Pastor's Letter

Our Conversation with God

This weekend, our readings have us focus on prayer and what it means in our life. 
 
In a nutshell, prayer really is our conversation with God, even though at times it may seem one-sided.  But it really isn’t.  Over time, what we see is that God speaks in return often in creative ways and ways we may not always expect. 
 

Can You Use a Helping Hand? The Helping Hands Ministry is made up of parishioners ready and willing to help another parishioner in need.    It’s not too complicated: we simply match people who need help with people who are willing to lend a hand.    So, if you need help, please give us a call.    And if you’d like to join the team to lend a hand to others, please call, too, to add yourself to the list.   Sometimes a helping hand is an answer to a prayer!

He can give us divine insight—those “a-ha moments” when something suddenly dawns on us and helps us with whatever it is we’re struggling with.  Another word for that is “inspiration,” the root word being spirit which we know as God, the Holy Spirit.
 
He can also reach us through being aware of conversations or through messages we see, read or hear.  Most definitely, and primarily through the scriptures he reaches us—his words we hear at Mass and in our own spiritual reading. 
 
What we hear in both the first reading (Abraham bargaining with God to help as many people as possible) and the gospel (Jesus’ primer on prayer), is that God is very much actively listening to us—especially when it comes to praying for help.  We call this intercessory prayer—praying for others or for ourselves and what we need.
 
Jesus encourages us to be persistent, to keep our prayer before God.  And that’s because God works in his own way.  He’s not going to text us or send us an email.  He’ll reach us in different ways—both spiritual and concrete. What Jesus helps us see is that we need to be open minded to God’s creativity.  The response isn’t always direct.  And the response isn’t always “yes” either.  Sometimes, it’s “I have something different in mind for you…something better.” 
 
If there’s one thing we need to always remember, it’s that prayer is most effective when we’re in an on-going relationship with God—when that relationship is personal and engaging, and based on mutual trust.  In addition to the prayers we memorize, or the things we go to God for help with, God is never too busy to hear about our lives—our hopes, our frustrations, our doubts and fears, our difficulties with others, and all the things we’re grateful for in our life.  God doesn’t get overwhelmed.  And God is not disinterested.  God is engaged.  And your life matters very much to him.   He just wants to hear from us.  It’s hard not to remember that Jesus said, “I call you friends” (John 15:15).  Friends talk, which is what brings them closer together.
 
May your conversations with God be enlightening.  Asking, seeking and knocking on God’s door leads to receiving, finding and a door being opened. 
 
              --Fr. Mike