Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Octo­ber 16, 2022

Years ago when my daugh­ter was first learn­ing to write her name it was time to select and share Valen­tine cards with her class­mates.  She was deter­mined to per­son­al­ly sign each and every card.  I sat with her at the din­ing room table as she painstak­ing­ly wrote her name in her best hand­writ­ing on each card.  As the evening went on, the stack of unsigned cards remained taller than those she had com­plet­ed.  Wor­ried that she might be get­ting tired (or per­haps wish­ing I could go do some­thing else), I asked her if she would like to stop the project.  She looked at me with the most earnest expres­sion and pro­claimed “Mom, I am no quit­ter.”  Through­out her life she has demon­strat­ed that she is “no quit­ter” in her work for social jus­tice and her fideli­ty to fam­i­ly and friends.

My pur­pose­ful, indus­tri­ous daugh­ter comes to mind as I pray with today’s read­ings. In the first read­ing from Exo­dus we hear about the sup­port Moses is giv­ing his peo­ple by keep­ing his hands raised.  How­ev­er, as he grew weary, Israel strug­gled in their fight against Amalek. Aaron and Hur sup­port­ed Moses’ raised hands which gave the nec­es­sary strength to Joshua and the Israelites.  This image helps me appre­ci­ate the sup­port I was giv­ing my daughter’s efforts to be a good friend by stay­ing with her at the table as she worked to be a good friend.  I am remind­ed to also appre­ci­ate the pres­ence of God’s lov­ing sup­port in my life through prayer.

In today’s sec­ond read­ing from Tim­o­thy, we hear:  All Scrip­ture is inspired by God and is use­ful for teach­ing, for refu­ta­tion, for cor­rec­tion, and for train­ing in right­eous­ness, so that one who belongs to God may be com­pe­tent, equipped for every good work.  What a pow­er­ful invi­ta­tion to ground our­selves to pray with Scrip­ture, espe­cial­ly through con­tem­pla­tive prayer where we can use all of our sens­es to put our­selves in the sto­ry. And at the same time, I am inspired to feel God’s pres­ence through­out my day and have those expe­ri­ences, emo­tions and encoun­ters ani­mate my prayer.

The wid­ow in the para­ble shared by Jesus in the Gospel from Luke is the ulti­mate “no quit­ter.”  Her per­sis­tence in her requests to the hard-heart­ed judge is impres­sive.  She is strong, coura­geous, pur­pose­ful and focused.  I won­der what it might be like if I approached my prayer life with such strength, courage, pur­pose and focus.  As I lis­ten to what Jesus is attempt­ing to teach about prayer through this para­ble, I feel com­fort­ed by today’s respon­so­r­i­al psalm:  Our help is from the Lord, who made heav­en and earth.  Rather than try to fig­ure out the per­fect way to pray or the per­fect time to pray or the per­fect struc­ture of my prayers, I sim­ply need to put my trust in God to sup­port my desire to pray.  I am com­fort­ed by that sup­port and am inspired to be as per­sis­tent as the widow.

St Ignatius had a lot to say about prayer.  In the Spir­i­tu­al Exer­cis­es St Ignatius tells us that before we even begin to pray, we should “Ask God our Lord for what I want and desire.”  Being atten­tive and ask­ing for a grace, a desire, helps me lis­ten more deeply to God.  Begin­ning my prayer by ask­ing for a grace reminds me that prayer is not a high-pow­ered nego­ti­a­tion ses­sion for a par­tic­u­lar request but rather a rich con­ver­sa­tion with God.

The wants and desires that form the grace I put before God are lim­it­less.  Per­haps I pray for the grace to be more atten­tive to God in my dai­ly rou­tine.  Or the grace for insight as I face big deci­sions.  Or the grace to cel­e­brate the many gifts in my life.  Or per­haps the grace to …… you fill in the blank.

Inspired by the beau­ti­ful read­ings today and trust­ing in the vast­ness of God’s love, I am con­fi­dent that when it comes to prayer, I am no quitter.