FROM THE RECTOR
     Is anybody up there?  Who has not asked oneself that question when it comes to prayer.  We have prayed to God about certain concerns, perhaps for some time, and yet we are not sure whether He has heard us, or is ignoring us.  It is a difficult spot in which to find one’s self.  Perhaps we have come to God about our financial needs which have begun to look pretty desperate.  Perhaps we have come to God about a personal issue like a relationship or job.  Yet, He still continues to be silent; circumstances have stayed the same.  How much longer can I take it, we ask ourselves?  Perhaps, we have come to God about a health issue, either our own or someone we love.  Still, God seems to remain mute.  Why won’t He answer?  Why won’t He make changes in the circumstances in my life?  Am I doing something wrong?  Is God punishing me?  
     Mother Teresa, when asked by an interviewer what she says to God when she prays, answered: “I don’t say anything.  I just listen.”  When the interviewer asked what she hears God say, Mother Teresa replied: “He doesn’t say anything.  He just listens.  And if you can’t understand that, I can’t explain it to you.”  
     When we come to God in prayer for some need or want, we are not expecting God to merely listen.  When we pray for something, we expect results: money, an improved marriage, or good health.  We are not looking for what may seem to us as the silent treatment from God.  So, what are we to do, or how are we to respond when God’s response does appear to be one of silence?   There might be any number of answers to this question of what we are to do.  Let me suggest a few.  First, we might need to apply a little self-examination.  Is there some sin our lives that we have ignored?  The sin may not seem like much, but to God it matters.  If there is sin, then we need to repent of that sin.  This could be the mirror God want us to look into before He answers our prayer. Another reflection of ourselves God may be looking for us to see is that we need to change.  This is different from repentance.  This is a matter of increasingly coming to that place where our sense of well-being is less and less dependent on our circumstances.  We may want our circumstances to change, but God in our greater interest wants us to change.  The goal for us as Christians is to become increasingly Christ-like.  
     Finally, maybe God, as with Mother Teresa, does just want us to come to Him and listen.  Maybe, all He wants is for us to spend a little quiet time with Him.  In the words of God spoken through psalmist, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).  Being still is so unlike us, but so like God.  


                                                                       Pax Christi,
                                                                       Fr. Hubbard

                                                  

 

    John Rutter: Psalm 150

Sung by the combined choirs of the St Paul Cathedral of London and the Chapel Royal.
John Milford Rutter is an English composer, choral conductor, editor, arranger and record producer. In 2002 his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, was performed at the Thanksgiving service in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

 

While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, a minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt.
Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead
robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased.
The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: 'Glory be unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes.' (I want this line used at my funeral!)