How often do we say to someone who is going through a hard time, "hang-in-there" or how often have we said those words to ourselves when we were going through a bad time. I'm sure the words "hang-in-there" has been spoken a billion + times since Sept 11th.

When it comes to prayer, especially prayer for some particular intention all of us are called to "hang-in-there". That is the message spoken to us in all three readings this Sunday.

Moses - Prayer Warrior

In the first reading, the Israelites, led by Moses and Joshua, are making their way through the desert heading for the Promised Land. As they journey, they are often attacked. In today's reading, their enemy is Amalek and his army. Moses orders Joshua to take some men to battle the Amalekites. While the army is fighting, Moses goes to a hill from where he can see the battle and where he also prays for victory. When Moses persevered in prayer all went well for his people, but when he grew tired of praying the battle went against them. We also, notice in the story that Moses had Aaron and Hur to support him in prayer.

This reading is a great story about the importance of backing up prayer with action or supporting our action with prayer. The following story told by Fr. Flor McCarthy helps to underline the importance of combining prayer with action and action with prayer.

Three men were trapped in a dark cellar which had no doors or windows. How did they react to their predicament?

The first was a writer by the name of George. He had no faith. He just sat there cursing the darkness. "There's nothing we can do," he said despairingly. "We might as well resign ourselves to our fate."

The second was Peter, who was a very religious man. He prayed for a long time. When he had finished, he sat back and waited for a miracle.

The third man was a bricklayer by the name of Ivan. He was quite religious in his own way. But he was also a very practical man. He had a small chisel in his pocket. With the light of a match he found a small stone. Using this as a hammer he began to chip away at the wall.

The work was slow, monotonous and extremely tiring. He got dust in his eyes, and blisters on his hands. Neither of the other two showed any inclination to help him. George sat in one corner smoking. Peter sat in another corner praying. From time to time Ivan too prayed: "Dear God, I believe that with your help we can make it out of here. So help us now."

Finally, after hours of painful work, a big stone dislodged itself and light streamed in from next door. He began to shout for joy, praising and thanking God at the same time. His two companions helped him to widen the hole, and eventually all three crawled through and were free.

Here we see three different attitudes to prayer. For George it was a waste of time. Since he had no faith, his attitude was logical. If you don't believe in God, who can you pray to? For Peter, prayer was a substitute for action. So, once he had prayed, he sat back and waited for God to come to his rescue. A lot of our prayer is like that, especially our prayer on behalf of others. It's just words, and excuse for doing nothing.

Ivan believed in prayer, not however as a substitute for action, but as a spur to action. Having prayed, he immediately took whatever action he could. His prayer served the purpose of keeping up his courage and hope. It also gave him a sense of God's nearness, and an assurance that God had not abandoned him. He drew great strength from this.

If we look at the First Reading we will see Ivan's view of prayer in action. On their journey to the Promised Land, the Israelites were set upon by the Amalekites. In their struggle they relied on the prayer of Moses, not as an excuse for doing nothing, but as a spur to action. And Jesus urges us to the Gospel to pray continually and never lose heart.

Prayer does make a difference. It sustains us. Those who pray never lose heart. When we turn our thoughts to God, we feel a new strength in our soul, in our entire being. "Without divine assistance I cannot succeed; with it I cannot fail." (Abraham Lincoln)

I believe that we can safely say that sometimes the reason God is not answering our prayer is that our prayer is not backed up with action. Conversely, we can say that one reason God does not bless our action is that it is not supported by prayer. In the above story, Ivan beautifully combines action with prayer.

Timothy- Preacher of the Word

In the second reading, Paul is exhorting Timothy to persevere in being faithful to scripture and to the ministry of teaching and preaching. Paul uses powerful and strong words when addressing Timothy.

I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus. . .
to proclaim the Word be persistent whether it is
convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage
through all patience and teaching.

A Relentless Widow

In the Gospel, a little powerless widow is seeking justice from a godless, incorrupt judge. In the end, the judge, judges in favor of the woman not because he cares about her, but because he wants to get her off his back. James Gaffney commenting on this story remarks: "Her one resource is that which has often succeeded. When all else failed in stagnate bureaucracies and lazy tribunals of both church and state-sheer relentlessness!"

Never Say "Can't"

Commenting on this story, Patricia Sanchez writes:

Most of us probably know that, among many other useful inventions, Thomas A. Edison was also responsible for both the phonograph and the electric light bulb, but few of us may be aware of the difficulties he experienced in the process. For example, in an effort to make the phonograph reproduce an aspirated sound, he worked from 18 to 20 hours a day for seven months on a single word. Nor was Edison deterred when his first attempts to find a suitable filament for the light bulb. He sent people to China, Japan, South America, Jamaica, Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) and Burma (present day Myanmar) in search of special fibers or grasses, all of which he tested in his laboratory. After 13 months of failures, many days of which he went without food or rest, Edison managed to insert a carbonized cotton thread into a vacuum sealed bulb and turn on the current. The resulting glow should be credited to his perseverance as much as to his ingenuity.

"Can't," a popular word with some children as well as some adults. Edison did not say "can't," nor did Moses, Timothy or the widow. Today, all disciples of Jesus are challenged to purge "can't" from their vocabulary and replace it with prayerful, faith-filled perseverance. Concerning the word persistence, Harry Truman once said: Nothing in the world can take its place. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with great talent. Genius will not’ unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence, determination alone are paramount."

Monica, Model of Persistent Prayer

One of the best known examples of persistent prayer is St. Monica who prayed for many years for her brilliant but wayward son. In his wonderful book Prayer in Practice, Fr. Pat Collins C.M., writes about Monica's persistence in praying for Augustine.

Augustine was young, lustful and interested in heretical beliefs. She was so upset by his behavior that she would not even dine with him. In book nine of his Confessions, he tells us that his mother prayed from the heart with many tears, sometimes with her face pressed to the ground. He also informs us that during this period of fervent intercession she had a prophetic dream in which she saw a young man coming to her and standing by her. The dream helped her to persevere in prayer.

But nothing happened for nine years. In the meantime Monica continued to pray. She was a model of persistence in intercessory prayer. Augustine tells us, "All the time this chaste, devout, and prudent woman, a widow such as is close to your heart, never ceased to pray at all hours and to offer you the tears she shed for me. The dream had given new spirit to her hope, but she gave no rest to her sighs and her tears. Her prayers reached your presence and yet you left me to twist and turn in the dark." But nine years later, Monica's prayers were finally answered. One day Augustine heard a child skipping and singing, "take and read, take and read." When he looked at his open bible he read a passage from Rom 13:13-14: "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Augustine was converted. He says: "I went in to my mother and told her, to her great joy, how it had come about. She was filled with triumphant exultation." The impossible had actually happened; the professor had finally found his master. A short time later he was baptized by St. Ambrose in Milan.

The Mystery of Unanswered Prayer

Some of our prayers, it would seem go unanswered. Why? Really only God knows--the God who says in Isaiah, "my thoughts are not my thoughts nor are you ways my ways". (55:8). The following reflection by Fr. Basil Pennington may or may not help us as we struggle with what appears to be unanswered prayer. He writes:

God will give us whatever we want, asking in prayer--what we truly want, not what we say we want or even think we want. God listens to the heart, not to the lips. He knows, too, how limited is our understanding and knowledge. He sees our truest desires and knows how they can best be fulfilled. And this is what he grants. We may not see it at the moment, but we will in time. . . If good seems to be saying "No" to some prayers, it is because he is saying "Yes" to the deepest prayer of hour hearts.