The readings for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) May be found at:
Let’s face it, we’re busy. We are short on time. And when we are short on time, prayer is one of the first things to get cast aside. This is as true today as it was 2,000 years ago. Circumstances may have changed, but people, they’re pretty much the same.
Prayer has always been a problem for anyone who believes in God. That’s why Jesus told parables about prayer to his disciples. Because we have trouble with prayer.
If we really believed in the power of prayer, if we really believed that prayer could make a difference in this world, if we were truly convinced that prayer changes things, changes us, heals broken lives, then we would be praying constantly. You couldn’t keep us from praying.
But the problem that most of us have with prayer is one that Jesus addresses in today’s gospel. We simply lose heart. We give up. We don’t believe. So Jesus says that we are to pray and not give up. To keep praying without stopping.
It makes you wonder sometimes why God doesn’t just answer our prayers right away. Are we asking for the wrong things? Are we doing it wrong? Is God just not listening? Is He too busy helping other people to help us? And so we do what humans do so often, when things get hard, we get tempted and we give up.
But, Jesus tells us to keep praying and something will eventually happen. Like the widow who keeps coming to the Judge for justice, we need to be persistent and not give up.
But let’s be honest. It’s hard to pray like Jesus wants us to. We want results for the effort we put in don’t we?
In order for prayer to work, it needs to be a priority for us. We need to have a daily commitment to prayer. It needs to be part of our routine. Why? Because we are creatures of habit. Some start by simply talking to God about their day. Others begin by praying from the Bible. Still others have a favorite spiritual book that they begin with. Then when they arrive at the time and place in their day for prayer, they have a plan. It is not left to chance or mood. They have a habit of prayer and they stick to it.
Beginners in prayer struggle because they try one thing and if it doesn’t work, they get discouraged. And let me let you in on a secret, whether you sit at the altar or sit in the pews, we are all beginners - we are all still learning.
To succeed in prayer, we need to have a time to pray, a place to pray and a structure to our prayer. It can’t be left to chance or if we have time. Because if we do that, it won’t happen.
Set aside a time. Schedule it. Name the appointment on your calendar, “God” if you have to. That will make it hard to ignore or decline.
And to pray without giving up doesn’t have to be overbearing or complicated.
We can all reverence God by making the sign of the cross when passing by a church.
We can all say grace before meals, even when we are out at a restaurant or outside of our own homes.
We can all listen to spiritual music.
We can say the rosary. We can use our fingers to count the prayers - we don’t even need a rosary.
We can thank God when we wake up in the morning.
We can thank God when we go to bed at night.
A routine of prayer is anything but routine. It’s all about having a right relationship with God. And being in relationship with God changes you. Being in relationship with God transforms you.
Being in relationship with God changes your prayer - how you speak with God.
And ultimately, how He speaks back.
