Have you ever asked someone you know to pray for you? Maybe it is someone who you know from church, maybe you have asked a close friend or family member to pray for you to do well on a job interview. When you ask someone to pray for you or even when you submit a prayer request to your faith community there is trust. Trust that your prayer request will be lifted with faith in prayer and hope in God’s will that your petition may be answered. There is great power in prayer.
This trust is why we catholics call upon in faith the intercession of Saints, those who have gone before us and now enjoy eternal life in heaven. A common misconception is we Catholics pray to dead people. How far from the truth that is, but in reality we don’t see death as an end. We believe that our brothers and sisters in Christ are cheering us on praying for those of us on this side of the journey, as we walk on this earthly life. So just as you may ask your friend to pray for you in faith at times as an intercessor on your behalf to God, we call upon saints to do the exact same thing with the exact same faith and trust whether that soul is on earth petitioning for my cause or in heaven and trust that our good and gracious God will hear all prayers.
St. Therese of Lisieux, has been one of my favorite saints since childhood. I was drawn to her by her beauty and the images of her holding a bouquet of roses. How I have always loved roses! She was a beautiful example of a soul who truly trusted in God. After recently reading a beautiful book titled: The way of TRUST and LOVE by Jacques Philippe, I learned more about this beautiful saint! I was surprised to discover that she had a great love for St. John of the Cross. “She found nourishment in the writings of the great Carmelite Saint. Although the two of them seem very different from one another.” There was a great similarity between the two in certain aspects. “St. John says we can obtain everything from God if only we knew how to take hold of him by love. We must approach him in the right attitude-love-expressed mainly in humility and trust.”
To love and trust completely, takes great strength and faith. It is all part of the struggle of being human, my hope is that you never doubt God’s Love for you. To have no limitations to your trust in God is the path to a more intimate relationship with him. St. Therese loved this quotation from St. John of the Cross: “One obtains from God as much as he hopes for.” Why is it so hard for us to trust then? It is because we live in a damaged world with wounded people and fears, doubts and worry so easily creep into our hearts and minds no matter how unwarranted they may seem at times. Remember anything that makes you doubt God’s love is not of God.
“It is trust and nothing but trust that must lead us to Love.” In one of St. Therese’s letters she writes: “What offends Jesus, what wounds his heart, is lack of trust. God does not first expect of us that we be absolutely perfect (that will come little by little) but that we give him our trust-trust that has to be total.”
Trust that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and reflect on his love…As we become the image we reflect. Be an instrument of his love to those in your life. Let Jesus love you and know he will lead you to all the solutions to the troubles of your heart and the struggles in this life.