St. Bernard was riding on his horse one day, lost in prayer. He met a beggar on the road and engaged in conversation with him. The beggar asked Bernard what he doing on the horse as he went along, and Bernard said he was praying. “But I often had distraction in my prayer,” Bernard confessed. “Oh, well, I never have distraction when I pray,” the beggar said. “That’s nice,” said St. Bernard. “I’ll give you this horse if you can say an ‘Our Father’ without once being distracted.” “Oh, that’s easy,” the beggar said and he began to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...” The beggar paused, “Say, does the saddle come with the horse?”
BE PERSISTENT IN YOUR PRAYER...AMEN!
In all of the Gospels, we read about the many people who came to Jesus asking for help. Some asked with fear and trembling, for example, the leper who “came up and bowed down in front of Jesus pleading, “Sir, if you want to, you can cure me.” (Mt.8, 2) Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, “Of course I want to! Be cured! And his leprosy was cured at once” (Mt 8, 2-4) Mark writes that when a blind man, Bartinaeus, heard that Jesus was passing by, he began to shout and say, “Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me” (Mk 10, 47) Even when many people scolded him and told him to keep quiet, he only shouted all the louder, “Son of David, have pity on me” (Mk 10, 48)
In this Sunday Gospel, Jesus tells us more about the power of faith. But this time, He does so by using a story – one that carries some basic truths: we must pray unceasingly and with intensity. The strongest person in Jewish society was the judge. So powerful was he that if he decided a matter, it had to be carried out exactly. On the opposite side of the scale was the widow, especially if she was poor as, indeed, most of them were. Because she was a woman, and because she was poor, she was considered to have few or no rights at all.
The judge in the story had no faith in God, moreover, he didn’t care a whiff what people thought. And so as it comes as no surprise that at first he refused to help her. But little did he suspect that this woman would persist as she did, continuing unrelentingly to beg him for justice. Exasperated by this, he finally decided to listen to her and help her.
Jesus prayed to God “aloud and in silent tears.” In other words, he prayed like the people who came to him prayed: unceasingly and intensely. And because of this, God saved Him by raising him from death. This is the way we should pray. We BOTHER God and PESTER Him: we never give up asking Him for the help that we need. In certain sense, we can imagine that this was the way Jesus prayed and, because of this, God answered his prayers. This is the way He will answer our prayers too.
Key Concepts: Planning. A plan that can simply and honestly answer each of those fundamental questions (those written in the last bulletin) will accomplish two important objectives: (1) it will set direction for all the programs and activities of the parish, and (2) it will guide all stewardship and development activities by setting the agenda for communications and establishing priorities for fund raising.
This week we have the memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch and National Boss Day on Monday then we have the feast of St. Luke on Tuesday. The memorial of the martyrs Saints. John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and companions is on Wednesday. This is all for now, watch for the next bulletin. Remember to pray the ROSARY every day. God Bless!
Your Priest-Servant and Parochial Administrator,
Fr. Reggie