Praying for the Dead

There is news about a young woman who killed someone. She told everyone that she was going to do this evil act and many people enthusiastically supported her and a few even helped her do the deed. This woman, this killer, is now dead.

Do you pray for the perpetrators of evil who are now dead? If so, how do you pray? What do you pray for?

We might start with mourning, with recognizing that it is a tragedy that she is dead, even if one is justifiably angry at the evil that was the murder she committed. We might pray that God remember that, despite whatever evils she might have done and did do, she still is a child of God. We might pray that God’s will be done -- that is, given that she is a child of God, that He forgive her this great evil if it be His will to do so and take her into heaven.

Now, as a general matter, forgiveness implies that the deceased had repented of any mortal sin and accepted such forgiveness and redemption before dying. And if they died while in a state of mortal sin, that would be, again as a general matter, an indication that they did not seek or want such forgiveness. But what if the evil were committed in the very act of dying (as it was with this young woman)?

Again, it is a tragic thing that happened. Both the death of the sinner is a tragedy and the committing of the evil, of the sin, is a tragedy. And it is made all the more tragic because such evil tends to cause other people to commit the same evil. Although the evil was committed concurrent with death, we might pray that God find whatever ember of remorse might have been present. We might recall that the Lord delights not in the death of even the wicked (Ez. 18:23, 33:11).

Often we pray, “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.”

If we were to be so presumptuous to judge the soul of this young woman who was a killer -- and it is NOT our job to do so, but if we were to -- we might conclude that she is among those “most in need” of Christ’s mercy. So, in saying this common prayer, we are already praying for her and others who have done such evil.

We might also pray that people having sympathy for this young woman's death (as would be proper) not think that such sympathy dictates overlooking the evil that she did. To do that risks presuming upon God's mercy and presumption is one of the gravest sins that we can commit. In addition, we might also pray for our society, for those who effectively cheered at the prospect of a young woman being killed. Too many people in this culture have made a covenant with death, they revel in killing, their consciences having been effectively killed long before.

God save us. It's clear that we aren't going to save ourselves.

Pope Francis: rebuild peace and harmony with encounter, not conflict

Let Us Pray

From Adoramus Te, the blog of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church:

It begins . . . with prayer. It begins as it should, as it must if it is to be fruitful, with prayer.

Most appropriately, the Year of Faith was inaugurated at Blessed Sacrament with that most special prayer which involves adoration of our Lord in the most Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. There is a great need in this Year of Faith, together with the New Evangelization, for a better appreciation of the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, Father Anthony Killian said in his sermon at the Holy Hour on Thursday, October 11. He noted how St. Faustina recounts in her diary when Jesus had sadly told her that, all too often, with respect to the Eucharist, people "treat me as a dead object." But He is alive -- in Him, all things are made new, and we can ourselves be renewed in receiving the living Risen Christ, "the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ." (CCC 1405, quoting St. Ignatius of Antioch)

Renewal in Him and through Him is a major reason for the Year of Faith. It is an exhortation to be renewed, Fr. Killian said, so that we can then joyously take that renewed and reinvigorated faith to others.

It must be a living faith and a lived faith that we take to others, rather than treating our Lord and our faith as if they are dead objects. We must open our hearts to Him, to His Spirit of Love and Truth, and worthily receive His Body in Holy Communion with Him, so that His Light might more clearly shine through us, through our lives and witness of Him.

How might we open our hearts in this Year of Faith? What are some of the activities we might engage in during this Year? How might we better inform our intellects and prepare ourselves for the New Evangelization, for our actively participating in the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to a cold and dark world sorely in need of some good news?

Read the rest of Let Us Pray at Adoramus Te.

Prayer for Pentecost

Spirit of Life, which in the beginning hovered over the abyss,
Help humanity of our time to understand
That the exclusion of God leads to being lost in the desert of the world.
And that only where faith enters, do dignity and liberty flourish
And the whole society is built on justice.
Spirit of Pentecost, which makes of the Church one Body,
Restore in the baptized an authentic experience of communion;
Render yourself a living sign of the presence of the Risen One in the world,
Community of saints that lives in the service of charity.
Holy Spirit, which trains to the mission,
Make us recognize that, also in our time,
So many persons are in search of the truth about their existence and the world.
Make us collaborators of their joy with the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Grain of the wheat of God, which renders good the terrain of life and assures the abundance of the harvest.
Amen..

Pray for Christopher Hitchens

We previously considered the question of praying for one such as the late Christopher Hitchens, who at times was not merely atheist, but antitheist.

Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute You

Today, the Anchoress raises again The Hitchens/Prayer Debate. Recently, Christopher Hitchens has learned that he has cancer of the esophagus. Now, Hitchens is a writer who is not so much an atheist as he is an antitheist, he does not simply not believe, he attacks the belief and believers, and often disingenuously so. Nevertheless, we are called to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. On that issue of whether to pray for Hitchens or not, the Anchoress writes:

It seems the New York Times has noticed the debate as to whether people of faith should pray for Christopher Hitchens. I like this; it reflects my feelings, exactly:

Jeffrey Goldberg, a colleague of Hitchens’s at The Atlantic Monthly, consulted the rabbinical authorities and decided that prayer was O.K. On his blog, Goldberg quoted the advice of David Wolpe, a Los Angeles rabbi who has publicly debated Hitchens on a number of occasions: “I would say it is appropriate and even mandatory to do what one can for another who is sick; and if you believe that praying helps, to pray. It is in any case an expression of one’s deep hopes. So yes, I will pray for him, but I will not insult him by asking or implying that he should be grateful for my prayers.”

The Anchoress wrote on this earlier, Hitchens' Challenge, where she said that she had been called to pray for him, and her post generated a lot of comments, including some opposition.

So, to pray or not to pray? What should one do?

The New York Times story notes, "While Hitchens himself doesn’t seem to have issued any official directives, prayers have rolled in from [the Anchoress] Elizabeth Scalia (no relation to the Supreme Court justice) at First Things, Greg Kandra at The Deacon’s Bench and Pat Archbold at The National Catholic Register."

“While Hitchens himself doesn’t seem to have issued any official directives . . .”

This is the real sticking point.

There are at least three points or perspectives, all of which need to be considered, in answering this question –

(1) Us, the one potentially offering the prayer. That is, do we have a moral obligation or permission to pray (or to not pray)?
(2) Hitchens (or any other person for whom it is to be offered). Is the prayer welcome or unwelcome? Is he receptive or at least neutral, or is he adamately opposed?
(3) The content of the prayer. Just exactly what does one pray for? His physical health, his spiritual health, his conversion?

We are obligated in faith to be charitable toward Hitchens, i.e. to love him, as we love ourselves and as Jesus loves us. BUT, part of love is respecting the free will of the other person. Love, even when expressed by prayer, cannot be forced upon the other against his will. The Samaritan dragging the wounded man out of the ditch when the man demands to be left alone is not “good”; what he does is an act of violence, not charity. Not even God forces His love upon people.

Hence the dillema. Does our prayer end up being a true act of love or an act of unlove against the will of the person? It depends.

Of course, the Samaritan can both love the man in the ditch and still respect his will by doing something else, call 911 perhaps, and let the EMTs come and offer their assistance. Perhaps the man will accept it then.

So, we have an obligation to love Hitchens. The question is how? For many people, we might in good faith and conscience simply assume that our prayers are welcomed. And since Hitchens has not publicly said “no,” perhaps we might assume the same for him, but we might be presuming too much. Which get us to (3) the content of the prayer.

Just exactly what do we or should we pray for in the case of Hitchens? If he welcomes prayer, then we have no problem, we can pray all out for whatever good thing we might want.

But if he does not welcome prayer, what then? We can still be charitable, and still pray, but we would seem to be limited in what we pray for, or at the very least, would need to make the petition conditional (e.g. “if he is willing to accept it Lord . . .”). We cannot go so far as to drag him out of the ditch and pour oil on him against his wishes, but we can call 911. We can stand by, ready to assist if he later wants it. We can tell him that lodging is available to him when and if he is willing to accept it.

It is not as easy a moral question as it might seem. It would be a lot easier if all we had to consider was (1) us. But (2) and (3) are factors we must consider as well.

The one thing that we CANNOT do is reflexively and arbitrarily say, “to hell with Hitchens, he’s only getting what he deserves.”

Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute You: Part Two

Some questions and objections have arisen with respect to the prior post Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute You.

You're confusing me. How do you pray for someone like Hitchens?

That's what I mean, it's not as easy a question as it first looks.

Love means respecting the other person as a person, as one with free will, and not as an object, a thing that we can manipulate or ask God to manipulate.

Hitchens is a person, not a puppet, and we should not treat him like a puppet. And God is Love, and we should not pray that God act contrary to Himself.

The same Jesus that said “pray for your persecutors” also said “shake the dust from your feet.”

To pray for a gross violation of another person’s free will is NOT an act of love. It is an act of violence.

Love cannot be forced upon another and still be love. And we are called to love, not to force ourselves on others. That means respecting their free will.

God gave them free will. We should respect His will to give them their will.

By no means am I saying “screw him, I’m not praying for him, period.” No, we should pray. But what I am suggesting is that we should actually think about what we pray for. That we make our prayer an act of love, and not an act contrary to love.

Of course, EVERY prayer of ours should include the proviso — “if it be thy will.” Maybe that in itself solves the dillema?

I respectfully disagree that it is not an easy moral question. On the contrary, it is quite simple to pray for Christopher’s mercy and forgiveness. We should even pray that God forgive against Hitchens’ will. After all, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Jesus did not simply say, “forgive them,” and stop. He added “they know not what they do.” This additional aspect is important.

He previously taught on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Church has understood this to mean that forgiveness is something that must be accepted in order to be accomplished, and consistent with the understanding that God is Love, and love cannot be forced upon someone, and that God gave us free will precisely for that reason, to freely choose to love Him or not to love Him, the Church has consistently taught that God will not, indeed, cannot forgive such person (Mt. 12:31-32).

Sure, pray that God forgive Hitchens — but NOT against his will. That is not love, that is the theological equivilent of rape. It is contrary to Love, it is contrary to Truth, the truth of God.

Rather, pray that God forgive Hitchens, but adding the proviso, if and when Hitchens accept it. Pray that God offer forgiveness, but do not pray that God act contrary to Himself and impose that love upon Hitchens. God cannot do so, being Love, He cannot act contrary to love, and it is important that we understand that.

Okay then – specifically – tell me how you would offer a prayer to God for him. And how does that differ from, say, someone who has left the church but maybe not left God?

One could simply pray that God be who He is — Love and Truth — and that He act accordingly. One could pray that God be there for him, that God, who is Divine Mercy, be merciful and loving and compassionate.

I would suppose He can be compassionate (from the Latin “to suffer with”) with or without Hitchens’ consent, but implicit in that prayer is our understanding that love and mercy, from the Latin miserere, meaning to allievate misery, cannot be imposed. Those who have chosen Hell over Him must be respected in that choice. Of course, it is still not yet a definitive choice for Hitchens, but it is his choice to make, not ours.

Or I suppose one could pray for whatever one wants to pray for, so long as there is the added provisos of “if it be Thy will Lord” and “if he is willing to accept it Lord . . .” That might accomplish the requisite need to respect the other’s free will.

I disagree that the other person’s feelings should be considered. Hitchens’ free will is not involved in this matter. Nobody is pointing a gun at him or conning him into anything.

If someone tells a non-believer that they don’t care what he thinks or wants, that they are going to “pray” for him even against his wishes and consent — does that sentiment cause him to want to draw closer to God? Or does it cause resentment and drive him away?

Respect for the other person -- which is a part of love -- requires that one consider his wishes. To be sure, "love" means seeking the good of the other, and not necessarily what makes him happy, but if going against his wishes leads him away from the good, then it obviously needs to be taken into account.

Consider the younger son who asked his father for his inheritence and then left home. What did the father do? He gave the son his interitence and let him go. He did not bind the son in chains, he did not lock him in his room. And the father did not go after him and drag him back home. Rather, the father respected his son's decision.

Had the older son implored their father to go after his brother and forcibly try to bring him home, it may have only served to set the younger son permanently against their father.

Sorry, I think you are over-thinking this one. We should not have to think twice about this one: pray for Hitchens, and trust God’s wisdom.

Ours is not an unthinking Faith. Rather, ours is a Faith that seeks understanding, that seeks to know the Logos.

Believer #1: “I’ll pray for you.”
Nonbeliever: “What does that mean?”
Believer #2: “Yeah, I’m curious too. What does that mean?”
Believer #1: "It means . . . um . . ."

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” 1 Pet. 3:15. Furthermore, we should be ready to give ourselves a reason for our hope, for our faith.

It is not enough to simply hear Jesus say, “love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you.”

We should ask “What does that mean?” Before praying, we should actually think about what it is we are praying for and why. We should think about what “love” is, what it means.

As set out in the prior post and above, I submit that “love” is not self-centered; it is not merely a matter of what we do. We MUST consider the other person. We cannot simply stop at (1) ourselves, we must also take into account (2) the other, in this case, the non-believing if not anti-believing Hitchens. But that brings into our consideration (3) as well — what to pray for and how and why.

Maybe the first prayer of petition we offer should be for ourselves, to ask for the grace to understand how best to love, how best to simultaneously offer up prayers on behalf of another and still respect them as a person, that is, respecting their freedom to reject us and our love expressed in prayer.

But we cannot, I further submit, not even bother to think about such things.

.

The Efficacy of Prayer and the Mystery of the Eternal Nature of God

If you pray for a sick person, does that move God to heal him or her, or is that something that He would have done anyway? Does prayer have any real effect on God and what He does, or is it merely an academic exercise? I mean, what's the point?

The juxtaposition of the eternal nature of God, causality, and free will (since the eternal nature of God knowing what we will do before we do it implicates the question of free will) does indeed appear to present a theological quandary. In the area of prayers of petition and intercession, we run smack dab into the mystery of eternity and the interaction between eternity and the temporality in which we humans exist.
(a) On the one hand, being eternal, existing outside of and beyond linear time, God knows what will happen "before" it happens because, for Him, it has already happened. Moreover, being perfect, God does not make mistakes. And to "change one's mind" is to say, to some extent, that one was wrong before.
(b) On the other hand, Jesus clearly and expressly said, "ask and you shall receive" and "to pray always without becoming weary." (Mt. 7:7-8, Lk 18:1-7) And the prayer He commended to us, the "Our Father," contains many requests that God do this or that. There are multiple occasions too in the Old Testament where the Lord says that He is acting because He has heard the cries and prayers of His people. Moreover, we have the authority of Christ's holy Church, as guided by the Holy Spirit, which has taught from the earliest days that we should offer our prayers to God, including prayers of petition and intercession. (See CCC 2629-36) All of this does suggest that prayer has an effect on God, that He does do things in response to prayer that He might not have done if the prayer were not made.

So, these are complex questions, with seemingly contradictory answers. But, at the risk of confusing the issue further, and leaving aside the question of the effect of prayer on the person who prays, rather than on the person prayed for, here are three possible affirmative responses to these questions, and a couple of other points.

(1) (a) Prayer is not at all an academic exercise, but the question of whether prayer affects the actions of the eternal God does appear to be an academic question. God may do X only because we have prayed for Him to do X. However, being eternal, God already knows what happens before it happens. So, He knew not only what He was going to do, He already knew that we would pray for X before we asked for it. Conversely, if we did not pray for X, then God might not do X, but He knows that too before we fail to pray it. Either way, God already knowing what we are going to do before we do it doesn't mean that our prayers do not have an effect on what He might or might not do.

Prayer does have a real effect on God, even if it might appear, because of the mystery of eternity, that it does not.

That is, it might appear that our prayer does not have any real effect on what God is going to do in the sense that, being timeless, God already knows what He is going to do (from the human temporal perspective) and, indeed, has already done (from God’s out-of-time perspective). It might appear that prayer does not lead to God to do something, like save someone's life, if He was not going to already do it.

However, God not only knows what He is going to do before you pray for it, He also knows that you are going to make that prayer (or not). So when God chooses to act or not, He does so with the foreknowledge of your prayer or lack thereof. Being eternal and transcendent of time, so that everything that has ever happened and ever will happen in the human timeline is in God’s present, all of time being a singularity, the fact that He already knows and has already done it does not mean that what we have prayed for did not play a factor in whether it was done or not.

But let us set aside this mystery of eternity interacting with temporality, which mostly results in tying ourselves up in knots and, therefore confuses the issue.

