FATHER, FRIEND & PARTNER

There are times when we find ourselves praying just to manipulate God. We must realize that we do not pray to change God. He is immutable but He does use prayer to change us especially our hearts in order to conform us to His own heart. St. Theresa said to God, "Give me what you want." We pray that God gives us what He wants. As a good Father, He does not spoil His children neither does He deprive us. He gives us what we lack and what we need. If there's something that we want but God recognizes as not what's best for us then He doesn't give it to us. On the other hand God sometimes wants us to wait. We often become impatient and wonder why the wait. Oftentimes too, God gives us what we want in order to gain our trust and ultimately come to a point when we want what He wants. This is because of the fact that we can trust God to know what is best for us more than ourselves. Amen. Hallelujah!

2 Timothy 4:1-8
...proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;...put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry...

There are many things that we don't understand especially the things that happen to us. We can always choose to trust that it comes from God. We are His beloved son or daughter and must be aware that God is fathering us and has brought us into a family. We should have a childlike fearlessness that we can appropriate and exercise as we trust God who never fails. Amen. Hallelujah!


Psalm 71:8-9, 14-15ab, 16-17, 22
R: I will sing of your salvation.
8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your glory day by day. 9 Cast me not off in my old age; as my strength fails, forsake me not. (R) 14 But I will always hope and praise you ever more and more.

Sometimes we are tempted not to pray anymore and not make any special effort to do good. Faith is friendship with God and it should never be just like aiming for the bare minimum because that is not what friends do. It is simply not true that we don't need God. We have to be glad that God didn't permit us to stop relying on Him. It would have been easy to fall into sin and stop befriending God. It is a betrayal of our friendship with God. We need to love Him more and more each day by spending many years of friendship with Him. One way to make sure that we don't forget how much we need Him is to always ask Him to bless us in all we do. We can do this by offering everything to God. I believe that God has perfectly planned every single event that happened, is happening and will happen in our lives. All we have to do is give in and totally surrender everything to God and just like this widow in the gospel may we find our longing and feeling of loss satisfied by the one, true, perfect husband or partner for all men and women alike in God our Savior. Amen. Hallelujah!

Mark 12:38-44
...A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. 44 For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”