Scripture:
Reflection:
God answers our prayers
Several years ago, I visited a friend in India. She had been married for several years. Both she and her husband wanted to have a child but were having trouble conceiving. They met with doctors and underwent the necessary treatments to no avail. Finally, the doctors told them that they had only a 15% chance of having a child. Finally, she gave herself totally to God and prayed desperately through the intercession of St. Antony. She prayed the novena continuously without fail. Finally, she was blessed with a baby boy and named him Antony.
In the first reading today we find a similar experience in the life of Hannah and her prayer for a child. In her desperation, she makes a vow to God that the child will be given over to the Lord for as long as he lives. God answers her prayers and blesses her with a son. She names him Samuel, “since she had asked the Lord for him”. Then, Hannah offers her son to God as promised.
God answers our prayers too. What the world can not do in one’s life, God often does in response to our prayers. Like the snow that melts away under the heat of the sun, so also do our worries and problems go away when we turn to God in prayer. Whenever we come to the Lord in faith and ask for his blessings, God works miracles and does wonders in our lives.
Fr. A. Nelson, C.P. is the incoming pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.