Keep You Out of Trouble

 

Making our prayers habitual, humble, and hopeful

10/19/2025

Luke 18:1-8 Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'" The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Have you heard the joke about when to pray and when not to pray? A young priest asked his bishop: “May I smoke while praying?” The bishop emphatically replied: “No, absolutely not!” Later the young priest saw an older clergyman puffing on a cigarette while praying. The younger priest scolded him, saying: “You shouldn’t be smoking while praying! I asked the bishop and he said I couldn’t do that!”

“That’s odd,” the old priest responded. “I asked the bishop if I could pray while I was smoking and he told me that would be a very holy thing to do.” You know I used to walk Apollo and pray the rosary at the same time. Now, it would be very unholy to walk your dog while praying, but it would be very holy to pray while walking your dog.

In other words, any activity accompanied by prayer in a sense elevates that behavior to God and thereby becomes a prayer itself. Prayer transforms earthly activity into heavenly ones, like the Eucharistic Prayer at the Mass transforms earthly bread and wine into Jesus’ glorified Body and Blood. Prayer raises earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth, especially the most perfect prayer of all, the Mass.

In the gospel today, Jesus encourages his disciples to persevere in prayer. He holds up the example of a relentless widow who will not take no for an answer until an unjust judge renders a verdict in her case. Jesus’ point is that if this determined widow can persuade an unjust judge, then God the just Judge does not need us to batter the doors of heaven with our petitions. Indeed, God knows what we need long before we even ask.

Let me suggest the three “H’s” of prayer which might help us to persevere in our own prayer, namely, prayer should be habitual, humble, and hopeful. First, prayer should be “habitual.” Now, sometimes, our Protestants friends complain that Catholics only know routine prayers – the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be – and we do not know how to pray spontaneously.

But have you noticed how most of our life is filled with routine but important activities? We brush our teeth in the morning, we make our bed, we eat our meals, we drink coffee, we kiss our spouse, we go to work or school, etc. It is precisely the routine that makes the spontaneous feel so special.

Instead, prayer should be habitually woven into the fabric of your day. When I was a small boy my family always prayed every morning before we left for school, and every night before going to bed: one Our Father, 5 Hail Mary’s, and one Glory Be. And we kissed our parents after we prayed. At the church office, as the spiritual father, I taught the staff to pray the Angelus together at noon when the church bells ring. Don’t worry, we skip the kissing part.

Second, pray should be humble. Archbishop Fulton Sheen memorably described the difference between the prayer of humility and the prayer of hubris (pride, arrogance). In 1 Samuel 3 God calls young Samuel three times at night. And Eli instructs him, “Next time the Lord calls, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening’” (1 Sm 3:9).

But Sheen joked: “Most of us when we go to pray, we come with a long list of demands and say, ‘Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.’” Rather we should persevere in prayer by humbly acknowledging that God knows better than we do what we truly need.

How delightful if a child went to his mother or father and said: “Mom and dad, I would really like to have a puppy. But I trust you to give me what I really need to be happy.” In other words, when we pray humbly like trusting little children, we say in effect: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,” instead of: “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.”

And third, prayer should be hopeful. How so? Because prayer opens our eyes to see God’s grace at work in every situation, no matter how desperate or dire it seems. Perhaps the best known model of praying with hope is St. Monica who prayed for 30 years for her wayward son, Augustine, who had immersed himself in wine, women, and song.

But after years of tears and ceaseless prayers, Augustine not only converted back to the faith, but blossomed into a bishop and even a doctor of the church. He would pen these sublime words in his book Confessions, “Late have I loved Thee, Beauty ever ancient, ever new.” Monica’s long-suffering prayers were full of hope for her son, and she was not disappointed, like the widow in the gospel today.

My friends, don’t do anything without prayer to accompany it, not smoking or walking your dog, or anything else. And pray habitually, humbly, and hopefully. When I was ordained my mom told me: “Son, always wear your Roman collar. It will keep you out of trouble. And if you cannot go somewhere with your collar on, maybe you shouldn’t go there.” Moms know their sons well.

Keep my mom’s advice in mind when it comes to prayer: if you can’t do something while praying, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Prayer, like my Roman collar, will keep you out of trouble. And even more, it will raise earth to heaven and bring heaven down to earth.

Praised be Jesus Christ!