MAY WE PRAY
TO OBTAIN MONEY? I’d like to know
if it is suitable to ask Good Saint Anne for financial
gain. If I win money, I will help sick children
and people in misery. For the moment, I have no
job. Is my prayer clumsy? *** We are God’s children. Our heavenly Father gladly listens to our childish prayers. Didn’t Jesus do just that 2000 years ago? They rushed to him to obtain a cure, a favor. Jesus, full of kindness, listened attentively. He cured them, chased away evil spirits, pacified tormented souls, and did many other things that made them happy. But he didn’t do anything for the sake of popularity, but just as signs to show them that God’s Kingdom had come. No doubt that you can make your requests to Saint Anne or directly to the Lord! Especially if your ultimate desire is to use the money to help people around you who are less fortunate. But also be resigned to God’s will! Money can be a tool, but it can also be an idol. It is most useful when we share it with others. There are different ways to share: paying our taxes, helping raise funds for the Church, giving to humanitarian and charitable organizations, offering our tithes, etc. To begin your petitions, ask for spiritual favors: love for God and neighbor. Pray as Jesus told us in the Our Father, above all for what is essential: “Our Father, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done!” After that, you may present your own needs: “Give us this day our daily bread...”. The ‘bread’ you ask for includes material blessings, although the most important ‘bread’ is spiritual grace. Prayer should be a loving conversation with God and the saints. It must not be limited to requests for material things; it must deal with what is spiritual: doing God’s will, advancing on the road to holiness. This doesn’t exclude our requests for special earthly needs. We are not pure spirits. God urges us to pray: “Ask and you shall receive” (Mt 7: 7). He is aware that our material and corporal necessities are for us a source of worries; he doesn’t take offence if we express our anxiety in our prayer. His disciples were never snubbed by him, even when they selfishly asked for the first place in his Kingdom. But he made them stop and think when he spoke of a cross to carry and invited them to become perfect. |