(b) Instead, let us consider that it is clear that there are conditions precedent to some of God’s actions. You must do something, namely ask and/or accept, before He will do those actions. A prime example of this is the gift of grace. The gift of grace from God is not an action. It is a transaction. God does not unilaterally confer grace upon someone. That would be an imposition contrary to love. Rather, for grace to be conferred, (1) you must ask God for it and, once offered, (2) you must accept the gift. If you don’t ask and you don’t accept, you will not get it (that said, Jesus has already indicated that He stands ready to give it if we ask, so our asking, like any prayer, is really in response to His initiative).

It is not a case of God merely doing what He would have done anyway. Without your doing that condition precedent of asking or accepting, He would not have done it, even if He does know what the ultimate outcome is before it happens. God already knew that Mary would say “yes,” but that does not mean that her “yes” was not required, and was not freely given, before the Holy Spirit would come upon her.

The same might hold true for prayers of petition and intercession, as in the case of a person who is sick and suffering. The prior request for, and assent to, the grace of healing might be necessary, inasmuch as God does not impose Himself upon us against our will.

That said, whether God has in fact intervened in a given situation and altered what would have happened if He had not intervened is ultimately a matter of faith. It cannot be submitted to the scientific method. God cannot be put under the microscope. Either one believes that a healing was miraculous or he doesn’t. “All I know is that I was blind, and now I see.”

(2) Although God, and God alone, provides us salvation (in Christ), and although He is all-powerful, dependent upon none, He has chosen to need the assistance of humanity to accomplish the work of salvation. God has chosen not to do it all by Himself -- He wants our help. He wants us to participate in saving others by, among other things, praying for them, which has the transcendent effect of joining all the faithful together as one in communion with God.

Indeed, in the Sacrament of Confirmation, where Jesus asks us to join in the mission of the Church to be a witness for Him, we see that God has very much chosen to need the help and participation of humanity in saving others. God doesn't need our help, but He wants our help. He has chosen to depend upon us, including in the work of salvation. He has chosen to make this a group effort. Or, if you will, a family effort. The Almighty does not need our help, but He asks for it anyway. And if we do not provide that help, it isn't going to be done.

We see this in the very fact that He depended upon Mary for His very life, and depended upon her and Joseph to raise Jesus. The Jesus who saves by the Cross and Resurrection is always the Baby Jesus as well. The Baby Jesus who requires us to help Him.

If Mary didn't help God; if Mary didn't say "yes" and carry Jesus in her womb, and raise Him and teach Him and feed Him and clothe Him and shelter Him, the salvation of the world would have never come. God chose to need her. God chooses to need us.

Prayer for other people helps Him. Not because He needs our help, but because He wants our help. He wants that help, He wants us to love one another and care about the welfare of one another. Jesus wants us to pray for others -- the key part of "ask and you shall receive" is not the "receive" part, but the "ask" part. In the parables about the woman who keeps bothering the judge until he rules in her favor (Lk 18:1-7) and the man who pesters his reluctant friend in the middle of the night to give him some bread (Lk 11:5-8), Jesus tells us to be persistent in prayer. If we do not do things like pray, that help for others might not get done. That God already knows what we will do and what He will do does not detract from that. We need to help Him help them. We need to pray.

(3) Prayer also has a very real effect because God made us as social beings, He made us to exist, not in isolation, not in individualistic solitude, but in communion -- in communion not only with Him, but if each of us is one with Him, we are necessarily one with each other.

Even if God does not intervene to physically heal the person, our prayers are made use of. He does, in fact, do something that He would not have done had the prayers not been made. Implicit in prayer is love, inasmuch as prayer is communication with God, i.e. communion with Him, an exchange of love with Him. In His compassion, God is already with the sick and suffering. Such that when we pray for them in loving communion with God, that love is further communicated through Him to the sick person.

If we pray for the sick, if we give our love for that person to God, then He will convey that love of ours -- and the implicit power of healing in love -- to the sick person. However, if we do not pray for the sick, then God cannot convey such love to him or her since it has not been given to Him.

(4) Notwithstanding the widespread assertion that God listens to and answers every prayer (even if He sometimes says "no"), actually, on occasion, God purposely does not answer our prayers. In the case of one making a good faith prayer, He will listen, but He might not respond, at least not right away. We have only to look at not a few of the great saints who have experienced the "dark night of the soul" to understand this. Sometimes, God will withdraw. You may call out, "God? Are you there?" And receive nothing but silence in return. It does not mean that God has abandoned you. Sometimes, He will withdraw so that you might go looking for Him.

(5) One other point about prayer needs to be noted. God also sometimes will not even listen, sometimes He pays no attention to what we ask of Him. God is under no obligation to listen to or answer a "prayer" that borders on being blasphemous by being improper and inappropriate. Consider what happened when Herod effectively prayed that Jesus perform tricks for him --

"When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see Him. From what he had heard about Him, he hoped to see Him perform some miracle. He plied Him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer." -- Luke 23:8-9

Jesus, that is, God, gave Herod the attention he deserved -- none. If we similarly impiously make demands upon Him, if we effectively take His name in vain and put Him to the test, insisting that He prove His love for us, He is under no obligation to listen.

(6) Finally, and most importantly, we need to remember that God is Love. God loves us. That's what He does. And He wants only what is good for us. Always, and in all things. And He does not abandon us. In that same lesson where Jesus says, "ask and you shall receive," He also says,

"Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him." (Mt. 7:7-11)

God loves us. And when we say, "Thy will be done," as we should in all prayer, we should know that His will is always to love us in truth. Thus, even if it were the case that our prayers to Him had no effect on His actions, even if He were to do whatever it is that He is going to do regardless, He nevertheless wants what is good for us and He does what is good for us. He will not abandon us, He will not leave us alone in misery.

In His mercy (from the Latin miserere, meaning "to alleviate misery"), and His compassion (from the Latin "com," meaning "with," and passio, meaning "to suffer"), God suffers with us, as we most graphically see with Jesus taking on humanity and suffering on the Cross. And by the transformative power of His love, our misery is turned into hope, and then ultimately into joy in eternal life, where "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain." (Rev. 21:4) God loves us, so even if He were to ignore our faithful prayers (which He does not), still we should not lose hope -- He Himself provides the hope. And such faithful prayer would not be in vain or otherwise pointless, loving communion with God in prayer is never in vain.

__________________________

See also, Effects of prayer, Catholic Encyclopedia
C.S. Lewis, "The Efficacy of Prayer" (1959), reprinted in The World's Last Night
St. Augustine, Sermon 30 (LXXX. Ben.) (Augustine here asks "What is the use of prayer at all, if our Father knows already what things we have need of? . . . Why weary ourselves in asking, and seeking, and knocking, to instruct Him who knows already?" His conclusion is that we should indeed ask, we should pray, but his explanation is rather hard to follow.)
St. Alphonsus Ligouri, Necessity and Power of Prayer (Alphonsus says that, not only is God moved by prayer, but that without prayer, we cannot obtain the help (grace) necessary for salvation. "Hence it is that the generality of theologians, following St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and other Fathers, teach that prayer is necessary to adults, not only because of the obligation of the precept (as they say), but because it is necessary as a means of salvation. That is to say, in the ordinary course of Providence, it is impossible that a Christian should be saved without recommending himself to God, and asking for the graces necessary to salvation.")
.

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

As noted below, during our trip (afternoon layover in Paris, two-plus days in Florence, day-trip to Pompeii, and about seven days in Rome), we prayed a novena for the intentions of several people*, most especially my mom's sister Marilyn, now residing in the House of the Lord, and my stepmother Rosemarie, battling this time a nasty lung infection after having already carried the Cross so many times and so far with prior ailments, and my dad, enduring this trial with her.

Given my affection for St. Bernadette, and inasmuch as health is so involved, physical and spiritual, I thought it appropriate to address our novena to Our Lady of Lourdes. Here is that novena (with litany), with the locations it was offered for that day --

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

+ Oh ever immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comfortess of the Afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings. Look upon us with mercy. When you appeared in the grotto at Massabielle, you made it a privileged sanctuary where you dispense your favors, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. We come, therefore, with unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of God, you had influence with your divine Son while upon earth. You have the same influence now in Heaven. Pray for us; obtain for us from your Divine Son our special requests for our loved ones if it be His divine will.

