Jesus said to his disciples, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For anyone who asks receives; and the one who seeks, finds;  and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.  . . . your heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask him.” [Matthew 7:7-8,11]

Jesus is telling us to keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking.  He is asking us to persist in prayer and never to be discouraged because God always hears our prayers and always answers them in His way from His perfect wisdom of our entire life and His perfect love when the time is right.  And it’s possible that if He answered them at the moment we desired, that could bring the worst conceivable outcome for us.  Again He is also telling us to not become discouraged as we continue to pray and wait for His response.

What is meant by persistence in prayer?  Many years ago I went to a talk given by Ivan Dragicevic, one of the six visionaries from Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  He said, “You Americans pray seven times or seventeen times for your intentions, and if it doesn’t happen you stop praying.  No, keep praying until your request is answered by Heaven.”

I was leader of a Rosary group at a senior community, and I shared with them what Ivan had said.  One of the women in the group shared a profound example of persistence in prayer.  Her friend was married for sixty years, and was married to a man who wanted nothing to do with religion.  She prayed for her husband every day during those years for his conversion, and two weeks before he died, he said he wanted to be baptized.  She saved his soul.  That’s persistence in prayer!

Let’s try to remember the mnemonic PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens) when we get desperate for God to act on our prayer intentions, which is great advice for us to follow in every circumstance in our life because He hears every prayer.  When we continue to pray for our intentions, we are showing God our sincerity and desire for Him to grant them, and we also please Him by our willingness to wait.

‍