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I wanted to share with you another email I received from my holy friend which fits in directly with the messages of redemption, hope, mercy and overcoming obstacles that this website is all about. He deals with a question we all have wrestled with from time to time as to whether our prayers go unanswered.
THE POWER OF PRAYER – THE PATH TO SALVATION
A Message of Hope For Wounded Warriors and All Who Need Hope
“Why do we pray to God?
Is it a way to ask God for special favors in times of need or despair? Is it a way to calm our inner spiritual nature? Or, perhaps, is it a way to thank God for all the good things that He has done for us in our lives. The Power of Prayer can take many forms, motivated by many desires of the heart.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, when asked how we are to pray, gave us the “Our Father.”
It is the summation of all desires of the heart that we need to address to the Lord our God and the directions that our lives should try to emulate. He stated that God knows what’s uppermost is our hearts even before we begin to pray. But, what about other forms of prayerful petitions, such as the Holy Rosary, The Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Novenas and such? Where do they fit in with priority to God’s listening? Is there one form of prayer that exceeds all of the others in gaining God’s attention?
Let us go back to sacred scripture and dwell on the Marriage Feast at Cana. Let us all for a moment also reflect on the fact that all graces given to us by God are desired by Him to be given to us through the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of He who gave flesh to the Word.
At the Marriage Feast at Cana, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, was petitioned by His most loving mother to come to the aid of the bride and groom and to accommodate their guests for lack of celebratory wine. One who reads scripture might question whether God had created this stage for the inauguration of Jesus’s entrance to His Salvific mission at that very time and setting, or was it just a matter of coincidence that Jesus, through the pleading of His most Holy Mother, performed His first miracle in the changing of the water into wine. We will never know the answer to that provocative question. Nonetheless, it was through the intercession and hands of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary that this petition to the living God was answered.
In today’s age, one is often poised to question whether miracles still happen in our time. Is the power of prayer to God on our own or through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints still effective? Does God hear our pleadings when we receive no immediate answers or solutions to the problems and situations that are heavy on our minds?
It is most important for everyone to comprehend that God hears every one of our prayers. Secondly, it is most important to comprehend that God will answer or decline our prayerful petitions in a way that He wills to be most beneficial to our souls so as to be reunited ultimately with Him for all eternity. In many instances He wishes to teach us perseverance of our minds and hearts, to test our fortitude and dedication to His will for us, that will ultimately prove our worthiness to share in the treasures of eternal happiness of Paradise with Him.
Many times we may be tempted to lose faith in the power of prayer when petitions to God are not answered in the way we desire. Often, we fail to see the bigger picture of our true destinies. We are so entrenched in the immediate situation, or crisis around us, that we can look no further that what presents itself directly in front of us. We fail to comprehend that no matter how severe a challenge may be that has embroiled us in the present, it may only be a small obstacle that God allows in His grand plan for us in our eternal futures. Many cannot realize, looking at this earthly life, that it is just a prelude to Eternity which is our ultimate goal and our destined future. We fail to have the wisdom and faith to recognize that whatever we are facing in the present is not the end of all that God has planned for our futures. We are weak in spirit and self absorbed with waning faith in God’s Divine plan for each of us.
In the Book of Wisdom we are reminded that this life that we enjoy now, steeped with its crosses and challenges, is but a shadow of what is to come. Our ultimate goal is to be with God forever, first in the state of our soul when we die, and then ultimately with our glorified bodies after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the world. At that time our souls and glorified bodies will be reunited and directed by God to share in life without end in the Divine presence of God, in the Holy Trinity, in the company of the Queen of Heaven, Our Blessed Mother, and all of the Heavenly Hosts of Angels and the Communion of Saints in which we hope to be included.
There is but one condition to the great expectations of the faithful; and that is that we remain steadfast in our perseverance in prayer which corresponds with the Divine will of God. Be assured that our prayers will be answered, but only in the way that is pleasing to God and His divine direction for each one of us. Furthermore, Apostolic Tradition tells us that the soul who remains in the state of sanctifying grace holds special favor with the ear of God. That is why the Church recommends frequent utilization of Sacramental Confession.
Is there an EZPass to gain Gods attention?
Recall the message of Our Lady of Fatima in which she stated that with the Rosary nothing is impossible. Also, let us remember the Fifteen Promises of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Christians who recite the Rosary, in which she promised, “You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.” Our Lady further stated, “I have obtained from my Divine Son that all advocates of the Rosary shall have for their intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of their death.” If those two promises are not powerful, I fail to recognize what else could give the prayer of the Rosary more hope.
Lastly, let us in gratitude recognize all the graces that Our God has given to us in our lives, and thank the Lord personally for all that He has done for us. He has given us life. He has given each of us our very own Guardian Angel to protect and guide our lives, most often in ways we can never even fathom. He has given us the protection and intercession of His Blessed Mother to dispense the many gifts from Heaven that many of us fail to recognize. And He has also given us the protection of Saint Michael the Archangel to thwart off the attacks of Satan. How blind are so many of us who fail to acknowledge the gifts of God given to us daily in every breath we take!
The Bottom Line
All prayers are powerful. Never lose hope! Recall that our hope in God is defined by the moral columns of two Divine elements, our Trust and Faith in the Divine will of God. We have faith in Our God, and we have trust in his Divine directions for us.
“Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”
“Jesus, I Trust in You.”
Prayerfully,
Lloyd Gerard Greenberg”
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The Power of Prayer
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