Prayer is Amazing
I am amazed at the power of prayer. It is not that I have thought that it doesn’t work, or that my prayers wouldn’t be answered, but I was surprised to see one of my most desired prayers answered so quickly.
As some of you may know from reading my blog, I take my responsibilities as a godparent and confirmation sponsor quite seriously, so when I see my godchild or the person whom I’ve sponsored moving away from the Church, it causes me great pain.
Sometimes, when people are led astray, I blame myself, or I try (too much by my own strength) to guide them back, but this always gets mixed results. I do recommend them to our Lady and say prayers for them, and I usually see progress in these situations, but what I saw this weekend surprised me.
This past weekend, I had the honor of attending an Opus Dei recollection, which I found truly uplifting, and during the recollection something struck me, Mental Prayer. You see, I do pray quite frequently and I do practice mental prayer, but I had never devoted a set amount of time everyday to just mental prayer. I had devoted lots of time to other types, but my mental prayer was often about 5 minutes.
During the recollection, the importance of mental prayer stood out to me and it became apparent through their guidance that my mental prayer should be 20-30 minutes everyday, and I made a firm resolution at that moment to do so. Sure enough, early Saturday evening, I devoted the time to our Lord and I found it enlightening, as I revealed to Him everything in my heart and soul.
When Sunday arrived, I did all my normal forms of prayer and then in the early evening I gave myself again to that intimate mental prayer. In this particular conversation with our Lord, I shared with Him my distress about my godchild and his sister not going to Mass regularly because his mother, whom I sponsored, wasn’t going and the fact that she hadn’t gone to confession at all this Lent or before then, despite my advice. I prayed for help, protection, aid, so many things on their behalf, and it was at that very moment that resolutions started coming to me.
I finished my mental prayer and had some tasks I had to do around the house, but I was set on doing two things. Firstly, I was going to contact the church near their home to find out the Mass times and confession times. This is significant because they normally attend Mass with their family, when they attend, and if something comes up where they cannot go, they forget about Sunday Mass or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Secondly, I was going to send her a good Guide for Confession. I had transcribed it out of my missal some time ago, but it would allow her to accurately reflect on her conscience. (Please keep in mind that I have to email and call because they are in the United States and I am now working in Singapore.)
In a motivated fashion, I sat at my computed and went through my files. I found the guide and converted from MS Word to PDF. I sent it to her. The amazing part about this story, and what I didn’t know, is that as this email was sent out, she was walking to the Church near her home. She had woken up about the time that I was praying for her and had the resolution to go to confession and attend Mass. When she called me later to tell me about her day, she told me that her phone received the email when she was walking down the hill to seek out the parish priest. Needless to say, my face had a grin that went from ear to ear. My prayers had been answered and she had been accepting towards God’s grace. She had gone to confession and took her children to Mass.
As I sit here writing, I am still smiling. I have always believed prayer to be a wonderful way in which we communicate with our God. I believe it to have no limit, as a conversation with God has no limit. Anything is possible with prayer, but I am still so deeply amazed at how the course of events transpired and how through a more intimate conversation with our Lord, not only was my soul more deeply awakened, but one of my most desired prayers was answered. I am eternally grateful to God for what I learned this weekend, but I am especially grateful for the return of a stray sheep, my godchild and his most wonderful sister.
I am grateful and feel I cannot just simply end this entry without a prayer.
To the King of ages, immortal and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
As some of you may know from reading my blog, I take my responsibilities as a godparent and confirmation sponsor quite seriously, so when I see my godchild or the person whom I’ve sponsored moving away from the Church, it causes me great pain.
Sometimes, when people are led astray, I blame myself, or I try (too much by my own strength) to guide them back, but this always gets mixed results. I do recommend them to our Lady and say prayers for them, and I usually see progress in these situations, but what I saw this weekend surprised me.
This past weekend, I had the honor of attending an Opus Dei recollection, which I found truly uplifting, and during the recollection something struck me, Mental Prayer. You see, I do pray quite frequently and I do practice mental prayer, but I had never devoted a set amount of time everyday to just mental prayer. I had devoted lots of time to other types, but my mental prayer was often about 5 minutes.
During the recollection, the importance of mental prayer stood out to me and it became apparent through their guidance that my mental prayer should be 20-30 minutes everyday, and I made a firm resolution at that moment to do so. Sure enough, early Saturday evening, I devoted the time to our Lord and I found it enlightening, as I revealed to Him everything in my heart and soul.
When Sunday arrived, I did all my normal forms of prayer and then in the early evening I gave myself again to that intimate mental prayer. In this particular conversation with our Lord, I shared with Him my distress about my godchild and his sister not going to Mass regularly because his mother, whom I sponsored, wasn’t going and the fact that she hadn’t gone to confession at all this Lent or before then, despite my advice. I prayed for help, protection, aid, so many things on their behalf, and it was at that very moment that resolutions started coming to me.
I finished my mental prayer and had some tasks I had to do around the house, but I was set on doing two things. Firstly, I was going to contact the church near their home to find out the Mass times and confession times. This is significant because they normally attend Mass with their family, when they attend, and if something comes up where they cannot go, they forget about Sunday Mass or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Secondly, I was going to send her a good Guide for Confession. I had transcribed it out of my missal some time ago, but it would allow her to accurately reflect on her conscience. (Please keep in mind that I have to email and call because they are in the United States and I am now working in Singapore.)
In a motivated fashion, I sat at my computed and went through my files. I found the guide and converted from MS Word to PDF. I sent it to her. The amazing part about this story, and what I didn’t know, is that as this email was sent out, she was walking to the Church near her home. She had woken up about the time that I was praying for her and had the resolution to go to confession and attend Mass. When she called me later to tell me about her day, she told me that her phone received the email when she was walking down the hill to seek out the parish priest. Needless to say, my face had a grin that went from ear to ear. My prayers had been answered and she had been accepting towards God’s grace. She had gone to confession and took her children to Mass.
As I sit here writing, I am still smiling. I have always believed prayer to be a wonderful way in which we communicate with our God. I believe it to have no limit, as a conversation with God has no limit. Anything is possible with prayer, but I am still so deeply amazed at how the course of events transpired and how through a more intimate conversation with our Lord, not only was my soul more deeply awakened, but one of my most desired prayers was answered. I am eternally grateful to God for what I learned this weekend, but I am especially grateful for the return of a stray sheep, my godchild and his most wonderful sister.
I am grateful and feel I cannot just simply end this entry without a prayer.
To the King of ages, immortal and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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