(specific prayer for that given day)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, help of Christians; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, source of love; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the poor; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the handicapped; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of orphans; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of all children; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of all nations; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the Church; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, friend of the lonely; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, comforter of those who mourn; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, shelter of the homeless; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, guide of travelers; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, strength of the weak; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, refuge of sinners; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, comforter of the suffering; Pray for them
Our Lady of Lourdes, help of the dying; Pray for them

Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you with praise and thanks for having rescued a fallen world by your generous consent! Receive our gratitude, and by your prayers obtain the pardon of our sins. Take our prayers into the sanctuary of heaven and enable them to make our peace with God. Amen.

St. Joseph, pray for us
St. Bernadette, pray for us
St. Andre Bessette, pray for us +

____________

DAY ONE (S. Maria Novella, Florence)
O Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, virgin and mother, queen of heaven, chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the Eternal Word and in virtue of this title preserved from original sin, we kneel before you as did little Bernadette at Lourdes and pray with childlike trust in you that as we contemplate your glorious appearance at Lourdes, you will look with mercy on our present petition and secure for us a favorable answer to the request for which we are making this novena.

DAY TWO (Santa Croce, Florence)
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest yourself shining with light, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child Saint Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception!" O Mary Immaculate, inflame our hearts with one ray of the burning love of your pure heart Let them be consumed with love for Jesus and for you, in order that we may merit one day to enjoy your glorious eternity. O dispenser of His graces here below, take into your keeping and present to your Divine Son the petition for which we are making this novena.

DAY THREE (S. Maria Maggiore, Rome)
"You are all fair, O Mary, and there is in you no stain of original sin." O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. O brilliant star of sanctity, as on that lovely day, upon a rough rock in Lourdes you spoke to the child Bernadette and a fountain broke from the plain earth and miracles happened and the great shrine of Lourdes began, so now I beseech you to hear our fervent prayer and do, we beseech you, grant us the petition we now so earnestly seek.

DAY FOUR (San Clemente, Rome)
O Immaculate Queen of Heaven, we your wayward, erring children, join our unworthy prayers of praise and thanksgiving to those of the angels and saints and your own-the One, Holy, and Undivided Trinity may be glorified in heaven and on earth. Our Lady of Lourdes, as you looked down with love and mercy upon Bernadette as she prayed her rosary in the grotto, look down now, we beseech you, with love and mercy upon us. From the abundance of graces granted you by your Divine Son, sweet Mother of God, give to each of us all that your motherly heart sees we need and at this moment look with special favor on the grace we seek in this novena.

DAY FIVE (San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome)
O Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our mother, from the heights of your dignity look down mercifully upon us while we, full of confidence in your unbounded goodness and confident that your Divine Son will look favorably upon any request you make of Him in our behalf, we beseech you to come to our aid and secure for us the favor we seek in this novena.

DAY SIX (Chapel of Residenza Madri Pie, Rome)
O glorious Mother of God, so powerful under your special title of Our Lady of Lourdes, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the gracious Heart of Jesus all the helps and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare and for the special favor we so earnestly seek in this novena.

O Lady of Bernadette, with the stars of heaven in your hair and the roses of earth at your feet, look with compassion upon us today as you did so long ago on Bernadette in the Grotto of Lourdes.

DAY SEVEN (S. Agostino, Rome)
O Almighty God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary did prepare a worthy dwelling place for your Son, we humbly beseech you that as we contemplate the apparition of Our Lady in the Grotto of Lourdes, we may be blessed with health of mind and body. O most gracious Mother Mary, beloved Mother of Our Lord and Redeemer, look with favor upon us as you did that day on Bernadette and intercede with him for us that the favor we now so earnestly seek may be granted to us.

DAY EIGHT (Residenza Madri Pie, Rome)
O Immaculate Mother of God, from heaven itself you came to appear to the little Bernadette in the rough Grotto of Lourdes! And as Bernadette knelt at your feet and the miraculous spring burst forth and as multitudes have knelt ever since before your shrine, O Mother of God, we kneel before you today to ask that in your mercy you plead with your Divine Son to grant the special favor we seek in this novena.

DAY NINE (St. Peter's Tomb, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican)
O glorious Mother of God, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the benign Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly for the grace of a happy death. O Mother of our Divine Lord, as we conclude this novena for the special favor we seek at this time.

We feel animated with confidence that your prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard. O Mother of My Lord, through the love you bear to Jesus Christ and for the glory of His Name, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions.

___________________

*List of persons specifically prayed for by name:
Marilyn, Jamie, Brian, Jon, Melissa and their families
Rosemarie and Alan
Margie and Emerson
Departed loved ones -
-Edward and Doris
-Russell
-Milt
-Barb
-Neil, and their families
Rita, Dave, Stephen and their families
Dorothy and Gerald
Barb and Fred and their families
Karen and Stephen, Maureen and Andy, Kevin and Greta, Ann and Sam, Colleen and Mike, Tim and AnnMarie, and Melinda, and their families
Paul and Eva and their families
Fr. Cregan, Fr. Killian, Fr. Cramer, Msgr. Mahler, and their families
Susan, Richard, Sherry, Ernestine, and others and their families
My students, young and adult, and their families
Jan
Tuyen and Jody
Cathleen
Sharlene and their families
Daniel, Maxwell, Maureen, Shafica, Sherry, Tim, Gwen, and Lynn and their families
The Holy Father, all the bishops, priests, and religious, Sr. Jean Marian
Seminarians and others in religious formation
The President and other civic leaders
and Mark

Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute YouPart Three

Interview with Christopher Hitchens
Hugh Hewitt Show
July 13, 2010


Hugh Hewitt: Now Christopher, since we last spoke, your illness you disclosed on the web, and people will want to know off the bat how you are doing, and how your treatment is going.

Christopher Hitchens: Oh well, I have, in case people are just tuning in, I have cancer in my esophagus, which has I think spread a little to my lymph nodes as well. And I’m two weeks into the chemotherapy course. So I feel pretty weak, and my voice isn’t what it was, but that’s supposed to be a good sign in that the amount of poison I’m taking is presumably working on the bad stuff as well as the good stuff. And this morning, I found that my hair was beginning to come out in the shower, which is a bit demoralizing, I have to say, even though it’s the least of it.

HH: Well, I know you’ve received many well wishes, and I know my audience has been among them, and I’m very glad you could make the time today to talk about this book.

CH: No, everyone’s been extremely generous, and including, well, preeminently, yourself. Thank you.

. . .

HH: The number of people I’m sure who are praying for you, including people who come up to me and ask me to tell you that, people like Joseph Timothy Cook, how are you responding to them, given your famous atheism?

CH: Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don’t do any good, but they don’t necessarily do any harm. It’s touching to be thought of in that way. It makes up for those who tell me that I’ve got my just desserts. It’s, I’m afraid to say it’s almost as well-founded an idea. I mean, I don’t, they don’t know whether prayer will work, and they don’t know whether I’ve come by this because I’m a sinner.

HH: Oh, I...has anyone actually said that to you?

CH: Yeah, oh yes.

HH: Oh, my gosh. Forgive them. Well…

CH: Well, I mean, I don’t mind. It doesn’t hurt me. But for the same reason, I wish it was more consoling. But I have to say there’s some extremely nice people, including people known to you, have said that I’m in their prayers, and I can only say that I’m touched by the thought.
.

Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute YouPart Two

Some questions and objections have arisen with respect to the prior post Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute You.

You're confusing me. How do you pray for someone like Hitchens?

That's what I mean, it's not as easy a question as it first looks.

Love means respecting the other person as a person, as one with free will, and not as an object, a thing that we can manipulate or ask God to manipulate.

Hitchens is a person, not a puppet, and we should not treat him like a puppet. And God is Love, and we should not pray that God act contrary to Himself.

The same Jesus that said “pray for your persecutors” also said “shake the dust from your feet.”

To pray for a gross violation of another person’s free will is NOT an act of love. It is an act of violence.

Love cannot be forced upon another and still be love. And we are called to love, not to force ourselves on others. That means respecting their free will.

God gave them free will. We should respect His will to give them their will.

By no means am I saying “screw him, I’m not praying for him, period.” No, we should pray. But what I am suggesting is that we should actually think about what we pray for. That we make our prayer an act of love, and not an act contrary to love.

Of course, EVERY prayer of ours should include the proviso — “if it be thy will.” Maybe that in itself solves the dillema?

