Good, Good Father

Think of something you're looking for. Maybe even think of it as you would when you were a kid asking your parents for a gift. Or if you are a kid, you can just think of it! It doesn't have to be for yourself even. It can be for someone else.  A want, a need, help? Looking for peace? Answers? Love? Comfort? Healing?

Last summer I was looking for help for a family member, so I approached our parish Prayer Ministry Team after Mass in the Day Chapel.
After a few minutes, one of the prayer ministers asked if I knew about the Novena to the Sacred Heart.  She said it had something to do with Padre Pio.  She said, “Jesus wants you to say that prayer.” I believe this was a Word of Knowledge. [Editor’s note: As noted by St. Paul in 1st Corinthians 12:8, Words of Knowledge are a spiritual gift given by the Holy Spirit, a sudden intuitive insight or idea to share with another individual. Words of Knowledge are one way Christians exercise the Baptismal vocation of Prophet.] 

I thought I knew what prayer she was talking about, but I had a feeling I should look it up to make sure I had the right one.  The prayer I was thinking of wasn't a novena, but was very personal to me. I looked the novena up after I left and it was a different prayer than I was thinking. It was the Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart by Padre Pio. In fact, I had just finished praying this Novena for the first time not long before that, and the day before the novena was through I got my offer accepted on my new house after almost a year of looking - which is another awesome glory story for another day!  So I was primed on this novena. The first line of this novena is "O my Jesus, you have said, ‘Truly I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and it will be opened to you.’"  I know this prayer by heart now. I haven't stopped praying it since that day, and many more wonderful miracles and graces just keep flowing to this day, and I know that's just the beginning!  

By the grace of God, my family member is still with us today and is still on a healing journey, but we all will be until we get to heaven. And that's our Father's greatest desire to have you in heaven with him forever. But we can't get there on our own.  He doesn't want us to do it on our own. He wants nothing more than to help us along the way and for us to know how much he loves us along the way.  You might not get the answer you were looking for and it might not happen immediately, or maybe you will!  But one thing I can guarantee you is that what God wants for you and wants to give you is a million times better than you or I could ever imagine!  All you have to do is ask.  I did, and I keep asking again and again and again.  And unlike us with limited patience, our Father in heaven never gets tired of us asking for help!

 Be bold, or start small, but just knock and ask!