It is good to persist in prayer with trustful confidence. Although the essential parts of prayer are adoration and thanksgiving, the prayer of petition plays a big part in most people’s daily life.

We cannot provide, by our unaided selves, for our spiritual and temporal needs. Christ himself has told us to ask him for these needs:

“Ask and you shall receive.”

Asking with fervor and perseverance proves we have the faith we need to receive all Christ wants to grant us in response to our requests. We must realize and remember we do not always get exactly what we ask for, but rather what God knows we need, and what is really best for us. What we need most are the peace and security that come from being in harmony with God’s will for us.

As Christians, we also know that our particular request may not always be for our good, or for the final good of the person for whom we are praying. We need to pull down the walls of separation and share in the universality of God’s love: Very often we set up walls which separate us from God and from one another. Today’s Gospel reminds us God’s love and mercy is extended to all who call on him in faith and trust, no matter who they are.

We have to be grateful to God for all the blessings we enjoy. As baptized members of the Christian community, we have been given easy access to God’s love. But we also have serious responsibilities arising from these gifts. One of these responsibilities is to make clear to others, with true humility and compassion, that God’s love, mercy and healing are for them also because they too are the children of God.

Vincentian Family News