Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter & Our Lady of Fatima
Readings for Saturday the 4th Week of Easter
Information about Our Lady of Fatima

First Published: Saturday, May 13, 2006

Mary, Mary

Reflection:

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it
(Jn 14 13-14)

At first blush, this amazing pair of verses from the Gospel of St. John seems to be saying the Lord is always going to answer our prayers in the affirmative as long as we ask it in his name. While that is clearly not what is intended, at least literally, it does give us pause to remember that we always pray to the Father through the Son.

You will have noticed that it is also the Feast day of Our Lady of Fatima. Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters believe we pray TO Mary, whom we revere as our Holy Mother and Mother of the Church. In fact, like all the Saints, we ask for her intercession.

See in the Hail Mary Prayer:

Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

See in the Litany of Saints:

Holy Mary, Pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, Pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins, Pray for us.
Saint Michael, Pray for us.
Saint Gabriel, Pray for us.

I repeat, because it is important, we pray only to God! We pray only through His Son, Jesus Christ. Of course we can also ask Jesus who is God to help us. But it is instructive to note that when we conclude our prayer during our various rites, chaplets, and devotions, it is, as we begin, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The usual conclusion being; "We ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever." Notice the conclusion is pointed at the Father in the name of the Son.

I do not want to beat this to death. In the end, we must speak to God in prayer. He gave us Grace to do so. But as I implied in my opening statement, all our prayers are not answered in the affirmative just because we ask in the name of Jesus. There is of course a catch.

The catch is, our Father sees into our heart and knows all our motives. Did you notice in the quote, Jesus tells us; "...so that the Father may be glorified in the Son..." If what we ask does not do so, we must also know that prayer will not be answered in a positive way. Do you remember the great line from the movie Patton were George C. Scott is ordering his chaplain to come up with a weather prayer. The chaplain responded with something like; Im not sure how God would feel about a prayer for clear weather so we can go out and kill our fellow man.

The answers to our prayers are not always obvious at the time. God has a way of doing things that we only recognize later as having answered a prayer or heartfelt wish. That is why we must always be examining our lives and looking for those fingerprints God leaves in our lives. Pax