People's Edit
Unceasing Prayer
Opinion | People's Edit | Michael Lunminthang | 15-Jul-2021
The COVID situation gave us different experiences which we might not have come across in normal circumstances. In spite of the unending fear around us, to my surprise, I find myself contemplating more on ‘Prayer’ in my little ways to motivate and support the bereaved. So many questions came up on my mind on this verbal and mental activity ‘prayer’. Out of desperation, I turned to few works to subside the growing novelty that storms inside me. Believe it or not, one evangelist couple got pregnant. When they went to meet their doctor, they realized that the fetus inside has no cardiac movement. The couple fasted and prayed for a miracle. They proclaim, they are praying for God’s intervention. They waited for one more month, the mother ended having infection in her womb. A congregation, fasted and prayed for a couple being treated for COVID. The husband got cured and the wife died leaving behind two kids. Many more pregnancy termination news were reported, apart from the WHO record of 3,954,324 deaths (till 5th July, 2021). The list of prayers during these difficult moments multiplied and we need signs and answers from God desperately and immediately. Where are our prayers? Does our prayers changed God and His plans? The inquisitiveness and questions multiply but sadly nobody has answers. But these situations need the unwavering ‘faith’ in God and His goodness.
Hubert van Zeller in his book Prayer and the Will of God writes, why some of our prayers remain unanswered. He narrates a logic why God wants us to pray, when He knows what we want; what we will ask and whether He will grant our request or refuse it. According to Zeller, it is not laziness but mistaken virtue, behind God’s blessings and objections. The very fact that somethings fill our mind with a desire support that God knows what we need. But our petitions do not change God’s mind, but they help in carrying out His planned. So long as we are not praying for something wrong (success in robbery, an accident to someone we dislike), our prayers are not wasted. God takes it at its true value, as an act of love and worship. Sometimes God gave us better things than we asked. For instance, King David, who had the urge for a house, prayed for a house made of stone and cedar. But God already planned of a ‘house’ in the sense of a family that would go on from generation to generation until finally our Lord would be born of it. Writing about ‘Benedictine Theology of Prayer’, in A History of Prayer, Columba Stewart states that Benedict refers to prayers (oratio) ‘with pure devotion’ ‘purity of heart’ and ‘pure prayer’. Thomas Aquinas wrote, prayers should be humble, devout and solitary.
A huge comfort of being a Catholic in times like these, is realizing that many loved saints and blessed led a holy and pious lives, sacrificing, praying and motivating their fellow Christians during the periodic plagues and other infectious diseases. St Cyprian, third-century theologian and bishop of Carthage and St. Charles Borromeo, both of them were famous for their inspirational leadership in times of plague. Modern times too have no shortage of models and intercessors. We have Gemma Galgani (Tuberculosis, 1903), Francisco and Jacinta Marto (Spanish flu, 1918 and 1920), Pier Giorgio Frassati (Polio, 1925), and Engelmar Unzeitig (Typhoid, 1945). I hope many more saints and blesseds were at work among us during the Pandemic. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians asked us to ‘Pray without ceasing’, Luke 19:1 commanded us the same. Socrates once said, we cannot see the wind but we know what it can do, likewise prayers are like the wind, we cannot see them but we know what they can do.
(The author teaches in Ambedkar University, Delhi. Views and opinions expressed are the author’s alone)
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