FROM FR. JOHN: May 28, 2023

   Hi again, parish family! When you’ve spent time with God in prayer, does it ever seem or feel like we’re the ones doing all the work? We feel like we’re the ones doing all the talking & we wonder if God is there &, if He’s there, is He even listening? We feel like we’re praying & praying, we’re putting in all this time & effort towards our relationship with God & sometimes it seems like we aren’t being met with an equal response from God. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience, maybe you haven’t, but I know that I have.

   I know that at times, God hasn’t always made me aware of His presence in my prayer. I know that at times I’ve wondered if my prayer was making a difference, if I was doing things right or if I was just going through the motions. But in those times what I’ve come to realize & what I’m STILL coming to realize is that in those moments & times in prayer where God doesn’t seem to respond to our way, we need to trust & we need to surrender. Remember, prayer isn’t about God working according to our ways, prayer is about opening ourselves to & placing ourselves in God’s presence. It’s about placing ourselves in the presence of the Good Shepherd who knows us better than we know ourselves, and so maybe what we experience as God not responding to our ways or our wants, isn’t a God who isn’t listening & a God who doesn’t care, but rather a God who is inviting us to a deeper trust in Him.

   Sometimes we’re afraid of what might happen if we do trust, if we do surrender. We fear what God might ask of us if we were to fully surrender to Him in prayer. How might He invite us to change? How might He invite us to deepen our relationship with Him? St. John of the Cross said that, “The language that God hears best is silent love.” So rather than running away from the silence of the uncomfortableness, enter into it & rest in God’s arms & receive His love according to His time & His ways.