Interacting with the Lord
May 20, 2025
Interacting with the Lord
It is a good challenge for each one of us to listen or read through Pope Leo’s addresses to different groups on different occasions and consider the message he imparts. The Pope’s addresses and homilies are never too long, are always very clear and easy to understand and grasp.
In last week’s post we finished considering each of our divine longings hidden behind or underneath each of the capital sins you and I have in different degrees. I am inspired to take a break in today’s post and the next one to talk about prayer since it is in prayer when you and I take quality time to talk to God, listen to Him with the intention of receiving deeper insights into the thoughts and ideas we read through in each of these publications we share. And finally joyfully act according to the Lord’s will.
Following is an excerpt on prayer (From the Navarre Bible commenting on the passage of Luke 18:1-8, 9-14). I find these passages superb: enlightening, inspiring, encouraging, uplifting and truly right and just for you and me to work on and make it our lifestyle and by it you and I be a witness of a man or a woman who prays.
Persevering
prayer. Parable of the unjust judge
1“And
he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not
lose heart. 2He said, “In a
certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; 3and
there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Vindicate me
against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused; but afterward he
said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor regard man, 5yet
because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by
her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the
unrighteous judge says. 7And
will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay
long over them? 8“I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will
he find faith on earth?”
1-8.
The parable of the unjust judge is a very eloquent lesson about the
effectiveness of persevering, confident prayer.
It also forms a conclusion to Jesus teaching about watchfulness,
contained in the previous verses (17: 23-26).
Comparing God with a person like this makes the point even clearer: if
even an unjust judge ends up giving justice to the man who keeps on pleading
his case, how much more will God who is infinitely just, and who is our Father,
listen to the persevering prayer of his children. God, in other words, give justice to his
elect if they persist in seeking his help.
1. “They
ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
Why must we pray?
“1. We must pray first and foremost because we are believers. Prayer is in fact the recognition of our limitation and our dependence: we come from God, we belong to God and we return to God! We cannot, therefore, but abandon ourselves to him, our Creator and Lord, with full and complete confidence […]. Prayer, therefore, is first of all an act of intelligence, a feeling of humility and gratitude, an attitude of trust and abandonment to him who gave us life out of love. Prayer is a mysterious but real dialogue with God, a dialogue of confidence and love.
2. 2. “We, however, are Christians, and therefore we must pray as Christians. For the Christian, in fact, prayer acquires a particular characteristic, which completely changes its innermost nature and innermost value. The Christian is a disciple of Jesus; he is one who really believes that Jesus is the Word Incarnate, the Son of God who came among us on this earth. As a man, the life of Jesus was a continual prayer, a continual act of worship and love of the Father and since the maximum expression of prayer is sacrifice, the summit of Jesus’ prayer is the Sacrifice of the Cross, anticipated by the Eucharist at the Last Supper and handed down by means of the Holy Mass throughout the centuries. Therefore, the Christian knows that his prayer is that of Jesus; every prayer of his starts from Jesus; it is he who prays in us, with us, for us. All those who believe in God, pray; but the Christian prays in Jesus Christ: Christ is our prayer!
3. 3.“Finally, we must also pray because
we are frail and guilty.
It must be humbly and realistically recognized that we are poor
creatures, confused in ideas, tempted by evil, frail and weak, in continual
need of inner strength and consolation. Prayer gives the strength for great
ideals, to maintain faith, charity, purity and generosity. Prayer gives the courage to emerge from
indifference and guilt, if unfortunately one has yielded to temptation and
weakness. Prayer gives light to see and consider that events of one’s own life
and of history in the salvific perspective of God and eternity. Therefore, do not stop praying! Let not a day
pass without your having prayed a little! Prayer is a duty, but it is also a
great joy because it is a dialogue with God through Jesus Christ! Every Sunday,
Holy Mass: if it is possible for you, sometimes during the week. Every day, morning and evening prayers, and
at the most suitable moments!” (John Paul II, Audience with young people, 14
March 1979).
8. Jesus combines his teaching about perseverance in prayer with a serious warning about the need to remain firm in the faith: faith and prayer go hand in hand. St. Augustine comments, “In order to pray, let us believe; and for our faith not to weaken, let us pray. Faith causes prayer to grow, and when prayer grows our faith is strengthened” (Sermon, 115).
Our Lord has promised his Church that it will remain true
to its mission until the end of time (cf. Mt 28:20); the Church, therefore,
cannot go off the path of the true faith. But not everyone will remain
faithful: some will turn their backs on the faith of their own accord. This is the mystery which St. Paul describes
as “the rebellion” (2 Thess 2:3) and which Jesus Christ announces on other
occasions (cf. Mt 24:12-13). In this way our Lord warns us, to help us stay
watchful and persevere in the faith and in prayer even though people around us
fall away.