I respectfully disagree that it is not an easy moral question. On the contrary, it is quite simple to pray for Christopher’s mercy and forgiveness. We should even pray that God forgive against Hitchens’ will. After all, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Jesus did not simply say, “forgive them,” and stop. He added “they know not what they do.” This additional aspect is important.

He previously taught on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Church has understood this to mean that forgiveness is something that must be accepted in order to be accomplished, and consistent with the understanding that God is Love, and love cannot be forced upon someone, and that God gave us free will precisely for that reason, to freely choose to love Him or not to love Him, the Church has consistently taught that God will not, indeed, cannot forgive such person (Mt. 12:31-32).

Sure, pray that God forgive Hitchens — but NOT against his will. That is not love, that is the theological equivilent of rape. It is contrary to Love, it is contrary to Truth, the truth of God.

Rather, pray that God forgive Hitchens, but adding the proviso, if and when Hitchens accept it. Pray that God offer forgiveness, but do not pray that God act contrary to Himself and impose that love upon Hitchens. God cannot do so, being Love, He cannot act contrary to love, and it is important that we understand that.

Okay then – specifically – tell me how you would offer a prayer to God for him. And how does that differ from, say, someone who has left the church but maybe not left God?

One could simply pray that God be who He is — Love and Truth — and that He act accordingly. One could pray that God be there for him, that God, who is Divine Mercy, be merciful and loving and compassionate.

I would suppose He can be compassionate (from the Latin “to suffer with”) with or without Hitchens’ consent, but implicit in that prayer is our understanding that love and mercy, from the Latin miserere, meaning to allievate misery, cannot be imposed. Those who have chosen Hell over Him must be respected in that choice. Of course, it is still not yet a definitive choice for Hitchens, but it is his choice to make, not ours.

Or I suppose one could pray for whatever one wants to pray for, so long as there is the added provisos of “if it be Thy will Lord” and “if he is willing to accept it Lord . . .” That might accomplish the requisite need to respect the other’s free will.

I disagree that the other person’s feelings should be considered. Hitchens’ free will is not involved in this matter. Nobody is pointing a gun at him or conning him into anything.

If someone tells a non-believer that they don’t care what he thinks or wants, that they are going to “pray” for him even against his wishes and consent — does that sentiment cause him to want to draw closer to God? Or does it cause resentment and drive him away?

Respect for the other person -- which is a part of love -- requires that one consider his wishes. To be sure, "love" means seeking the good of the other, and not necessarily what makes him happy, but if going against his wishes leads him away from the good, then it obviously needs to be taken into account.

Consider the younger son who asked his father for his inheritence and then left home. What did the father do? He gave the son his interitence and let him go. He did not bind the son in chains, he did not lock him in his room. And the father did not go after him and drag him back home. Rather, the father respected his son's decision.

Had the older son implored their father to go after his brother and forcibly try to bring him home, it may have only served to set the younger son permanently against their father.

Sorry, I think you are over-thinking this one. We should not have to think twice about this one: pray for Hitchens, and trust God’s wisdom.

Ours is not an unthinking Faith. Rather, ours is a Faith that seeks understanding, that seeks to know the Logos.

Believer #1: “I’ll pray for you.”
Nonbeliever: “What does that mean?”
Believer #2: “Yeah, I’m curious too. What does that mean?”
Believer #1: "It means . . . um . . ."

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” 1 Pet. 3:15. Furthermore, we should be ready to give ourselves a reason for our hope, for our faith.

It is not enough to simply hear Jesus say, “love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you.”

We should ask “What does that mean?” Before praying, we should actually think about what it is we are praying for and why. We should think about what “love” is, what it means.

As set out in the prior post and above, I submit that “love” is not self-centered; it is not merely a matter of what we do. We MUST consider the other person. We cannot simply stop at (1) ourselves, we must also take into account (2) the other, in this case, the non-believing if not anti-believing Hitchens. But that brings into our consideration (3) as well — what to pray for and how and why.

Maybe the first prayer of petition we offer should be for ourselves, to ask for the grace to understand how best to love, how best to simultaneously offer up prayers on behalf of another and still respect them as a person, that is, respecting their freedom to reject us and our love expressed in prayer.

But we cannot, I further submit, not even bother to think about such things.
.

Love Your Enemy, Pray for Those Who Persecute You

Today, the Anchoress raises again The Hitchens/Prayer Debate. Recently, Christopher Hitchens has learned that he has cancer of the esophagus. Now, Hitchens is a writer who is not so much an atheist as he is an antitheist, he does not simply not believe, he attacks the belief and believers, and often disingenuously so. Nevertheless, we are called to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. On that issue of whether to pray for Hitchens or not, the Anchoress writes:

It seems the New York Times has noticed the debate as to whether people of faith should pray for Christopher Hitchens. I like this; it reflects my feelings, exactly:

Jeffrey Goldberg, a colleague of Hitchens’s at The Atlantic Monthly, consulted the rabbinical authorities and decided that prayer was O.K. On his blog, Goldberg quoted the advice of David Wolpe, a Los Angeles rabbi who has publicly debated Hitchens on a number of occasions: “I would say it is appropriate and even mandatory to do what one can for another who is sick; and if you believe that praying helps, to pray. It is in any case an expression of one’s deep hopes. So yes, I will pray for him, but I will not insult him by asking or implying that he should be grateful for my prayers.”

The Anchoress wrote on this earlier, Hitchens' Challenge, where she said that she had been called to pray for him, and her post generated a lot of comments, including some opposition.

So, to pray or not to pray? What should one do?

The New York Times story notes, "While Hitchens himself doesn’t seem to have issued any official directives, prayers have rolled in from [the Anchoress] Elizabeth Scalia (no relation to the Supreme Court justice) at First Things, Greg Kandra at The Deacon’s Bench and Pat Archbold at The National Catholic Register."

“While Hitchens himself doesn’t seem to have issued any official directives . . .”

This is the real sticking point.

There are at least three points or perspectives, all of which need to be considered, in answering this question –

(1) Us, the one potentially offering the prayer. That is, do we have a moral obligation or permission to pray (or to not pray)?
(2) Hitchens (or any other person for whom it is to be offered). Is the prayer welcome or unwelcome? Is he receptive or at least neutral, or is he adamately opposed?
(3) The content of the prayer. Just exactly what does one pray for? His physical health, his spiritual health, his conversion?

We are obligated in faith to be charitable toward Hitchens, i.e. to love him, as we love ourselves and as Jesus loves us. BUT, part of love is respecting the free will of the other person. Love, even when expressed by prayer, cannot be forced upon the other against his will. The Samaritan dragging the wounded man out of the ditch when the man demands to be left alone is not “good”; what he does is an act of violence, not charity. Not even God forces His love upon people.

Hence the dillema. Does our prayer end up being a true act of love or an act of unlove against the will of the person? It depends.

Of course, the Samaritan can both love the man in the ditch and still respect his will by doing something else, call 911 perhaps, and let the EMTs come and offer their assistance. Perhaps the man will accept it then.

So, we have an obligation to love Hitchens. The question is how? For many people, we might in good faith and conscience simply assume that our prayers are welcomed. And since Hitchens has not publicly said “no,” perhaps we might assume the same for him, but we might be presuming too much. Which get us to (3) the content of the prayer.

Just exactly what do we or should we pray for in the case of Hitchens? If he welcomes prayer, then we have no problem, we can pray all out for whatever good thing we might want.

But if he does not welcome prayer, what then? We can still be charitable, and still pray, but we would seem to be limited in what we pray for, or at the very least, would need to make the petition conditional (e.g. “if he is willing to accept it Lord . . .”). We cannot go so far as to drag him out of the ditch and pour oil on him against his wishes, but we can call 911. We can stand by, ready to assist if he later wants it. We can tell him that lodging is available to him when and if he is willing to accept it.

It is not as easy a moral question as it might seem. It would be a lot easier if all we had to consider was (1) us. But (2) and (3) are factors we must consider as well.

The one thing that we CANNOT do is reflexively and arbitrarily say, “to hell with Hitchens, he’s only getting what he deserves.”
.

A Prayer for Haiti

We entrust the people of Haiti to you, O Lord,
knowing that you do not take the life of your faithful,
but transform it and, at the very moment in which
the dwelling of our exile on this earth is destroyed,
you are concerned with preparing for it an eternal
and immortal dwelling place in Paradise.

