The need for prayer of petition. The Church invites us to be filled with confidence. “Because we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also come to life with him."
However, the time has come to think about Jesus' final recommendation to his disciples when he left them. “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
We need to pray, lifting our hearts up to God. He is watching us from heaven. We should ask him for everything we need. The Lord is infinite wisdom; he knows exactly what we need in order to become saints and apostles. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need these things." And yet God wants to be begged. He wants to be coerced. He wants to be won over by a certain persistent begging ... Be persistent therefore, in prayer. Be timely in petition, and never cease asking.
Our Lord knows perfectly well what our needs are, yet he wants us to ask with the same persistence as the people in the Gospel: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean! Lord, that I may see! Ask the same way they did: they asked him for everything. I won't say that man's life should be spent in nothing but asking, for there are times when one sees the need to abandon oneself and one ceases to ask, but later on, one comes back to it.
There should be constancy in prayer of petition. Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. The only method is perseverance. Ask, ask, ask.
“If we each personally persevere in prayer, our Lord God will give us all the means we need in order to be effective in spreading his kingdom on earth.
Do you see how God favors those who persevere?
Knock, knock and it will be opened to you!"
St John Chrysostom writes: “If somebody tells me that he has requested once, twice, three times, ten times, twenty times, and still has not received anything, I will answer: do not stop, my brother, until you have received it. Petition ends with the reception of the gift. Stop when you have received it. Rather, do not stop even then, but persevere still. If you do not receive it, ask to receive it. And once you have received it, give thanks for it."
Let us turn to our Lady's intercession. “She is the teacher of prayer. See how she asks her Son at Cana. And how she insists, confidently, perseveringly... And how she succeeds. Learn from her."
Torreciudad: The Nativity. God becomes man to live and die for us. Fruit of the 3rd Joyous Mystery: Getting closer to Jesus. Detachment from material things of the world.
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