Transformation Begins with Prayer.
Sometimes life can seem overwhelming. There are so many cares and concerns in daily life, with trying to maintain or heal relationships, caring for those who depend on you, financial concerns, and the frustration of trying to manage competing priorities can become very stressful. Even the life of the Church is not immune to these personal, financial, and institutional worries.
When Jesus sees the crowds of people who are “like sheep without a shepherd” – in other words, lost in worldly events and cares and tossed about by the ups and downs in life – what does he do? He sends his disciples as apostles with the command to announce the kingdom of God, cure the sick, free the possessed, and bring life to the dead. But before that, he recognized that they were few, and told his disciples to pray to the master of the harvest to send more laborers.
Notice that the first thing Jesus commanded when confronted with an insurmountable problem was prayer. Prayer makes the inner transformation that God does by grace possible, and if there is no prayer then there will be no mission – the subsequent proclamation of the Gospel, healing, exorcism, and resurrection will never happen unless there is first a re-ordering that puts all my personal concerns under God’s reign.
Father’s Day is a reminder of the important mission that God calls men to. A father’s work is part of God’s plan to provide for us. God gives us fathers to teach and protect us, father-figures to mentor us, and spiritual fathers to encourage us. One of the most important gifts a father can give his children is the example of prayer and faithfulness to God. Being a father isn’t easy, and prayer enables the transforming work of God’s grace that supports and sustains the mission of fatherhood.
-Fr. Nate
