If we pray with hope anything is possible and we are comforted.
I was praying for many of my dear friends today. I prayed in thought, word and deed. God, who is spirit can hear me in the silence of my soul when I cry out to Him and He answers me even when I cannot hear His voice.
I prayed for those who are sick and need our prayers - like Nancy, Vanessa, baby Luka and so many others we pray for together. I prayed for those who are sad and need our prayers - like the families of Saint Baby Charbel and Little Raphael, the grieving mother and all those who grieve. I prayed for those who have special intentions - like Leila. Then of course, I prayed for the lost souls, those souls nearing death and their final temptation, the conversion of sinners and – of course – I prayed for us all.
Each prayer was a reflection of tears.
And yet, through these tears, I have such Hope!
There is so much good that can come from suffering, if we simply chose to allow it.
That is the action of surrender – Hope – Trust in God’s plan for us even when the way is dark, and we cannot see.
And to reward our HOPE – God grants us the experience of PEACE! That is our surrender to God! An action of Hope to gain Peace!
How many prayers have we have prayed together during these last few months for sick children? A million billion trillion it seems. All our prayers are to preserve the Earthly lives of these innocent children. And I would pray them all again, over and over and over, to spare even one family the grief of losing a child.
I was thinking today of the mothers who grieve and praying for them, when one such mother came to mind. Her name is Saint Rita of Cascia – Saint Rita of Impossible Cases – a 14th century woman, who was a wife and mother, and later a widow and nun. Both of her children died. Rita also prayed for them – and yet her prayers were not like mine. Saint Rita prayed that her two healthy sons – her only children – would DIE. That is correct. She prayed that her only children who she loved with all her heart, would die so that they could enter Heaven rather than risk damnation by avenging their father’s death.
How overwhelming! A loving mother wishing – praying – her children dead!
Paradoxically, Saint Rita did this not because she loved them too little – but because she loved them too much!
What HOPE she must have had for Eternal Life!
I have heard it said that “men do not die for things they doubt”.
Saint Rita is evidence of that!
Hope is how we pick ourselves up time and time again and stumble around in the darkness groping for our Heavenly Father, calling out “Abba”, “Daddy” blindly in this darkness on Earth, clumsily mimicking Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His passion and death.
Hope is how we know that God is listening and answers us when all our Earthly ears hear is the deafening silence of tears.
Hope is how we reach the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end.
Hope is what we need. A little Hope to get us through this day and the next and the next and the next and the next…
One small prayer at a time.
For with Hope, everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.