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When the darkness is closing in,

when we can’t see the way forward,

when we desperately need a rescue, a healing,

how, then, shall we pray?

Do we pray with confidence, having faith that God will perform miracles?

Do we pray with humility, submitting to the greater plan of God?

How, then, shall we pray?

When multitudes of prayers in all shapes and colors overflow the Scriptures,

when even looking toward the perfect Man produces a confusion of faith that moves mountains and nevertheless thy will be done,

how, then, shall we pray?

As my Papa used to say:

Well, I’ll tell you.

I don’t know.

Here is what I do know.

We are to pray.

We are to pray and in our praying we are to ask, beg even.

We are to ask and to continue asking, even if we do not get what we ask for.

We are to pray and ask and lament and wail and we can know beyond a doubt that at the very least, we are heard and we are loved.

Here is what I also know.

We have our brother, Jesus.

We have our brother, Jesus, praying for us as He sits at the right hand of the Father.

We have the Spirit of God.

We have the Spirit of God inside of us, praying along with us, taking every word and every desire too deep for words straight to the presence of God, advocating for us exactly as God wills.

How, then, shall we pray?

Perhaps after all it does not matter.

Perhaps as long as we have Jesus praying for us and the Holy Spirit praying with us, the only important thing is that

we pray.

Peace be with you as you plead before our ever loving Father.

Art Credits: The Pathway to Life by  Thomas De Witt Talmage; Prayer by Antonio Parreiras; Prayer by László Mednyánszky; Axentowicz the Anchorite by Teodor Axentowicz; Men, Women, and Children Praying by H. Wood; Children at Prayer by Antoine Édouard Joseph Moulinet