Holy Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,
hear the cry of pain and of hope
that is raised by the Haitian community
harshly tried by the earthquake!
It is the silent cry of the blood of mothers, fathers, young people,
and also of tiny innocents which rises from the land.
They have been torn from the love of their dear ones.

May you welcome them all in your peace, Lord,
who are God-with-us,
Love who can give us life without end.
We are in need of you and your power,
for in the face of death, we feel small and frail.

We pray you, help us, because your support alone
can raise us and lead us to set out together anew on the path of life,
holding one another trustingly by the hand.

We ask this of you through Jesus Christ, Our Saviour,
in whom shines out the hope of blessed resurrection. Amen!

--(adapted from a prayer by Pope Benedict for the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake)
.

Prayer and Baby Jesus

Law professor Ann Althouse blogs today about prayer, specifically commenting on (a) a mother who tweeted to followers to pray for her son who had fallen into the pool and later died, and (b) a couple of contestants on Survivor who had "prayed" to God for victory in some stupid game involving coconuts.

They started praying to God for victory. Like God should pay attention to whether coconuts are falling. I know Jesus said that God pays attention to every sparrow that falls, but he said nothing about coconuts. Or who wins on "Survivor." . . .
Why would God help you win games? And, for that matter, why would God save a dying boy based on whether he had someone who knew he was dying and thought prayer might help? Why wouldn't He be irritated that you imagine him making decisions like that?

With respect to the Survivor contestants, and a comment that "God answers every prayer - it’s just that sometimes we don't like the answer," I responded:

Regarding inappropriate "prayer" by idiots who cause scandal by their coconut idiocy while claiming to be Christian --

Notwithstanding the widespread assertion that God listens to and answers every prayer, but sometimes says "no" -- actually, sometimes He does pay no attention. God is under no obligation to listen to or answer a "prayer" that borders on being blasphemous by being so improper and inappropriate. Consider what happened when Herod effectively prayed that Jesus perform tricks for him --

"When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see Him. From what he had heard about Him, he hoped to see Him perform some miracle. He plied Him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer." -- Luke 23:8-9

Jesus, that is, God, gave Herod the attention he deserved -- none.

Even when the person praying is doing so respectfully, humbly, and in good faith, God sometimes purposely does not answer. In the case of one making a good faith prayer, He may listen, but He might not respond, at least not right away. We have only to look at not a few of the great saints who have experienced the "dark night of the soul" to understand this. Sometimes, God will withdraw. You may call out, "God? Are you there?" And receive nothing but silence in return. It does not mean that God has abandoned you. Sometimes, He will withdraw so that you might go looking for Him.

With respect to the mother whose son tragically died, and in response to the bigger question in the comments as to the efficacy of prayer, "Where does prayer fit in? Can God change things on the fly?" I responded:

Regarding prayer for the life or health, etc., of another person --

No, prayer has no effect, and
Yes, prayer does have an effect.

(1) On the one hand, God is going to do what He is going to do, such that He does not change His mind, but that is because, being eternal, He has already done it. God exists outside of time, so that whatever might happen in our future has already happened for Him. All of human time is in God's present. One consequence of that is that Jesus was not simply crucified 2000 years ago, rather, He is perpetually hanging on the Cross. Another consequence is that He knows what will happen because it has already happened.

Moreover, God being perfect, does not make mistakes. To change one's mind is to say, to some extent that one was wrong before.

So, in these senses, prayer does not lead to God to do something, like save someone's life, if He was not going to already do it.

(2) On the other hand, prayer does have an effect because God made us as social beings, He made us to exist, not in isolation, not in individualistic solitude, but in communion -- in communion not only with Him, but if each of us is one with Him, we are necessarily one with each other. Although God, and God alone, provides us salvation (in Christ), and although He is all-powerful, dependent upon none, He has chosen to need the assistance of humanity to accomplish the work of salvation. God has chosen not to do it all by Himself -- He wants our help. He wants us to participate in saving others by, among other things, praying for them, which has the transcendent effect of joining all the faithful together as one in communion with God.

Indeed, in these days before Christmas, we see that God has very much chosen to need the help and participation of humanity in saving others. We see this in the very fact that He depended upon Mary for His very life, and depended upon her and Joseph to raise Jesus.

In like way, God, that is to say, Jesus Christ, needs our help as well. The Jesus who saves by the Cross and Resurrection is always the Baby Jesus as well. The Baby Jesus who requires us to help Him.

Prayer for other people helps Him. Not because He needs our help, but because He wants our help. He wants that help, He wants us to love one another and care about the welfare of one another.

So, yes, pray for others.

UPDATE (8 p.m.)

Objection
Jan: are you implying by what you say in comment number 2, that we are only to pray as an academic exercise? What's the point in praying for someone/something if there is no chance for the outcome we desire?
It almost seems as though you are introducing 'fate' into the mix. Doesn't our free will have anything to do with this besides prompting us to be 'good,' day to day? Again, why pray for something that has already been decided?

Response
No, prayer is not at all an academic exercise. God might do X only because we have prayed for X. However, being eternal, God already knows what happens before it happens. So, He knew not only what He was going to do, He already knew that we would pray for X. If we didn't pray for X, the God might not have done X, but He knows that too before we pray it. Either way, God already knowing what we are going to do before we do it doesn't detract from our free choice of the will.

A similar discussion was held at Commonweal some time back. As I said there:

If you pray for a sick person, does that move God to heal him or her, or is that something that He would have done anyway? Does prayer have any real effect on God?

Yes and no.

No. It does not have any real effect on what God is going to do in the sense that, being timeless, God already knows what He is going to do (from the human temporal perspective) and, indeed, has already done (from God’s out-of-time perspective). However, God not only knows what He is going to do before you pray for it, He also knows that you are going to make that prayer (or not). Thus –

Yes. God already knowing that you are going to make that prayer before He does what He is going to do does indeed have an effect on what does. If you do not make the prayer, as you might if reality were something other than what it is, which He would already know before you do not do it, then He might very well not do what He might have done had the prayer been made. With the prayer for the sick, which He already knows, He heals. However, if there were “an alternate reality” where the prayer is not made, He would not.

Being eternal and transcendent of time, so that everything that has ever happened and ever will happen in the human timeline is in God’s present, all of time being a singularity, the fact that He already knows and has already done it does not mean that what we have prayed for did not play a factor in whether it was done or not.

Whether God has in fact intervened in a given situation and altered what would have happened if He had not intervened is ultimately a matter of faith. It cannot be submitted to the scientific method. God cannot be put under the microscope. Either one believes that a healing was miraculous or he doesn’t. “All I know is that I was blind, and now I see.”

Consider the matter of grace.

Grace is a gift. But the gift of grace from God is not an action. It is a transaction. God does not unilaterally confer grace upon someone. That would be an imposition contrary to love.

Rather, for grace to be conferred, (1) you must ask God for it and, once offered, (2) you must accept the gift. If you don’t ask and you don’t accept, you ain’t getting it. It is a two-way street, a bi-lateral communication. Even if only in a de minimus manner, if that is all you are capable of at that time, you must ask or otherwise indicate your willingness to accept if offered.

There are conditions precedent to some of God’s actions. You must ask and/or accept before He will do it. It is not a case of God merely doing what He would have done anyway. Without your doing that condition precedent, He would not have done it, even if He does know what the ultimate outcome is before it happens. God already knew that Mary would say “yes,” but that does not mean that her “yes” was not required before the Holy Spirit would come upon her.

The real difficulty here, or rather, the root difficulty here, it seems to me, is not the matter of free will or the matter of God's will, but the mystery of the eternal God. In the area of prayer, we run smack dab into the mystery of eternity.

We live in linear time and space. On the other hand, God lives in eternity. For Him, time is not linear. Rather, for Him, all time is now. All time is one. He is not billions of years old, even though the universe is billions of years old. Rather, God is ever new.

It is much easier to comprehend Jesus, who entered into human history, who entered into human time. For Jesus, while He was on earth, there was a yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And He subjected Himself to the limitations of humanity. He could "change" His mind in the temporal sense. He could be surprised. At the "same time," when He wanted to, He could access His divinity so as to know what was going to happen before it happened, as He apparently did in the case of the betrayal by Judas. But even though He knew what Judas was going to do, still Judas had the free will to do it or to not do it.

