It was remarkable that something special happened at St. Matthias last week when almost 100       children from our region attended the Vacation Bible School from Monday through Friday.  Almost 40 volunteers helped them and led them to the school of prayer life. Also, for three days starting on
August 1, the WWPR will host the “Days of Service; Nights of Prayer” retreat for our children, 8 ^th grade age and older.  They reach out to those in need during the day, and in the evening, they have time to learn about the faith,  pray together and celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation. Fr. McCullough and I are blessed to be part of these two pastoral events. We appreciate the amazing work that the WWPR staff and volunteers do with their help in this ministry towards children.

In the last four years I attended these two events,I was always amazed by the dynamic, the faith and love these children reflect. There are signs of the faith handed on to them by their parents and lived in their respective families. We thank you all, parents and grandparents, who, out of love, fulfill your duties to educate your children. The church believes that the parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of the children and parents. But also, the Church emphasizes that the Christian family has an evangelizing task that no else can do but the parents. She reminds that family catechesis       precedes, accompanies and  enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents should always          remember that it is through the grace of the              sacrament of marriage they have received the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Also, as parents lovingly educate them in the faith, in return, children contribute to their growth in holiness. Both parents and children help each other to live the gospel of true love, sacrifice and prayer.
 
In the last two weeks, the gospels talked about two lessons Jesus gave about the love of the neighbor and the love of God. It truly is obvious that the family, the “domestic church,” remains the special place where we learn the values of Christian life that opens us to the other, especially to those in need.

We learn to care for the sick, the young, the old,
the handicapped, the poor and the most in need.
Also, the family prayer teaches us to sit at the
feet of the Lord and learn from Him how to truly pray to God with confidence and persistence. These two attitudes, confidence and persistence, that Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel, should form the
background of every Christian prayer. It is only with confidence and persistence that our prayer becomes a living and powerful force as it was for Abraham. With confidence in God as Our Father, a better father than even the very best earthly fathers, our prayer never becomes an empty and boring shell. If our earthly fathers know how to be generous and wise with their children, we are assured that God whose love is unencumbered by even the slightest smidgeon of selfishness, is certainly more eager to give good things to us whom he loves tirelessly and beyond measure. Today, Jesus tells us the only one thing  we need to do is to be persistent in our prayer, as the friend was persistent in the parable, in order to give God more freedom to act in our lives, because our desires get more in synch with God’s.
 
During this coming week, let us look for Jesus and sit by His side to learn from Him to pray to our Father. In our families, let us talk about our prayer life. Our family is a special place where we can learn together how to pray and practice it. There, we learn to pray with confidence for the people whose needs we are very well aware of. When our prayers seem to be unheard and unanswered, we encourage each other and remind each other that God never ignores our prayers. St. Augustine understood that when God does not give us what we ask right away, He stretches our hearts and expends our souls, making them able to receive more graces, just the same way one stretches out a bag or a sack so to fill it to the brim. Do not be ashamed to look into new ways of prayers. Maybe other people’s experiences of prayer can enrich yours too. Maybe using a prayer book will help you to fight against distractions in your prayers. Maybe you need to look into changing your way of prayer. If so, please consider reading the fourth chapter of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that explains well the Christian prayer and guide us in the meditation of the Lord’s Prayer.
 
“Those who take the path of prayer have great need of learning; and the more spiritual they are, the greater the need.” –St. Theresa of Avila.