Our readings today are about prayer. So I would like to begin my homily by telling a little story.

Once upon a time, long ago, in the days when nuns still wore habits,there was a nun who worked in a nursing home, and she was driving backhome, at the end of the day, to her convent. She found, much to herdismay, that her car ran out of gas. And she had to pull over by theside of the road. A helpful young man, seeing her plight, stopped hiscar behind her and came up and said, "I've got gas in my car, and I havea siphon hose, but I don't have anything to put the gas in." Theresourceful nun said, "I think I know what I have." She opened up thetrunk and pulled out a stainless steel bedpan. And she said, "Let's putthe gas in this." And so, the young man siphoned the gas out of his carand filled up the bedpan, and then he drove off. The nun, taking theunwieldy liquid-filled bedpan, went over to her car, unscrewed the gascap, and began to gingerly and awkwardly pour the gas into her car. Andher head was kind of tilted up almost as if in supplication. And acouple, driving by that same road, saw what she was doing. The husbandsaid to his wife, "Now THERE is a nun who believes in the power ofprayer!"

Prayer is something that, I think, all of us do and all of us havelearned to do at some point in our lives. I think that our parents orour schools have taught us how to pray since we were very young. I betif I start a prayer most of you could follow right along. Let's see ifthat works: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul tokeep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."See! We knew that prayer! And, we've all prayed.

I've prayed. I've prayed many times. I've prayed, not only at Mass, butI've prayed for my family and friends. There have been times when peoplehave been sick, and I've prayed for them. Oh, I've prayed for them andI've enjoyed seeing them get well and be restored back to active life.But I also know there have been some other people that I've prayed forand they haven't gotten well. They've gotten sicker, and some of themhave died. And yet, I still pray. I continue to pray. I've prayed eversince I was young for important issues in the world, like world peace.And yet, if we look back over the last fifty, a hundred years, it seemsthat the chronicle is filled with nothing but minor skirmishes,conflicts, and sometimes major wars. And today we find ourselves againin the midst of a major conflict. And still I pray, and we pray. I prayfor things such as an end to sickness, an end to poverty. And I'm notsure whether to this day, there aren't even more people out there whoare poor and sick, without health care. But still, I pray, and I thinkwe all pray.

Why do we do that? Well, I think maybe it's genetically encoded into usto pray. Before Sept. 11th, there was so much news about schools thatwere in all kind of legal conflict about this issue of "Do we pray inschool, or not pray in school?" And I was reading in Time Magazine lastnight that, since Sept. 11th, schools all over the nation are praying,and nobody is saying a thing anymore, because we all know, almostinstinctively, when the chips are down, when we know that things havegotten beyond our control, the only thing left to us is prayer, becauseit is prayer that keeps us still filled with a sense of hope. To notpray is to lapse into despair. To not pray, to not believe that there isa God Who does care for us, Who loves us, Who will sustain us in themidst of adversity, trial, and drama in our lives is to then fall into asituation where there is no God and I am alone in the Universe. And sowe pray nevertheless.

Prayer is something that we read about in our Scriptures today. In theGospel reading, Jesus is telling His disciples, "You must prayconstantly." He knows that some day He is going to be taken away fromHis disciples and they are going to be challenged with persecution, withmisunderstanding and even hatred. And He tells them, "Pray always. Donot give up." He says to them, "It's like this story about the widow..."And, in those days, two thousand years ago, widows were really thepoorest of the poor because women had no standing, social or economic.They couldn't own land. They couldn't own property. If a woman weremarried to a husband and the husband died, she was destitute. Many timesthey became beggars in the streets.

And so, Jesus tells this marvelous parable, which is really a funny one,if we could read the Greek translation. And it says that the widow comesto this judge who doesn't care about God or anybody else. And she keepsdemanding, day after day, her rights. She says, "Give me a good judgmentagainst my adversary!" (someone who is maybe defrauding her) And it saysin the Greek, the judge, who doesn't care about people or God, says,"You know, she is wearing me out! And I've got to render a judgmentbecause she keeps punching me under the eye." The judge is saying, inthe Greek, that he doesn't want a black eye. And Jesus says, "Now ifthat dishonest, evil judge would yield finally to a petitioner, don'tyou think that your Heavenly Father, a loving God, who loves youinfinitely, will do it even more for you, will respond even morespeedily?" And Jesus then tells His disciples, "Never stop praying."It's almost like in that movie "Galaxy Quest." How many saw "GalaxyQuest?" Never give up. Never surrender. Keep praying. Keep praying.

But, how do we pray? And what do we pray for? I am reminded of anotherstory, where is this man who really wants to win the lottery. So heprays, so fervently, each week. "Dear God, I don't ask for much, justfive lucky numbers. Please!" And week after week, he doesn't get thenumbers. But he keeps praying. He remembers this gospel reading. And sohe prays continually, week after week, month after month, year afteryear. And finally he dies. And he goes up into Heaven and he meets Godat the Heavenly gates, Who is welcoming him in. And he complains to God,"Dear Lord, I prayed every week for those five lucky numbers. Why didn'tyou answer my prayer?" And God says, with some indignation, "Give Me abreak! You never bought a ticket!"

