Prayer

January 16, 2019 Wednesday, 1st
Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Heb 2:14-18
Gospel: Mk 1:29–39

As soon as Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew with James and John. As Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with fever, they immediately told him about her.

Jesus went to her and taking her by the hand, raised her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening at sundown, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had evil spirits: the whole town was pressing around the door. Jesus healed many who had various diseases, and drove out many demons; but he did not let them speak, for they knew who he was. Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where he prayed. Simon and the others went out, too, searching for him; and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Let’s go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there too; for that is why I came.” So Jesus set out to preach in all the synagogues throughout Galilee; he also cast out demons.

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

Today’s Gospel reading says that Jesus woke up early to go to a lonely place to pray. By way of emphasizing the time, the Gospel reading uses, for purposes of emphasis, the phrases “Very early the next morning”, and “before daylight”. The message is clear: Jesus gave so much importance to prayer. In another Gospel passage he urged his followers to “pray without ceasing” (Luke 18:1).

Some people argue that if God “already knows our needs” (Matthew 6:8) then there is no sense praying. The logic is skewed and reflects a wrong understanding about prayer. It assumes that prayer is meant to educate God about the needs of his people. It’s a wrong assumption. Prayer is not about reminding God but about reminding ourselves that there is a God taking care of us.

The fact that God already knows our needs before we ask him is a call to shift from mendicant prayer to transformative prayer. Mendicant prayer seeks to align God’s Will to ours. Transformative prayer does the other way around. It deepens our awareness and appreciation of the great privilege of having a God to call upon. It disposes us towards receiving God’s grace the way God wants us to. If God were to give us automatically what we need even if we do not pray for it, would we recognize him as the giver? Probably we’d just be attributing the windfall to sheer luck. Prayer makes us understand that we are in a helpless situation, and when God bails us out of the crisis, prayer leads us to heartfelt gratitude to God and to no other. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.

May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya? I-type ang BANDERA REACT at i-send sa 4467.