Sunday Homily 7-20 Led by the Spirit in our prayer

I would like to start today with our second reading. A great biblical scholar, Jesuit priest named Daniel Harrington, said chapter eight is the most important chapter for arguably the most important book of the bible (I think he was talking about its huge impact in Church history).

Today we hear about how our prayer is meant to be guided by the Holy Spirit. We must, as Pope John Paul II describes of himself in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, be led by the Spirit in our prayer for we do not know how to pray as we ought.

We groan with inexpressible groans when, for example, we think of the some 500 lives lost in two Malaysia airline flights, or the excessive injustices occurring perhaps a lot closer to home. Our pain and our looking to God for healing is a prayer, a request for the resurrection to be present anew in our world.

But the Spirit leads us in our prayer, or He should. Our prayer should be a lot more of the words “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” rather than “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.”

Getting to the Gospel parables, we can look simply at the power of Christian meditation: reflection on the mysterious truths of our faith and how they connect with our life.
This allows us to see our life with a spiritual vision: as God sees it.
With today's parable(s), for example, we can reflect on how our world is a mixture of good and evil, but at the end God's merciful judgment will be exacted upon each of us individually.
We can see our need for greater patience, perhaps as parents or with our friends.

The Blessed Mother Mary is a great example of this type of Christian prayer.  Many times the scriptures say that she "held all these things, reflecting upon them in her heart".  This is meditation and reflection.
As we draw closer to her during our 33 Days diocesan retreat, let us ask her to teach us to practice this prayer so that we can know the Holy Spirit's voice and let Him guide us throughout our days.