Today’s readings are about perseverance in prayer.  When I was thinking about the readings, I could not help but think about Perry Mason, who is the chair of our parish council, and also the head usher at the 9:30am Mass.

 

Perry has brought up to me several times these questions he calls “things to ponder.” Like, “you put something cold in a thermos, it keeps it cold.  You put something warm in a thermos, it keeps it warm. How does the thermos know? How do it know??”

 

Or the one that is more relevant for today, Perry says, “you know, God is always busy, and people are always praying, and like we are all at Mass, well don’t bother praying then, you gotta pray at the time when you’re gonna stand out, when he is not quite so busy. Set the alarm for 2:34am!”

 

He asks, “you’ve got something important to say, and you want to be heard - when do you pray to God at a time when He is listening just to you?”

 

I always get a kick out of that conversation, but the reality is that God wants to be bothered, at all times, by everyone all at once even! In our Gospel, “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” He wants us to pray always, always always, here at Mass, at 2:34am, and everything in between.

 

Like the widow in the parable, we must call out to God day and night, demonstrating our great need, but even more so demonstrating our great trust. Trust is the key in a loving relationship.

 

Now, some may also ask, “shouldn’t once be enough if God is all powerful?” That’s a fair question too. God is all powerful, but we are not.  We keep asking so that we can condition ourselves to see God as the source of all life and every blessing, recognizing Him as the only one who can answer our cries for help.

In the Christian life we need to grow in trust.  We need to recognize our utter dependence on God.  Jesus himself asks a question at the end of this Gospel saying, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” 

 

That is, as we progress technologically and make all of these advancements, will we just not need God anymore?  Will we become so independent that we lose all dependence on God, who created everything and gave us all the gifts and talents to begin with, to get where we are?

 

In my own attempt to grow in faith, to trust in God more and be more dependent on Him, I’ve been praying “The Surrender Novena” daily.  Most novenas have a start date with an end date, like this week, on Wednesday, it is recommended to start the St. Jude Novena nine days in advance of St. Jude’s Feast Day.  

 

People pray this “novena,” a word which is Latin for “nine,” so they pray that particular novena for “hopeless” causes, desperate situations, and grave illnesses. 

 

But this Surrender Novena is different, it has no prescribed start or end, so I pray it every day, and after I finish, I start again.  I take a post-it note and just move it down the card after I finish the day.  

 

I typically do this right before bed, however, when I have a problem in my day, any sort of issue, I try to pray the main prayer from the Surrender Novena, “O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything.”

 

It is an amazingly beautiful Novena, and I have been really blessed by it. Jesus just takes care of things for me when I trust Him and surrender everything to Him, so for a while now I have wanted to get it for all of you.  But they cost over $1 each.  And there are lots of you.

 

But after I read these readings last Sunday (I have to start preparing right away for next weekend) I decided it was time to pull the trigger. So late on Sunday night, I put in an $800 order for these Surrender Novena cards for all of you.

Now since I was gone the week before on retreat, I worked on Monday. And when I was in Monday morning, Dee Dee and Amanda asked me for money for these “Miscarriage Kits” for a ministry called “Behold Your Child” for families who have suffered pregnancy or infant loss.

 

This is actually an Archdiocese offering, and we would be providing these kits for not just our own parishioners, but everyone in the Dubuque area, so it was an unexpected expense that shouldn’t even be mine or our parishes, but here it was on Monday hitting my desk.  The Arch doesn't have it in their budget, we don’t have it in our budget, but here it is coming to me.

 

And at first I wanted to be stingy and say no, but then I decided “no this is a good thing, I’ll take care of it out of my own pocket.”  This is what I tend to do with things that aren't in the budget, I just take care of it. Receipts disappear.

 

Later in the afternoon I was in prayer and my phone rang, a area code I didn’t recognize so I thought if it is important, they’ll leave a message, and they did, it was a lady from this company (FullOfGraceUSA.com) that I had made this huge purchase through for the Surrender Novenas.  She said, “since you are a priest, you get 50% off of these cards, what should I do with your refund??”

 

Now this was a shock to me, because I have ordered these cards before, last Christmas I ordered about $100 worth and gave them away to family and friends, but I never got a call then!  But this time I did, so I called her back and said, “well credit it back on my card, and thank you very much!” So $390 came back to me.  

 

Then later that day, I made the purchase for those Miscarriage Kits, and guess how much it cost me?  Almost exactly $390!  So then I could see God’s hand in it, giving me the money when I needed it to work for His good, to do His will.

 

This is just one example of how the Lord has blessed me in times where I just surrendered my concerns to Him and trusted in His will.  I’ve had so many examples, and I believe you will experience those same blessings as well.  

So at this time I am going to ask the ushers to all come forward with these Novena cards and hand them out, there are two options, small and large.  I like the small, it’s about the size of my cell phone, but the print is small, so I ordered larger print ones also, so just indicate which size you would like when they come to your pew.

 

I’ll just give some closing thoughts while they do. Paul said in His letter to Timothy, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient.”  This again is the notion of praying always, right?

 

God wants to be bothered.  He isn’t like us where we can only listen to one or perhaps two people at once, no, He is God, He hears us all, no matter how many people that is at once.  Pray constantly. Bother Him. He actually appreciates it!

 

Prayer is really just communication with God.  He is accessible to us at any time.  God wants to be our best friend and He wants us to talk to Him, we just have to make the effort.  So pray always, and use the little prayer from the cards…

 

And I ask you that as Pastor, as the appointed head of this community, because I need you to pray, just like Moses needed Aaron and Hur to support his arms in that first reading, and they needed all of the troops to keep fighting.  It takes all of us, we are all in a spiritual battle for our souls and for the faith on the earth, we each need to do our part.

 

A surrender to God to take care of everything doesn’t mean a complacency which does nothing, we will still be required to do things, to step out in faith and trust.  

 

But that starts with prayer - persistent, patient and persevering prayer - whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether everyone is praying or nobody is praying, whether you feel like it or not, pray.

 

May God bless you abundantly as you learn to surrender your burdens to Him and put all of your trust in His loving providence.