Posted on 03/14/2014 2:09:54 AM PDT by markomalley
The teaching of sacred Scripture on intercessory prayer is complex, and unless we maintain a balanced view of the fuller teaching of Scripture, distortions in our understanding of the prayer of petition (or intercession) can occur.
In the Gospel for Thursday in the first week of Lent, the Lord gives a teaching on prayer that seems quite straightforward. He says:
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.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
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)
Now on the one hand, this teaching seems to be rather simple: that we should ask and we will receive. On the other hand, experience is often a teacher and can cause discouragement among the faithful who think that they have asked, sometimes repeatedly, for things that they did not get. And this is why it is important to lay hold of the wider teachings of Scripture on prayers of intercession.
It will be noted that even in this text, Jesus indicates that the Father wants to give “good things,” not just anything, to those who ask him. This qualification is important.
Elsewhere, Scripture lists any number of other teachings that indicate possible reasons that God either says “No” to our prayer, or delays in His answer to us. It is important to refer to these sorts of texts. The danger always remains in reading Scripture, that we take one line and make it the whole of Scripture. To do such a thing is inauthentic and does not respect the fact Scripture often speaks far more richly on topics. Sloganizing certain verses is disrespectful both to God and to the Holy Word entrusted to our care. The Bible is not to be reduced to a few favorite verses but is to be read as a whole, in context, and with a careful balance that respects how any particular verse relates to the wider Scriptures, the teaching and Tradition of the Church, and the overall trajectory of God’s revelation.
There are other texts that, while not canceling the confident expectation of asking and receiving, teach that God does not simply hand over his sovereignty to our whimsical requests. There are in fact reasons why God sometimes says “No,” or sometimes delays in His answer. I have written on this previously here: When God says “No”
But for our purposes here, we do well to return to Jesus’ expression that the Father wants to give “good things” (not just anything), to those who ask Him. This statement of Jesus should lead us to ponder whether we really do ask for the best and most important things God really wants to give us, or whether we ask for lesser things.
Truth be told, we tend to be more focused on lesser and passing things than on better and eternal things. The Book of James warns about this in saying:
You have not because you ask not. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your lusts. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:2-4)
Now while this saying from the book of James may be a bit strongly worded (James usually is!), it remains true that we easily and quickly run to God about matters of finance, our health, a job, or some material need. Yet when was the last time we asked for wisdom, chastity, greater holiness, the gift to love our enemy, greater love for our family, or a greater thirst for prayer, etc.?
An old spiritual says “King Jesus is a-listening all day long, to hear some sinner pray.” Yes, it may well be that Jesus lives for the day when I ask for something that really matters. Consider, for example, the opening prayer from the Mass in which this reading was found (Thursday, Week 1 of Lent):
Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord,
a spirit always pondering on what is right
and of hastening to carry it out,
and, since without you we cannot exist,
may we be enabled to live according to your will.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The prayers of Mass are meant to be a model for us; they’re not simply gibberish that the priest says and we say amen at the end of the “formula.” We ought to learn from such prayers how to pray. Now note what this prayer is asking! It is asking for a mind and heart that seek and hunger for what is good, right, just, and true. It is asking not only for a hunger for good things, but for a will, a desire, to carry it out promptly, zealously, and without delay.
Now when was the last time you or I really prayed this way – from the heart? Too often we are content to ask God to fix our finances, fix our health, open some door or opportunity here, give us good weather for the picnic, or make something go well. None of this is wrong, and to some extent we ought to pray for every little and big thing in our life. But the impression is almost given, when this is all we pray about, that if God will just make this world a little better place we’ll be willing to stay here forever. Our prayers often imply we love the world and the things of the world more than we love God and the things of God.
How God must “wait for the day” when we would pray a prayer like the one above from the heart and really mean it! What are you praying about? Is it what God wants you to pray about? Really? Is God delighted in what you pray for? There is nothing wrong in praying for the lesser things and needs of this world, but if that is all we pray for, our omission of eternal, holy, and lasting things is significant and sad.
Consider by way of conclusion a story about the early life of Solomon:
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” (1 Kings 3:5-14)
How pleased the Lord was with Solomon’s request! And the Lord replied abundantly. We often wonder if God will answer our prayers, but do we ever ask if God is pleased with our requests?
The Father wants to give “good things” to those who ask him. To ask for greater holiness and for a mind and heart that seeks God’s will, not merely to tell him our will, must please God greatly. So does a repentant heart that seeks mercy and reconciliation. Yes, “King Jesus is a-listening all day long, to hear some sinner pray!”
Luke 18:1-8.
The widow and the unjust judge.
