PURPOSE OF PRAYER

Have you heard about the One Thousand Hail Mary Rosary? One relative of mine once boasted that their group had organized a day to recite one thousand rosaries. And she claimed that after saying a thousand Hail Marys, one can bring forth to God his/her petitions and surely the Lord will answer them. Similar "potent" prayers and novenas abound today. Occasionally, we see pieces of papers on which the novena to St. Jude are printed, bearing the promise that anyone who leaves nine copies of the novenas in a chapel or church for nine Thursdays, his/her petition will be fulfilled. Other prayers even bear the warning: Should you not share this prayer, bad things will fall upon your lot. These prayers give us the impression that God can be persuaded by our prayers to give anything that we want. Should you like to have a sports car? Pray 10 thousand Hail Marys. But can we change the mind of God through our prayers and actions?

God is beyond change. He is who He is. He is perfect. Even a million Hail Marys cannot change the will of God. What then is the purpose of praying? We pray that our will may be aligned with the will of God. More than us changing God and His mind, in genuine prayer it is us who are changed.

Some grow frustrated in their prayer life. As they asked, they do not receive it. as they seek, they do not find. As they knock, no door opens. St. James wrote: You ask and receive not, because you ask erroneous, (James 4:3.) namely, for the sake of vain pleasures. When we ask, you do not receive; because we ask with wrong motives, that we may spend what we get on our pleasures.

How then shall we proceed in our prayer life? If God's mind has been set for all eternity and will remain unchanged, what are we to pray for then? We pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit; who can guide us to discern the will of God for us; to make our minds one with that of God.

As the children ask their father for bread, the father gave the children bread. Should they persistently ask for poison, will the father give it to them? The Father will not give the harmful desires of his children. (Kahit maglupasay pa yan, hindi ibibigay ng ama ang makakasakit sa anak). Ibibgay ng Dios ang nararapat sa atin. 

Pray, then, that the Holy Spirit will lead us to persistently ask for the right things, to seek the right way, and knock on the right doors. We beg the light of the Holy Spirit who will enable us to utter: Thy will be done.