You Answered Me

How often does our prayer revolve around asking? Not that this is wrong, for Jesus himself said: "Ask and it will be given to you; 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.... If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him" (Matt 7: 7-11). Indeed, Jesus strongly encourages us to ask. Most often, however, the answer does not come exactly as we ordered or expected it. The secret to resolving this apparent dilemma is to stop, reflect and see what has transpired in our lives over the past few days. This rear-view mirror will reveal that indeed God has answered our prayer with a gift that far surpasses what we had asked for. Our Lenten prayers and fasting are focused on purifying us, clearing the debris that interferes with a deeper, closer relationship with God. God's answers to our prayers might be doing just that, rather than satisfying what we THINK we need. This all hit me this morning at Mass, as I looked back on my Florida visit, during which I didn't realize a real cleansing was taking place, without my realizing it until this morning. May we put our trust more deeply in the God who knows and loves us, and may we more frequently come to acknowledge HIS answers, and humbly thank him.
Bro. Rene