Even if we were to take God out of the picture and look at it from a purely secular scientific perspective, temporal mechanics will end up hurting your head. We can grasp a little of it, and it might make a little bit of sense, but much of it we simply need to acknowledge and move on. Time is a mystery. Reality is a mystery. And God is the biggest mystery of all.

Suffice to say, getting back to the main point -- Baby Jesus. God doesn't need our help, but He wants our help. He has chosen to depend upon us, including in the work of salvation. He has chosen to make this a group effort. Or, if you will, a family effort. The Almighty does not need our help, but He asks for it anyway. And if we do not provide that help, it isn't going to be done. That is one of the main points of the Sacrament of Confirmation.

If Mary didn't help God; if Mary didn't say "yes" and carry Jesus in her womb, and raise Him and teach Him and feed Him and clothe Him and shelter Him, the salvation of the world would have never come. God chose to need her. God chooses to need us. If we do not do things like pray, it might not get done. That God already knows what we will do and what He will do does not detract from that. We need to help. We need to pray.
.

"Almighty and Merciful God"

(note - Unlike most public homilies and addresses delivered by Pope Benedict, the following homily was given extemporaneously due to the Holy Father's inability to write while his hand and arm are in a cast)

Vespers Concluding Prayer -

Almighty and merciful God, by your will Christ your Son suffered for the salvation of the whole world. Grant that your people may offer themselves as a living sacrifice to you and be filled to overflowing with your love.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

Homily of Pope Benedict XVI
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta in Aosta, Italy
Vespers, July 24, 2009

Excellency,
Dear brothers and sisters,

I wish first of all to say "Thank you," Your Excellency, for the words with which you have introduced me to the great history of this cathedral. You have made me feel that we pray here, not only at this moment, but that I pray with [the faithful of] past centuries in this beautiful church. And thanks to all of you who have come to pray with me and to make visible this network of prayer that links us all and always.

In this brief homily, I wish to say a few words about the prayer with which these Vespers conclude, because I think that in this passage, from the Letter of the Romans, prayer is interpreted and transformed.

The prayer from Romans has two parts: an addresss - a heading, we might say - and then, the prayer itself, made up of two requests.

Let us start with the address, which itself has two parts: it concretizes the "you" with whom we talk in prayer, so we can better knock at the door of God's heart. In the Italian text, we read simply: "Merciful Father" The Latin text is more ample - "Almighty and merciful God."

In my recent encyclical [Caritas in Veritate], I have tried to show the priority of God both in our personal life, as well as in the life of history, of society, of the world. Certainly, choosing God is something profoundly personal, and the person is a being-in-relationship. If the fundamental relationship - the relation with God - is not there, if it is not lived, then all of man's other relationships cannot find their correct form. And this goes likewise for society, for mankind as such.

If God is missing, if one does without God, if God is absent, then there is no compass to show the entirety of all relationships that can make us find the way, the orientation in which one must proceed. God - we must bring back to the world the reality of God, make Him known, and make Him present.

But how are we to know God?

In the ad-limina visits, when I speak with the bishops where traditional relgions still exist - above all in Africa, but also in Asia and Latin America - these religions have many details that are diverse from one another of course, but they also have common elements. All know that there is a God, one God, that "God" is a word in the singular, that the gods are not God, that there is God, the God.

But at the same time, this God seems absent, very distant, who does not seem to come into our daily life - He is hidden, we do not know His face. And so, religions concern themselves mostly with things, powers that are nearer, spirits, ancestors, etc. - since God Himself is too distant, one must deal instead with these powers closer to hand.

The act of evangelization consists precisely in the fact that it brings that "distant" God closer. God is no longer distant but close, so that this "known unknown" can now make Himself known, He reveals Himself, the veil over Him disappears, and He shows His face. And because God is near, we can know Him, He shows us His face, He enters into our daily life. We no longer have to deal with other "powers" because He is the true power. He is the Almighty.

I do not know why they omitted the word "almighty" in the Italian text. The truth is we all feel somewhat threatened by omnipotence - it would seem to limit our freedom, it seems a bit too strong. But we should learn that the omnipotence of God is not arbitrary power, because God is Goodness, He is the Truth. God can do everything, but He cannot act against what is good, He cannot act against the truth, He cannot act against love and against freedom, because He Himself is goodness, He is Love, He is true freedom. So, everything that He does can never be against truth, love and freedom.

On the contrary - He, God, is the custodian of our freedom, of love and of truth. The eye that sees us is not an evil eye that keeps us under surveillance - it is the presence of a love which will never abandon us and which gives us the certainty that it is good that we exist, it is good to live. He is the eye of love who gives us the space to live.

"Almighty and merciful God." This text from the Letter to the Romans is linked with a passage from the Book of Wisdom, which says: "You, God, show us your omnipotence in forgiveness and mercy." The peak of God's power is mercy, it is forgiveness.

In the world concept of power today, we think of someone with large properties, who has something to say about the economy because he can dispose of capital to influence the world through the market. Or we think of someone who has military might, who can threaten. Stalin's question, "How many divisions has the Pope?" still characterizes the average idea of power.

And theirs is power that can be dangerous, that can threaten, that can destroy, that holds so many things of the world in its hands. But Revelation tells us it is not so. True power is the power of grace, the power of mercy. In His mercy, God shows His true power.

Thus, the second part of this prayer's address says, "You have redeemed the world with the Passion, with the suffering of your Son."

God suffered, through His Son, with us. This is the peak of His power - that He is capable of suffering with us. That is how He shows us the true divine power - that He wished to suffer with us, and that He will never leave us alone in our suffering. God, in His Son, had suffered with us and is therefore close to us in our suffering.

Nonetheless, the difficult question remains, one that I cannot now interpret amply: Why was it necessary to suffer in order to save the world?

It was necessary because there exists an ocean of evil in the world, an ocean of injustice, of hatred, of violence. And all the victims of hatred and injustice have the right to justice. God could not ignore the cry of those who suffered and who had been oppressed by injustice.

To forgive is not to ignore but to transform, so God had to enter into this world to oppose this ocean of injustice, much more vast than that of goodness and love. That explains the Cross, and from that moment, against that ocean of evil, there now exists an infinite river that will always be greater than all the injustices of the world, a river of goodness, of truth and of love.

God forgives, transforming the world. He enters our world so that there can be a power against evil in that river of goodness, which is always greater than all the evil that can ever exist.

The address to God is also an address to ourselves: God invites us to place ourselves on His side, to leave that ocean of evil, of hate, of violence, of selfishness, and to identify ourselves with the river of His love, to enter into it.

And this is the request contained in the first part of the prayer: "Grant that your Church may offer itself to you as a living and holy sacrifice."

This appeal, addressed to God, also concerns us. It refers to two passages in the Letter to the Romans. In 12:1, Paul says: "We ourselves should become a living sacrifice."

We ourselves, with all our being, should become adoration, sacrifice. We should restore our world to God and thus transform the world.

And in Chapter 15, Paul describes the apostolate as priesthood. The function of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it becomes a living host, it becomes liturgy. That liturgy is not just something alongside the realities of the world, but that the world itself may become a living host, it becomes liturgy. It is the great vision that Teilhard de Chardin later had, that in the end, we would have a true cosmic liturgy, when the world becomes a living host.

Let us pray to the Lord that He may help us to be priests in this sense of helping to transform the world, in the adoration of God, and begin by transforming ourselves. So that our life may speak of God, that our life becomes liturgy, an announcement of God, the gate through which a distant God becomes the God who is near, and that we truly give ourselves to God.

Then comes the second appeal of the prayer: "Grant that your people may always experience the fullness of your love."

In the Latin text it says, "Satiate us with your love." Thus, the text refers to the psalm which we sang, "Open your hand and satiate the hunger of every living being." (144(145):16)

How much hunger there is on earth! Hunger for bread in so many parts of the world - and Your Excellency has spoken of suffering among families here - hunger for justice, hunger for love.

With this prayer, we ask God, "Open your hand and truly satiate the hunger of every living being. Satiate our hunger for the truth, and for your love." So may it be.

Amen.
.

Palm Sunday 2009

Mark 11:1-10

When Jesus and His disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples and said to them,

Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, "Why are you doing this?" reply, "The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once."

So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And He sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding Him as well as those following kept crying out:

Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!

Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Palm Sunday Mass, Piazza San Pietro
World Youth Day, April 5, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Young People!

