Thursday March 10, 2022
Matthew’s Gospel today has Jesus promising us that if we ask, we will receive. Queen Esther, in the first reading, implores God to deliver her people from the hand of the enemy, and the Psalm praises God for hearing our prayers and building up strength up within us. While thinking about these readings I was reminded of the long dead pastor of my youth, Fr. Joseph Vollmer. I remember he visited my classroom one day for religious education. I think I was a first grader. He talked to us about prayer. Fr. Vollmer told us to pray three times for what we wanted. We were to tell God what we were going to pray for, then pray of it, and then tell God what we prayed for (sounds like the first lesson in preparing a speech). His thesis was that if we said it three times, that would give us a chance to know if it was really worth praying for in the first place. That is a pretty profound idea for 7-year-olds to grasp. Honestly, I think it is still profound. Fr. Vollmer was right. We’ve already been warned this Lent about babbling, and now we are warned to be careful what we pray for because we might just get it. Jesus gives us the benefit of the doubt saying that we know what is good already. I’m glad he has such confidence in me! All this brings us back to “The Lord’s Prayer”. It has everything we need. So, if I am really as good as Jesus believes, then I can pray that and all prayer in confidence that what I am requesting is what is needed. Fr. Vollmer was a wise man, God rest his soul.