14 November 2015
Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Courage is the virtue needed to persevere in prayer. That is one of the lessons Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel. The judge, not through justice or charity, finally gave in to the widow’s pleadings simply because of her annoying persistence.
Prayers are not often answered because I do not have the stick-to-iveness to persevere. As a lesson for me, Jesus spent long nights in supplicating prayer. Then, I remember his lengthy prayer at Gethsemane. By his example he shows me how to pray with perseverance, that is, with courage, not giving up. In my prayer I shall ask him to send me the Holy Spirit, the prime teacher of prayer, the dispenser of courage.
The 1st reading recounts how the powers of nature served God’s plan for his people. If that was the case then, how much more will God’s providential care hover over me now? Today is Saturday and so I will ask Mary, who is blessed because she believed, to obtain for me the courage to persevere in prayer to her son.