Pray always, don’t lose heart

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Scriptures today call us to live our lives firmly grounded in God’s love and oriented towards His Kingdom. Our journeys can take us through many twists and turns. At times, like Abraham, we cannot see clearly the road ahead; or like the parents of a terminally ill child, we cannot find the answers to life’s many problems. Yet, by walking with the God of infinite horizons and by pursuing the justice of His Kingdom, we are nurtured and transformed.

We are called to make God’s Kingdom a reality in our own time. We are to walk the dusty road of life to meet people’s wounds, hurts, sicknesses and broken relationships. Lives healed, sustained, and transformed continue to be the dream of Jesus. Our discipleship is about the nurturing and realizing of that dream in spite of all the opposing forces at work in the world. The one way we become grounded in God’s love and will is by prayer. Prayer is one way we acknowledge our total dependence on God, and at the same time, express our total trust in God.

In the gospel, Jesus taught us a prayer and a pattern of prayer. Prayer means allowing God into your world, opening every aspect of your life to God. Prayer means allowing God to journey with you at every stage, in every situation. In practice, it means acknowledging that without God, we can do absolutely nothing, and as such, involve God in all our daily chores. Before you embark on your daily scheduled, be very intentional to involve God in prayers. Pray for your family, pray for your business, pray about your struggle.

In the words of the saints: “pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on you.” One very important assurance of Jesus is that God always answers our prayers. However, God may not answer our prayers as we want, He answers our prayers according to our needs. This again involves we trust that God’s plans for us is always the best, even when it does not add up in our own reality.

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By Father Sylvester Onyeachonam

Your Pastor Speaks

Father Sylvester Onyeachonam is the pastor at St. Mary’s Delaware. He is originally from Nigeria, ordained a Catholic priest more than 19 years ago. Until his appointment, he served both as an associate pastor and pastor in Nigeria, a chaplain to the African Community in Dublin, Ireland, and recently the Catholic chaplain at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus for nine years.

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