Monday of 33rd Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: Don’t allow your voice of prayer to go silent

Reading: Lk 18:35–43

“The voice of prayer is never silent, nor dies the strain of praise away” is a line from a beautiful old hymn for night prayers, meaning that our prayers and praises to God should never cease and can never be in vain.

The blind man in the gospel of today showed us how true the words of this old hymn are. He was blind and was only surviving by begging for help. Though the people helped him to recognize the presence of Jesus, they turned around to shut him up when he started praying to Jesus for help.

However, as we saw, the blind man never allowed the situation that surrounded him to silence his voice of prayer; instead, he persisted in his faith and was rewarded.

Dear friends, our world is full of things that exert negative force on us, things that challenge our faith in God, and things that often push people to look at prayers as wasted efforts. They come to us in many forms and shapes. Some of them are temptations, disappointments, depressions, sicknesses, death of loved ones, hardships, joblessness, ill-treatment, family problems, etc.

Many people have stopped praying on account of the severity of these problems. Some claimed they prayed to God in their moments of difficulty but received no response.

The gospel reading of today assures us that any voice of prayer that refuses to be silenced by difficulties will receive a positive answer from God.

So, dear friends, no matter how tough things are in your life, never allow your voice of prayer to go silent; never allow the difficult circumstances or negative forces hovering around you to silence your voice of prayer.

Fr. Isaac Chima.