Posted by johnboy on September 21, 1999 at 16:33:44:
Subject: Finding the Answers to Our Prayers of Petition
Does God answer prayers of petition?
Yes. All of them. Without question. Foremost, He accomplishes the all important, over-riding unitive goals. He invariably does this and we do
experience it profoundly (although sometimes only after the passage of time).
In the attainment of such unitive goals: spirits are transformed, solidarity is felt, compassion ensues, wills are aligned, heart beats are synchronized,
tears are merged, laughter is shared, gazes are refocused on the Wholly and Holy Other, hands are tightly clasped and embraces abound. These unitive
goals are achieved in every prayer of petition and in every circumstance giving rise to same, whether in the midst of suffering or in the portals of joy.
Does God go beyond the spiritually unitive goals and provide for our temporal wants and needs?
Sometimes. Often even. When He does, this is what the cajuns would call "lagniappe". Not to say that we don't feel awfully impoverished when He says: "no lagniappe" to those prayers which are most deeply
felt, to those losses most painfully endured.
The answers and their patterns which we observe in response to our prayers of petition are especially obscure as regards temporal matters (e.g. life and
death, relationship issues, food and finances, etc).
However, those answers and their patterns which we observe in response to our prayers of petition regarding those matters eternal and/or unitive are as
emphatic as they are clear. Take a second glance next time you pray and inventory the unitive goals that are achieved. It'll make you pray more often! Don't forget to say thanks, too, for all the Lagniappe, for that is
our cajun God in disguise (though not obliquely, eh?).
So pray for every need you can conceive of, importunately and incessantly,
temporal or eternal.
Say one for me, too.