And so, that little story tells us something about prayer. Prayer ismeant to be something that we not only do passively, but we waithopefully and we act energetically on what it does to us, because prayeris meant to transform us. Prayer is not something like ordering from theHeavenly catalogue of all those things we might want in our lives, likethat Country Western song that goes, "O Lord, please give me myMer-ced-es Benz." No! That's not what prayer is about. Prayer's notabout that. Prayer is about allowing God to work in our lives so that webegin to see the world the way God sees it. And we begin to pattern ourlives so they are in consonance with the way God would like the worldand us to be formed.

I was attending a lecture yesterday on Social Justice and the speaker,named Jack Jezreel, was talking about the parable of the rich young manwho comes to Jesus, and says, "O, Lord, what must I do to have eternallife?" And Jack was explaining that, to a good Jew, the understanding ofeternal life was not in the hereafter. It was now. The idea was, if youknow trigonometry and algebra and calculus, God's action in the worldwas kind of like a sine wave, a sine wave. You know it goes where itwills. And the role of a good Jew, a good Christian also, is to patternour lives so they are consistent and consonant with that same wave, sothat even when we die, our good works, our same mentality with God,carries us off into eternity, to be with God always. And so our prayeris meant to transform us so that we become more patient, more loving,more caring, more forgiving, more understanding.... We become moreaccepting of things that happen in our lives that are beyond ourcontrol. It allows us then to look with a deep compassion and empathyand sympathy on the plight of all humankind so that we no longer pray asif it's always about me, myself and I. "Well, of course, God must wantwhat I want, because I want it." No. Not always.

Someone once told me that God can answer prayer in one of four ways:"yes," "..no," "..not in that way," "..not yet." And we have to learn topray in such a way that we accept God's will, while also accepting theresponsibility to do those things that God gives us the insight to doand manage in our lives. Many people who pray, pray about very importantissues in their personal lives, many of them around relationships. Maybethey are having a problem with their spouse, with their parents, withtheir children, with a co-worker or a boss or somebody in theirchurch. And these are very troubling times in our economy where therecession is causing a lot of people to be really concerned about jobstability. And some people have lost their jobs already and arewondering about, "How am I going to make ends meet?" And what Jesuswould say, in this troubling day and age, is "Never give up. Neversurrender. Keep praying. Know that your Heavenly Father loves youinfinitely, and will always be there to see you through." And it doesn'ttake a genius to be able to look back on one's life and say, "You know,I have been through a lot of troubles and turmoil in my life. Thank God,I am still here. I am a stronger, wiser, better person for some of thatadversity that I have indeed gone through. And I know that it is by thegrace of God that I stand, I sit, I kneel here today."

God, Who is a very loving God, wants us to be able to pray. But prayeris, I think, a skill. It's almost like learning a foreign language. Howmany people here have learned, or studied, a foreign language ever inyour life? OK. So have I. You know that it takes a LOT of work to learnanother language. You have to study the vocabulary. You have to studythe syntax, the grammar, the conjugation of verbs, and you have topractice every day to become fluent. And prayer is like that. If we juststart, no matter what our beginning might be, in our prayer life, and wecontinue to practice our prayer, it will become very deep and veryprofound. It will become one that transforms us so that we can thentransform ourselves and also people around us. But it takes knowledge. Ithink one of my favorite phrases that Father Brian Joyce uses is, "Jesuscame to take away our sins, not our minds." What does he mean? Well, Ithink he means that we have to continue to use our minds, this wonderfulgift that God has given us, to learn and to study. And what is a goodstarting place? Well, I think we hear it in the readings, which come outof that sacred book that we call the what?... The Bible.... the Bible.

Once I saw this on TV and it's never left me because it sounds so funny,but it is yet so true. The Bible is an acronym for, (BIBLE), BasicInstructions Before Leaving Earth. And so, if we study the Bibleconscientiously, and with a good teacher, not just reading the Biblefrom Genesis to Revelation, (I'd be totally confused if I did that!),but if we study under the tutelage of a wise guide with other people,then we will grow in wisdom together as a community.

One of the things that really intrigued me about this parish, thatencouraged me to sign up and come on board as your pastoral associate,was I have never seen another parish in the diocese that invests so muchin children, young adults and adult religious education. Now, did youknow every Monday night in the parish hall from 7:30 til 9:00, you haveBible study and you can learn about Scripture. They've got this fellow.He can...Oh, it's me, teaching this class! And so, if you come to theclass, you will learn, how to not only pray better, but you will alsolearn how to live better, how to live with greater peace, greaterharmony, greater conviction and greater strength to deal with whateveradversity comes in your life. For the mark of a real Christian is one ofjoy and optimism, despite whatever appears on the outside.

God wants us to live with a great amount of enthusiasm. Enthusiasmmeans nothing more than to have inside one the breath of God. That's theorigin of the word "enthusiasm." And, as we pray, we will begin to takeon that same breath of God. As we come to receive the Eucharist thisday, we give thanks to God Who loves us so much, and in our times ofquestioning and doubt is always there with us to allow us to learn morewisdom. May we continue to seek after the Lord, and be transformed, sothat we may transform the world for Christ.... Amen.