And I wonder whether he spends that half hour actually praying himself. It’s easy to criticize how others pray. Back when that was written, the pagans actually did babble out words that they did not understand and that had no meaning. In Tibet, they have words that they don’t understand written on paper and fluttering in the wind and call that prayer. Most Protestants don’t understand that the Rosary is a meditation on biblical events and that 90% of it is directly quoted from the Bible.
Its not.
The article is really just spiritual milk.
Just pray for understanding from Jesus by the holy spirit and go read the bible.
How about Matthew chapters 5-6 in context and you will get more out of that than this article or this thread.
I used to get involved with extensive prayers but these days I open the conversation, trust that He knows my thoughts and trust Him to know the difference between what i want and what the situations calls for. I usually close a short prayer with "Your will be done and help me to rest easy when Your answer isn't as I would have it".
When Catholics pray the Rosary they pray the life of Jesus.
Joyful Mysteries: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding The Child, Jesus in the Temple — all biblical!
Luminous Mysteries: Baptism of Jesus, Self-Manifestation of Jesus at the Wedding at Cana, Proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the Call to Conversion, Transfiguration, Institution of the Holy Eucharist — all biblical.
Sorrowful Mysteries: Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Carrying the Cross, Crucifixion — all biblical!
Glorious Mysteries: Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption, Coronation of Mary — all but two are in the Bible!
These incidents in the life of Christ are what we meditate on when we say the Rosary.
Question for all.......many people repeatedly say the Our Father. Is that babbling to repeat it?
The answer is found in the Lord’s Prayer.
“Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
It’s never a bad thing to pray for God’s will to be done in each of our circumstances, and that we might be given the gift of discernment to realize the manifestation of the Divine will.
I pray for others. Very rarely for myself but for guidance.
bfl
If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8).
______________________________
The rosary is an excellent way to draw near to HIM. I suspect from your post that you don’t really understand how the rosary is prayed. It is very powerful. No matter how much we meditate on the story of salvation via the rosary, we always gain new insights when praying. Today is Friday...so the Sorrowful Mysteries are what we focus on. I can’t tell you how many insightful perspectives the Lord has gracefully shared after simply thinking about the conversation between Jesus and Pilate during the rosary on this day. The mysteries of the rosary are fully based on Sacred Scripture...so there is always a wealth, a treasure we gain from saying the rosary. It is anything BUT empty babbling.
Try it. :-)
Thank you for the prayers and the novena.
Amen, sir....amen!
I appreciate the clarification. But I’m still confused as to why you chose my post to deride selfishness in prayer. Was it praying for love that concerned you?
FWIW, I wasn’t clear that I was referring to Christ’s love and forgiveness. I have never prayed for love that would be given by another person, but I could envision a child praying for the love of the parent perceived to be indifferent.
My prayers include virtually every soul on the planet including the unborn. I try to be technically correct in how I pray, but no doubt the wording and phrasing is far from perfect as I’ve demonstrated here.
Thanks for the reference.
15 promises your lady gave for praying the Rosary
Whoever shall faithfully SERVE ME (MARY) by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
I promise MY ( MARY) special protection and the greatest graces to all who shall recite the Rosary.
The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, those souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
The soul which recommends itself to ME (MARY) by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
Those who are faithful in reciting the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
I (MARY) shall deliver from purgatory, those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.
You shall obtain all you ask of ME ( MARY) by the recitation of the Rosary.
All those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by ME ( MARY) in their necessities.
I ( MARY) have obtained from My Divine Son ( some Greco Roman diety with the similaritynof Tammuz) that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
All who recite the Rosary are MY ( MARY) sons, and brothers of My only Son Jesus Christ. ( greco roman substitute for the Lion of Judah)
Devotion to MY (MARY) Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Lots of I, me, my from YOUR LADY...
Roman Catholics are in denial... sad substitute anti messiah cult calling themselves the One True church of the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...
Matthew 6:7
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again.”
Pray in the name of Jesus (John 14:14) and give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8).
It is good to see that you have a basic understanding of the Rosary. If you want to receive the full benefit of praying the Rosary, I recommend the following web site for further guidance -
http://www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm#loaded
I especially find the 10 meditations that are suggested for each of the mysteries to be very helpful. For example, the following suggestions are offered for the First Joyful Mystery:
The First Joyful Mystery
THE ANNUNCIATION
1. The time for the Incarnation is at hand.
2. Of all women God prepared Mary from her conception to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word.
3. The Angel Gabriel announces: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee.”
4. Mary wonders at this salutation.
5. The Angel assures her: “Fear not . . . you shall conceive in your womb, and give birth to a Son.”
6. Mary is troubled for she has made a vow of virginity.
7. The Angel answers that she will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, and her Son will be called the Son of God.
8. The Incarnation awaits Mary’s consent.
9. Mary answers: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.”
10. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Spiritual Fruit: Humility
While I always pray in the name of Jesus, I also pray in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
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