's hearts as well as our own. How amazing is that, how intimate rather than aloof is our God!

God asks us to pray for each other because prayer is like a gentle rain upon the soul, it blesses and softens the surface upon which it lands so to speak. Over time the hard heart softens and becomes open to a grace already given by a generous God. God invites us into our own healing as we pray for ourselves to grow in faithfulness and grace. God does indeed do much more work than we, but we are also invited into this endeavor of love. Saint Monica prayed for her wayward son Augustine who was too influenced in his youth by the hedonism of his culture. She prayed for about 20 years before much fruit of her prayer was easily evident. Imagine the anguish of a mother so devoted to God who does not know how to get through to her son to receive the faith she longs to share with him. How many mother can relate to St. Monica's anguish? Some hearts take a longer time to soften than others and some heads are very stubborn in resisting the truth that is embedded in their very being. However once the field of Augustine's soil finally willing received the seed of God's grace; how plentiful was the harvest. When Augustine converted his ways, his zeal for God was immense. He eventually became a bishop and his writings still are encouraging souls. He as well as his mother became canonized saints of the Church.

Be persistent in prayer, Jesus directs and his  devoted follower Monica echoes. Prayer isn't what we do when we cannot "do" anything else. Pray is one of the greatest gifts we can ever offer for another. Prayer is a transforming power and it changes the world one raindrop at a time. Prayer changes the one who prays as well as the one lifted up in prayer. There is no down side here. We must however have the patience of heaven and trust that God's word does not go forth from his heart and return empty (Isaiah 55). We persist not to wear down a harsh God who needs to be won over, but to cooperate with a compassionate God whose grace has already been plentifully given. We pray to work with God in opening broken but stubborn hearts, including our own, to an awareness of eternal life, to unconditional love, true healing and forgiveness. Prayer is a living power connecting creature and Creator in an embrace of healing, wisdom, forgiveness and holy joy. Prayer is the breath of the Spirit alive within us. Prayer is our very entrance into the community that is the Trinity. Imagine!

So let us not be discouraged if it seems that we pray and "nothing changes." The Spirit of God is alive and powerful. Prayer is our entrance into the water of that stream. Let us persist in prayer at all cost. Our hearts will change. Our stubbornness is not stronger than God's patience, nor is our reluctance stronger than God's compassion for us. In the end Love always triumphs.

God bless.