The parable presents two opposite types—the Pharisee, who is so meticulous about external fulfillment of the Law; and the tax collector, who in fact is looked on as a public sinner (cf. Lk 19:7). The Pharisee’s prayer is not pleasing to God, because his pride causes him to be self-centered and to despise others. He begins by giving thanks to God, but obviously it is not true gratitude, because he boasts about all the good he has done and he fails to recognize his sins; since he regards himself as righteous, he has no need of pardon, he thinks; and he remains in his sinful state; to him also apply these words spoken by our Lord to a group of Pharisees on another occasion: “If you were blind, you would have no guilt’ but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (Jn 9:41). The Pharisee went down from the temple, therefore, unjustified.
But the tax collector
recognizes his personal unworthiness and is sincerely sorry for his sins: he has the necessary dispositions for God to
pardon him. His ejaculatory prayer wins
Gods forgiveness: “It is not without reason that some have said that prayer
justifies; for repentant prayer or supplicant repentance, raising up the soul
to God and re-uniting it to his goodness, without doubt obtains pardon in
virtue of the holy love which gives it this sacred movement. And therefore we ought all to have very many
such ejaculatory prayers, said as an act of loving repentance and with a God,
so that by thus laying our tribulation before our Savior, we may pour out our
souls before and within his pitiful heart, which will receive them with mercy” (St
Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of
God, book 2, chap. 20)
Jesus Christ crucified
While we make our way through life, we all sin, but we can all repent also. God is always waiting for us with his arms wide open, ready to forgive us. Therefore, no one should despair; everyone should try to have a strong hope in God’s mercy. But no one may presume that he will be saved, for none of us can be absolutely certain of our final perseverance (cf. Council of Trent, De Iustificatione, can. 16). This relative uncertainty is a spur God gives us to be ever vigilant; this vigilance in turn helps us progress in the work of our sanctification as Christians.
42. “Many times have I repeated that verse of the Eucharistic hymn: Peto quod petivit latro poenitens, and it always fills me with emotion: to ask like the penitent thief did! He recognized that he himself deserved that awful punishment… And with a word he stole Christ’s heart and ‘opened up for himself’ the gates of heaven” (Bl. J. Escriva, The Way of the Cross, XII, 4).
43. In responding to the good thief, Jesus reveals that he is God, for he has power over man’s eternal destiny; and he also shows that he is infinitely merciful and does not reject the soul who sincerely repents. Similarly by these words Jesus reveals to us a basic truth of faith: “We believe in eternal life. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ—whether they must still make expiation in the fire of purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies they are received by Jesus Christ into paradise like the good thief—go to form that People of God which succeeds death, death which will be totally destroyed on the day of the Resurrection when these souls are reunited with their bodies” (Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 28).
Last Easter Sunday, April 20, The Resurrection of the Lord, I experienced a transforming inspiration during the ten minutes I would spend after Mass to talk to Jesus who I just received in Holy Communion and I believe He is truly present in my soul while the species of the host are completely dissolved. My usual prayers among a couple of others is:
“May your most
just and lovable will be done, be fulfilled, be praised, be eternally exalted
above all things forever.”
And
“Trample
on the devil, crush his head, squeeze his body and push it down, down, down
into hell where he truly belongs and lock him up together with all his devils
--the atheists, the socialists, communists, totalitarians, mafias, Marxists, the
terrorists, the evil force who want to control the whole world. You know who
they are, Lord. Disable all their traps.
Deplete them of what gives them power, all their wealth, all their health and
even all their life. They don’t deserve
to live in this world, so beautiful and good, You created for your children and
there to continuously offend you, destroy it, persecute, kill, abuse your
children. How can You allow them to do
that? But Jesus, I trust in You! Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I trust in You!
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I trust in You! St. Michael, the archangel and your
army of angels, I trust in You! Holy
Souls in Purgatory, I trust in You!”
“I pray for the conversion of all sinners
that includes myself and all your enemies, Lord. That’s the very reason why you suffered and
died on the Cross. I want to make your
sentiments my sentiments, too. You do
not have enemies but there are those who proclaim themselves enemies of yours. The ignorant who you prayed for because they
do not know what they are doing. Those
who are hardened of heart who offend you. The atheists who do not believe in
You. All of us, sinners, who chose to crucify You instead of Barabas and who continuously
choose to offend you because we have not learned to seek You, to find You, to know
You, to love You and to serve You so that we may be happy with You in Your
Kingdom.”
I must admit that the transformed prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit gave me a lot of peace and joy and continues to give me peace and joy.
Need I still remind ourselves to bring the above thoughts and ideas to our intimate conversation with the Lord in the quiet moments of prayer every day?
Enjoy your moments with our Lord! Experience His loving gaze and savor his affectionate inspirations.
See you in the next post,
“May tomorrow be a perfect day; may
you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care;
‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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