Dear Parishioners,
There was a high school English teacher who had a student in class who didn't study all year. On the day of the final exam, the student came up and told the teacher that he was confident he would pass the exam. The student said he had prayed every night during the past week for God's help in the English exam.
God never intended prayer to be a substitute for study. He never intended prayer to be a substitute for hard work. Receiving God's help is a two-way street. It involves our cooperation with God. We are to do our part and God will do His part.
St. Ignatius of Loyola describes our cooperation with God this way: "We must work as if everything depends on us, but we must pray as if everything depends on God."
In other words, we are to cooperate with God and make use of the ordinary means He gives us before we ask Him to intervene in some extraordinary way.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Dominick