July 9, 2020 Reflection – Return to prayer, Part 3!!!

“Open your hearts in this time of grace…”
(c) Mary TV

July 9, 2020
Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions, Martyrs

Dear Family of Mary!

“…Return, little children, to prayer and open your hearts in this time of grace and set out on the way of conversion…” (June 25, 2020)

Today we have Part 3 of our teaching from Fr. Slavko Barbaric about prayer. I am already reaping the benefits of his words.

Return to Prayer, Part 3:

Our Lady’s desire is to teach us how to trust God and how to let go. It is sad when we hear people say, “I have prayed , but God has not answered my prayer” or, “I have prayed, but have not received anything.” Prayer must be a free encounter with God. This does not mean we cannot ask for our own desires or needs, but we should first look for God because He loves us, and then ask Him for our needs. So many of us have stopped praying because we have fulfilled our needs or received what we were asking for from other people. Then we have no need for God. Our mentality is seeing God as a ‘store’, in which we go and get what we need and then go home again. We must change our views and mentality of our relationship with God and this change is only possible through prayer and fasting. Just recently it seems that the Church has rediscovered fasting. This has a lot to do with Our Lady’s call to fast on Wednesday and Friday. Since the Church is rediscovering fasting, we too are rediscovering the benefit and graces that come from it.

Our life does not necessarily mean the well-being of only our human body, but our soul as well. If we treated our bodies the way we treated our souls, we would destroy ourselves, and many of us have already. Some days we feel so good we could pray for hours and hours. Then a day comes and the thought of praying even depresses us. It is at these moments we should pray. When we are ill and we have no appetite for food, that is the time we need food the most. Thomas Merton once said; “Pure love and prayer are learned in the hour when prayer has become impossible and your heart has turned to stone.”

If we cannot learn to just ‘be’ with God, then our prayer becomes only a task. Our prayer life should not be based on our feelings, because our feelings are in constant motion. Our prayer life takes discipline, work and perseverance. Our Lady says in one of her messages, “YOU SHOULD WORK ON YOUR PRAYER LIKE YOU WORK IN THE FIELDS.”

One thing Our Lady wants to teach us, but that she does not say, is that our prayer should not become an argument with God about His will. We wonder who will win – God or me? It can be compared to a battle with God. The following is an appropriate story about our own will. A man heard of a place in the desert where miracles happened continuously. He went to this desert and asked the man, “Do miracles happen here?” – “Yes, miracles happen here,” answered the man. “So, let’s see one,” the curious man said. The man living in the desert said, “It depends on what you see as a miracle. For us a miracle is when a person accepts the will of God. Yet for you, it is when God accepts your own will!”

If we continue that way, only praying for our own needs, we are going to eventually lose because God is always stronger. The purpose of prayer is not to find out who is stronger, but to find out what God’s will is for us. Our Lady said in one of her messages, “DO NOT SEARCH FOR GOD BECAUSE OF YOUR OWN NEEDS OR DESIRES, BUT BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU.”

What is motivating us in our relationship with God? What is the intention? What is it that we want as compared to what God wants? What is the will of Our Lady as far as our prayer is concerned? What is it that we want when we pray?

Let us reflect, asking for the grace to come before the presence of our Lord Jesus. Let us, through His mother, Mary, express our love, our praise and our adoration for Him. (Fr. Slavko Barbaric. “Be Similar to My Heart”. P. 38-39)

Thank you Fr. Slavko! Thank you, dearest Mother, Mary!! Thank you for this message you gave to us about prayer:

August 25, 2017 “Dear children! Today I am calling you to be people of prayer. Pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and a meeting with the Most High. He will transform your hearts and you will become people of love and peace. Do not forget, little children, that Satan is strong and wants to draw you away from prayer. You, do not forget that prayer is the secret key of meeting with God. That is why I am with you to lead you. Do not give up on prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2020