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Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.


Today's Gospel: John 16:23b-28

Some years ago, I was convicted by this passage and the witness of a friend who really lived it. When she prayed, she was intentional about asking the Father for what she needed through the name of Jesus.

Of course, we have the perfect example of this in the Mass, but I had not really taken this passage to heart and considered asking the Father through the name of Jesus in my personal prayer, at least not consistently or intentionally.

Part of me was hesitant because I didn’t want to seem like I was “working the system,” trying to use a fool-proof method for getting my prayers answered. But after praying this way for years now, I have to say that it’s been truly fruitful, in two ways particularly.

First, it has increased my gratitude for the gift of the Incarnation. Every time I make my prayer to the Father in Jesus’s name, I am consciously remembering and acknowledging that it is Jesus who reconciled me to the Father. Through Jesus I am a daughter of the most high God, and an heir to all that is His.

Second, it has increased my awareness of the things I’m asking for. I know that God wants to give me good things, but I also want to *want* the things of God. It has helped me to say with faith, “Your will be done.” If I trust that the Father will answer my prayers, then I want to ask for the things that are best for me, and those things are found in the perfect will of God.

Respond to Jesus’s invitation in today’s Gospel. Go to the Father with what you need. Don’t be afraid to ask, Jesus has assured us of how deeply the Father loves us!

 

Ponder:

 

What needs do you have that you can take to the Father today in the name of Jesus?

 

Pray:


Heavenly Father, thank you for all your many blessings. Please hear my prayers and let your will be done in my life, through the holy name of Jesus.

 


Click to tweet:
I didn’t want to seem like I was “working the system,” trying to use a fool-proof method for getting my prayers answered. #DailyGospel

Daily Gospel 2

 


Copyright 2023 Megan Swaim