Psalm Reflection: The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

“Lord, in your great love, answer me.” - Psalm 69

What was the last thing you asked God for? How many times have you prayed for that same thing?

Do you have intentions and prayers you repeat over and over and over again? Me too.

In the monotony of quarantine life, I started thinking a lot about the monotony of my prayer and how often I repeat intentions or do the same thing over and over again. 

I found myself asking, “why do I ask for this so often? Do I think God forgot about my prayer yesterday? Will He lose control or the ability to answer me if I am not assuming control and reminding Him every day? Do I think God is somehow forgetful or incapable without me?!”

God knows you better than you know yourself. He loves you perfectly. He already knows your thoughts, worries, prayers and intentions before you speak them. Whether you pray for them or not, He is already working for the greater good of everyone and everything before you ask Him. So why do we even pray?!?

Two reasons:

First, we pray to give God worship and permission to work in our lives. We have free will and He will respect it, however we choose to use it. When we praise Him and put things in their proper order, with Him first and everything below Him, only one prayer, one petition, one moment of asking God for something will be enough. He doesn’t need us to babysit our intentions, He heard us the first time! Praising Him is a recognition that He is bigger than what we can accomplish on our own and we can entrust our intentions into His good, capable hands.

This brings us to the second reason we pray: we pray not because it changes anything about God, but because it changes us. Persistent prayer reminds us to trust in a God who is love itself, who can only cause good things to happen to us. Even when we experience evil or suffering as the result of sin, He will automatically begin working to find a way to bring a greater good from it. 

This weekends Psalm reminds us that God answers us in love. He does not forget our intentions, He is not incapable of blessing us without our persistence. We simply need to give Him permission to work, and He will do the rest if we let Him. He will answer every prayer you pray, though it may not be in the ways we expect. 

This week try to surrender control and your expectations when it comes to your prayer. Any intention, worry, anxiety or desire you bring to the Lord this week, pray for it ONLY once. When you do, lay it at His feet in complete trust that He knows what He is doing and He is holding your prayers tenderly in His heart. Trust Him with it and let it go. He’s got you.

We are praying for you this week.

See you in the Eucharist!

Matt