“Prayer Principles” by Rev. Paul Berghout
Piety
(Abraham said to the Lord:) “Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty so that the innocent and the guilty
would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with
justice?” (Genesis 18:25)
Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me. (Psalm
138:3a)
… he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven all our
transgressions; obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which
was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
(Colossians 2:13-14)
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and
the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
(Luke 11:9-10)
Study
Prayer Principle Number 1. Even one innocent person is enough to save
the whole sinful city. It’s called praying for the sinful majority.
The view that the innocent effect salvation for the wicked is found not
only in our First Reading but also in Jeremiah 5:1, Isaiah 53, in the New
Testament, and through Our Lady of Fatima.
Specifically, in our First Reading, Abraham is bargaining with God. God
is not an abstract entity but a dialogue partner. The intercession of our prayers can change
God’s intent. Some things God will give to us automatically by following his
will.
For example, in the Diary of St. Faustina, we read: “The love and
sacrifice [of those who love me dearly and pray for others] sustain the world
in existence….” (Diary, 367).
Before we pray for the conversion of cities or other people, we need to
make sure that we are regularly receiving the Sacrament of Penance. The early
Christians replaced “your kingdom come” in the Our Father with “Your Holy
Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.” They understood that the coming of the
Kingdom entails the end-time cleansing of the Holy Spirit, which is related to
Ezekiel 36 (see Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor).
Prayer Principle Number 2: A
second prayer principle (from our First Reading) is that God is the only
protagonist in our life. Because prayer
is a dialogue with God, woven from silence, in listening, petitions, and
praises, the main goal of which is to have a pure heart.
If we recognize that God is the only protagonist in our lives, then we
acknowledge that He has the most relevant part of everything. Also, that means
everyone else is secondary because we have an “all-in” reference to God.
Prayer Principle Number 3. A third prayer principle is to pray for your
own needs. Don’t make the mistake that it’s somehow selfish to pray for your individual
needs. DO pray for your personal needs.
Father Faber wrote this classic letter to someone contemplating religious life:
“If you wish not to
lose your vocation, you must pray daily to God to give you the gift of
virginity, that you may preserve the virginal innocence through his mercy and
has not allowed the devil to rob you of. God gives nothing, much less His chief
gifts, unless we ask often, and keep asking.”
You also have to pray with persistence. One reason that we don’t
receive what we want through prayer is that we give up too quickly. St.
Augustine said that God sometimes delays in giving us what we want because he
wants our hearts to expand.
Action
Asking for our daily bread is meant to protect us from all stress. Daily bread comes from the verb, which means
“to survive.” We are to ask only for what God has apportioned to us. When we pray for what is ‘coming to us,’ by
God’s liberality and grace, that will be sufficient ‘for the day.’
In today’s Second Reading, the verse says “prayer, petition, with
thanksgiving...THEN the peace of God will come.” Notice the word “then”—it has
kind of a constant force...THEN the peace of God will come.
A Japanese warrior was captured and thrown into prison. At night, he
could not sleep for he feared that his captors would torture him the next
morning. Then the words of his Master
came to him: “Tomorrow is not real. The only reality is now.” So, he came to
the present — and fell asleep.
When you are comfortable in the present moment, then you have become a
person over whom the Future has Lost its grip.
How like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. No anxieties
for the morrow.
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