“Please God” is usually how we start a conversation with God when life is going off the rails, and even the most lapsed Catholic will kneel and pray. I am certain that many of us when buying a lottery ticket for a big pot have prayed and promised God how much good we would do if we won. I know that most of us pray for God to bring healing when someone we love is sick and I know how angry we can be when God does not seem to answer our prayer. Why is my life so hard when others seem to have everything? Why did their loved one live and mine had to die? I think when we pray as children of our God, we sometimes forget that His plan is beyond our understanding. We know that if we acknowledge and trust His plan, we must also accept life “as is” with all its twists and turns and sometimes we even prefer to be angry with God and refuse to acknowledge His plan.

Jesus, the King of Kings, prayed constantly, He prayed privately, publicly, for us and for Himself. Jesus taught us a prayer and over two thousand years later it is recited every day across the world. He prayed for God to remove the cup but accepted what God had placed before Him. Did God not answer His Son’s prayer or did Jesus have to walk the path filled with suffering and pain. God’s plan for Jesus was to conquer death and in doing he had to suffer a horrific death and a crucifixion became the symbol of God’s love.

I often look back on my life and can see how my prayers were answered. It may not have come about the way I expected, nor did He answer my prayer the way I wanted, but it was answered in a way that I needed. I believe each of us can look back at a moment when we needed God the most, and because our prayer was not answered as asked, we felt abandoned. How often have we also asked, “my God my God why have You abandoned me?”

An illness takes control, and we pray to be physically healed and instead we find ourselves accepting the Eucharist and confessing our sins. The healing we needed was not the healing we thought. We pray for life not realizing that death is life eternal.

God sends us into this world to love Him and to be kind to each other and when we pray, we acknowledge our trust in Him. Look back some time and I know you will see that your prayers were answered in the way they had to be, all according to the plan.

God Bless each of you and pray often.

Andrej N. Lah