MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Believing that Prayer Is Answered
I do believe in a personal God, because I too have had revelations, answers to my questions, to my prayers, and if the answer fails to come…I have that assurance God gave Saint Paul and he passed on to us, My grace is sufficient for you. And what is grace? Participation in the divine life. And that participation means for me light and understanding and conviction, of course only occasionally, but strong enough to carry me along, to lift me up out of depression, discouragement, uncertainty, doubt….
The frustrations that we experience are exercises in faith and hope, which are supernatural virtues. With prayer, one can go on cheerfully and even happily, while without prayer, how grim is the journey. Prayer is as necessary to life as breathing. It is drink and food….
Pouring rain today. I stayed in, resting—feeling exhausted. Sorrow, grief, exhaust one. Then tonight the prayers, the rosaries I’ve been saying were answered. And the feeling that prayers are indeed answered when we cry out for help was a comfort in itself. I had the assurance that they were answered, though it might not be now. I would not perhaps see the results. Praised be God, the God of all consolation. He comforts us in all our afflictions and enables us to comfort those who are in trouble, with the same consolation we have had from him” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). Suffering draws us to prayer and we are comforted. Or at least strengthened to continue in faith, and hope, and love….
O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help us. Lord, hear my prayer, let my cry come to you. In you have I hoped, let me never be confounded. All I have on earth is you. What do I desire in heaven beside you? And that “they” should have you, find you, love you too, those you have given us, sent to us, our children, our flesh and blood. May they cry out for the living God. No one comes to the Father but through me (Jn 14:6). You have said this, Jesus. Draw them, I beg you, I plead with you, so that they will run to the odor of your ointments (Sg 1:3), that they will taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Ps 34:8). Let them seek and find the way, the truth, the light.
Servant of God Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day († 1980) was co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. / © 2017, Plough Publishing House, Walden, NY. All rights reserved. www.plough.com. Used with permission.
