We are in the first full week of Lent, and today’s readings tell us not to be shy in our prayer, but to ask God, to beg God for what we need.  

In the first reading we hear of Esther, a Jewish woman who became queen of Persia and hid her Jewish identity from the king. When the Jewish people came under threat of death, she begged God for the courage to face her husband. She wanted to tell him the truth of who she really is and ask him to spare her people. Before she saw the king, she prayed from morning until night, lying on the ground in anguish, begging God:

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand….
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.

Her simple, moving prayer, and the ultimate success of her petition reminds us to pray for courage when we are afraid. 
In Matthews’s gospel, Jesus tells us:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

In speaking of this gospel Pope Francis noted, “That’s an almost incredible guarantee that our prayers will always be heard.”  But, Francis continued, “He doesn’t tell us ‘Ask and you’ll get whatever you ask for.’ He instructs us to seek but he doesn’t tell us exactly what we’ll find. He tells us to knock but he doesn’t say what will be waiting for us on the other side of the opened door. But he promises us that our prayers will be heard and God will respond.”

So, while we don’t know how our prayers will be answered, we do know they will be heard. Our faith tells us that God is really listening to us.  And this might be the year to reframe the season of Lent, from one of “giving up something” to one of asking God what gift he wants to give us this Lent.

Instead of a focus on what I am doing for Lent, we can open our hearts to God and listen to what gift, what healing God offers us this Lent.  Instead of giving up chocolate, maybe this Lent I can pray every morning for just a few minutes to be softer and kinder to my husband.  I am, usually, but sometimes I hear a sharpness in my voice that I never want to have when I talk with him.  My desire is to pray this Lent to take that edge out of my voice and to remember how much I have loved him over our many years of marriage.

I can knock on the door, I can seek and ask for the help to love more generously.  If I can pray with that every day in Lent and make that my Lent commitment, that will deepen my experience of Lent and my own relationship with Jesus.

Loving God, I want to do everything myself, but like Esther, I realize I have no help but you. Please give me the strength and courage to be more loving and open in all of my relationships this Lent.  Give me a listening heart to hear you speak to me when I knock.