Today is March 13, Thursday of the First Week of Lent.
We read at today’s Mass, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7).
One of the important things we do during Lent is to pray more. When we are young, we tend to think that praying is about getting what we desire from God. Over time, as God does not seem to deliver on every little request we ask of him, we begin to wonder if God is actually listening or if we are praying the right way.
Does he not invite me to ask, to seek, and to knock? Does he not promise that what we ask for will be given and what we seek out will be found, and that door will be opened to us? Yes, and we should continue to have confidence in our prayers.
At the essence of every prayer, we ask for our own flourishing as individual sons and daughters of God. Our prayer comes from the deep desire for God’s help as we seek out our personal happiness and fulfillment. In that quest, we turn to God. We know that he is the only one who can help us.
Aligning our hearts with God
God knows our hearts. We do not know how to satiate our hearts, but God does. We cry out to him in prayer as best we know how. In his answer, God shows us what we are really asking for. As we engage with our Father in prayer, we learn about our hearts and our desires. We find new words as these desires become clearer to us. As God answers, we learn what his will is for our lives.
Asking, seeking and knocking without ceasing is the way God teaches us about our desires and his will for our lives. The back-and-forth nature of prayer as we speak and God answers forms our hearts to desire right and see ourselves and our desires as God sees them. Then, as our hearts align with God’s heart, everything we are truly praying for will be given to us.
Let us pray,
Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord, a spirit of 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, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
