Today is June 19, Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time.
We read in the Gospel for today’s Mass, “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:7-8).
Yesterday, we reflected on the mystery of fear and anxiety — those burdens of the human heart that often drive us to prayer. Today, the Lord meets those concerns with gentle reassurance. He knows our hearts. He sees our needs before we ever find the words to express them.
The 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich offers a profound insight into the nature of our relationship with God. She writes, “Love and dread are brethren. They are rooted in us by the goodness of our Maker … The dread that makes us hastily to flee from all that is not good and fall into our Lord’s breast, as the child into the mother’s arms … That dread is kind and gracious and good and true.”
Driven into the loving arms of God
What a remarkable insight. Julian helps us understand that even our dread — our deepest fears — can be a gift. It can drive us not into despair, but into the loving arms of God. Like a frightened child seeking safety in their mother’s embrace, we can turn to the Father, knowing our weakness and trusting in his love.
So then, why pray if the Father already knows our needs?
Because prayer is how we surrender. It’s how we learn our dependence on God. And it’s how we cooperate with his providence. Some things, in the mystery of God’s plan, only come to pass through our prayers. That’s why we keep coming back — to give God our needs and to let him be our strength.
Let us pray,
O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
