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Friends,
today’s Gospel at the beginning of Lent asks us to do three things:
pray, fast, and give alms. Let’s focus today on prayer. Studies show
that prayer is a very common, very popular activity. Even those who
profess no belief in God pray!
What
is prayer, and how should we pray? Prayer is intimate communion and
conversation with God. Judging from Jesus’ own life, prayer is something
that we ought to do often, especially at key moments of our lives.
Well,
how should we pray? What does it look like? You have to pray with
faith, and according to Jesus’ model, you have to pray with forgiveness.
The efficacy of prayer seems to depend on the reconciliation of
differences.
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 easily. Augustine
said that God sometimes delays in giving us what we want because he
wants our hearts to expand.
Finally,
we have to pray in Jesus’ name. In doing so we are relying on his
influence with the Father, trusting that the Father will listen to him.
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