St. Paul advises us to “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God” (Philipians 4, 6). Yet, we may find ourselves in anxiety after praying and feeling God does not answer our prayers. How did St. Monica feel after praying for the conversion of her son and seeing no change for days, months, and years?
When St. Augustine first came in contact with the Scriptures as a teenager or young adult, he found them dull, and lacking in style. And yet about twenty years later he describes, “How loudly I cried to you my God as I read the psalms of David, songs full of faith… How I was inflamed by them with love for you and fired to recite them…” (Confessions 9, 4, 6-8). What happened to him? St. Augustine explains that God had knocked at the doors of his heart for quite some time: “So it was, Lord, that you began little by little to work on my heart with your most gentle and merciful hand…” (Confessions 6.5.7) I believe St. Monica’s prayers were a constant invitation to God to work on Augustine’s heart. Most of this time Augustine did not notice the work God was doing in him, and neither did his mother Monica, but she kept praying. She understood the parable Jesus told about the necessity to “pray always without becoming weary” (Luke 18, 1).
Eventually St. Augustine’s heart could not ignore the call of the Lord any longer. The twenty years of St. Monica’s prayers brought visible fruits, and Augustine began a life in the Lord.
Although we may not notice that our prayers are being answered, perhaps they are. If our prayer is united to God’s will, he may be silently working, and we need to continue praying without becoming weary.
I was inspired by Fr. Laurie Mooney, O.S.A.’s talks on prayer during this year's Provincial retreat.
By Carlos J. Medina
Pre-Novice
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