In today’s Gospel from Luke 18:1-8, we are reminded of the need to pray to God always, “without becoming weary”.  Jesus tells the disciples a parable about a judge who “neither feared God nor respected any human being.”  After some pestering by a widow asking for a “just decision”, the judge finally relented.  Jesus uses this example to remind us that if an unjust judge will ultimately answer our pleas, what will God Our Father who loves us unconditionally do for us?  We must remember that when we pray, God doesn’t always answer in our time or in the way we might expect.  We must remain open to God and through the constant prayer that Jesus is instructing us to maintain in today’s Gospel, we may come to better understand God’s answer.  We will be open to the possible realization that He has in fact answered us, just not in the way we had anticipated.  Bishop Robert Barron often says that prayer is a means of God changing our mind, not us changing His.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that God won’t answer the exact prayer we make with exact outcome we prayed for.  What it means is that through honest and open dialogue with Our Lord, we are affected in our mind, heart and soul to the point that sometimes we realize what we were asking for may not even be in our best interests or the interests of those we pray for.

   When we cease to pray in cases where we feel that God is not listening or in cases where we don’t understand what Our Lord is speaking to us, we are showing a lack of trust in God.  Let us not shut the door on Him simply because we haven’t seen the results we expected.  Continue to pray for understanding.  God is listening.  He will answer.  Have faith and trust The Lord.