Prayer is one of the most important things Christians can do. It is a time when they communicate with the Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ, and experience the joy of being in the company of their Savior who cares for them, alleviates their suffering, and heals their diseases.
Praying is an opportunity to spend time with the Lord and to hold dialogue with Him using simple words that express the warmth of love, faith, closeness, and reliance on Him.
In John (15:15), Jesus says, “He no longer calls us his servants, but calls us His friends. Talking with God develops a deeper relationship with Him.” Even in (1 Corinthians 3:9), God calls us His fellow workers. So, in order to be His fellow workers, we need to talk to Him first.
His Holiness Pope Francis has repeatedly expressed the importance of praying at all times particularly during disasters, wars, calamities, sickness, and depression. The Pope recently recounted a miracle he witnessed when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, which indicates the inexplicable healing of a little girl after her father had spent the night at the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan in prayer for his daughter.
The Pope said, "I remember something that I experienced closely, when I was in the other diocese. There was a marriage that had a 9-year-old daughter with a disease that the doctors didn't know what it was. In the end, the doctors told the father: "The child doesn't spend the night, it's an infection, and we can't do anything". The Pope added that the man went out crying, left his wife there with the child in the hospital, took the train and walked the 70km distance to the Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan, the Patroness of Argentina, and spent all night praying to Our Lady, fighting for the health of his daughter. The next day the girl was healed. The miracle happened and the prayers were answered, praise the Lord.
This real-life miracle indicates the powerful significance of prayer particularly when we are in a bleak atmosphere marked with helplessness and depression.
To this end, Pope Francis has earlier invited Catholics and Marian shrines around the world to dedicate the month of May 2021 to a marathon of prayer by inviting the faithful, families, and communities to recite the Holy Rosary for an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pope also stressed that our prayers are being heard, so we must not give up since one of the most important aspects of prayer in life is the breakthroughs that follows particularly when we are faced with devastating circumstances and feel we have nowhere to turn.
It is due time to thank Lord Jesus for His Mercy and compassion, as well for answering the prayers of the broken-hearted and for healing the ailments of the world.