Jesus went up to Jerusalem for Passover along with a growing crowd of pilgrims. On the last stage of the journey, He had cured the blind Bartimaeus, who had addressed Him as Son of David, asking for mercy. Now -- being able to see -- with gratitude He joined the pilgrims. When, at the gates of Jerusalem, Jesus mounts a donkey, the animal symbol of Davidic royalty, joyous certainty erupts among the pilgrims: It is he, the Son of David! Thus they greet Jesus with the messianic acclamation: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," and add: "Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark 11:9).

We do not know exactly what the enthusiastic pilgrims imagined the coming kingdom of David to be. But we, have we truly understood the message of the Jesus, Son of David? Have we understood what the kingdom is that He spoke of when He was interrogated by Pilate? Do we understand what it means that this kingdom is not of this world? Or would we like it to be of this world?

St. John, in his Gospel, after the account of the entrance into Jerusalem, reports a series of words of Jesus, in which He explains the essentials of this new type of kingdom. In a first reading of these texts, we can distinguish three different images of the kingdom in which the same mystery is always reflected in a different way.

John first of all reports that, among the pilgrims who "wanted to worship God" during the feast, there were also some Greeks (cf. 12:20). Let us note the fact that the true objective of these pilgrims was to worship God. This corresponds perfectly to what Jesus said on the occasion of the purification of the Temple: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Mark 11:17). The true scope of the pilgrimage must be that of encountering God, to worship Him, and, in this way, put the fundamental relationship of our life in right order.

The Greeks are persons in search of God, they are on a journey toward God with their lives. Now, with the help of two Greek-speaking apostles, Philip and Andrew, they send this request to the Lord: "We want to see Jesus" (John 12:21). This is essential. Dear friends, that is why we are gathered here together: We want to see Jesus. Millions of young people went to Sydney last year for this purpose. Certainly they had many expectations about this pilgrimage. But the main objective was this: We want to see Jesus.

What did Jesus say in regard to this request at that time? From the Gospel, it is not clear whether there was a meeting between Jesus and those Greeks. Jesus' gaze reaches far higher: "If the grain of wheat falls to the ground and does not die, it will remain alone; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit" (John 12:24). This means that, right now, a more or less brief discussion with a few persons, who will then return home, is not important.

As a grain of wheat, dead and risen in a totally new way that goes beyond the limits of the moment, He will go out to meet the world and the Greeks. Through the Resurrection, Jesus passes beyond the limits of space and time. As the Risen One, He is on a journey toward the vastness of the world and history. Indeed, as the Risen One, He goes to the Greeks and speaks with them, He manifests Himself to them in such a way that they, the ones who are faraway, draw near and, precisely in their language, in their culture, His word will be carried forward in a new way and understood in a new way -- His kingdom comes.

We can thus recognize two essential characteristics of this kingdom. The first is that this kingdom passes through the Cross. Because Jesus gives Himself totally, He can, as the Risen One, belong to everyone and make Himself present to all. In the Holy Eucharist, we receive the fruit of the dead grain of wheat, the multiplication of the loaves that continues to the end of the world and in all times.

The second characteristic is that His kingdom is universal. It fulfills the ancient hope of Israel: this reign of David knows no more borders. It extends "from sea to sea" -- as the prophet Zachariah says (9:10) -- that is, it embraces the whole world. This, however, is only possible because it is not a political kingdom, but is based solely on the free adhesion of love -- a love that, for its part, answers to the love of Jesus Christ that has given itself for all.

I think that we must always be learning both things -- first the universality, the catholicity. It means that no one can posit himself as absolute, his culture, his time and his world. This means that we all welcome each other, renouncing something of ourselves. Universality includes the mystery of the Cross -- the overcoming of ourselves, obedience toward the universal word of Jesus Christ in the universal Church. Universality is always an overcoming of ourselves, a renunciation of something that is ours. Universality and the Cross go together. Only in this way can peace be created.

The saying about the dead grain of wheat is part of Jesus' answer to the Greeks, it is His answer. Then, however, He formulates once again the fundamental law of human existence: "He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will save it for eternal life" (John 12:25).

He who wants to have his life for himself, live only for himself, squeeze out everything for himself and exploit all the possibilities -- he is the one who loses his life. It becomes boring and empty. Only in abandoning ourselves, only in the disinterested gift of the "I" in favor of the "Thou," only in the "Yes" to the greater life, precisely the life of God, does our life too become full and more spacious. Thus, this fundamental principle that the Lord establishes is, in the final analysis, simply identical with the principle of love.

Love, in fact, means leaving yourself behind, giving yourself, not wanting to hold on to yourself, but becoming free from yourself: not getting preoccupied with yourself -- what will become of me -- but looking ahead, toward the other - toward God and the people whom He sends to me. It is this principle of love that defines man's journey, it is once again identical with the mystery of the Cross, with the mystery of death and resurrection that we encounter in Christ.

Dear friends, perhaps it is relatively easy to accept this grand fundamental vision of life. In concrete reality, however, it is not just a simple matter of recognizing a principle, but of living its truth, the truth of the Cross and the Resurrection. And for this, once again, just one big decision is not enough.

It is surely important, at some point, to dare to make a fundamental decision, to dare the great "Yes" that the Lord asks of us at a certain moment in our life. But the great "Yes" of the decisive moment in our life -- the "Yes" to the truth that the Lord places before us -- must then be daily reconquered in the everyday situations in which, again and again, we must abandon our "I," make ourselves available, when, at bottom, we just want to hang on to that "I."

Sacrifice, renunciation, also belongs to an upright life. He who permits himself a life without this ever-renewed gift of self, deceives people. There is no successful life without sacrifice. If I cast a retrospective glance on my own life, I must say that precisely those moments in which I said "Yes" to renunciation were the great and important moments of my life.

Finally, St. John also put Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Olives in a modified form in his composition for "Palm Sunday." There is first of all the statement, "My soul is troubled" (12:27). Here Jesus' fear appears, which is amply illustrated by the other evangelists -- His fear in the face of the power of death, in the face of the entire abyss of evil that He sees and into which He must descend. The Lord suffers our anxieties together with us, He accompanies us in the last anxiety until we come to the light.

Then there follow, in John, Jesus' two questions. The first is only expressed conditionally: "What will I say, 'Father, save me from this hour?'" (12:27). As a human being, Jesus also felt driven to ask that He be spared the terror of the passion. We too can pray in this way. We too can lament before the Lord like Job, present all our questions that arise in us in the face of the injustice in the world and the problems affect us personally. Before God, we must not take refuge in pious phrases, in a world of make-believe. Praying also means struggling with God, and like Jacob we can say to Him: "I will not let you go until you have given me a blessing!" (Genesis 32:37).

But then there is Jesus' second request: "Glorify your name!" (John 12:28). The Synoptic Gospels put this request in this way: "Not my will, but Your will be done!" (Luke 22:42). In the end, God's glory, His lordship, His will is always more important and more true than my thoughts and my will. And this is what is essential in our prayer and in our life: understanding this right order of reality, accepting it interiorly; trusting in God and believing that He is doing the right thing; understanding that His will is the truth and is love; understanding that my life will be a good life if I can learn how to conform to this order. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are the guarantee that we can truly entrust ourselves to God. It is in this way that His kingdom is realized.

Dear friends, at the end of this liturgy, the young people from Australia will give the World Youth Day Cross to the young people of Spain. The Cross is on its way from one side of the world to the other, from sea to sea. And we accompany it. Let us go forth with it along this road and, in this way, find our road.

When we touch the Cross, indeed, when we carry it, we touch the mystery of God, the mystery of Jesus Christ, the mystery that God so loved the world -- us -- that He gave His only-begotten Son for us (cf. John 3:16). We touch the marvelous mystery of God's love, the only truth that is really redemptive. But we also touch the fundamental law, the constitutive norm of our life, that is, that without the "Yes" of the Cross, without walking in communion with Christ day after day, life can never be a success.

The more that, for the love of the great truth and the great love -- for love of the truth and love of God -- we can make some sacrifice, the greater and richer our life will become. He who wants to keep his life for himself will lose it. He who gives his life away -- daily in small gestures, that are part of the great decision -- will find it. This is the exigent truth, a truth that is also deeply beautiful and liberating, in which we want to enter, step by step, on the Cross' journey over the continents. May the Lord bless this journey. Amen.
.