“Why does it sometimes seem that God does not listen to our prayers?”, The response of Pope Francis

"Prayer is not a magic wand, it is a dialogue with the Lord ”.

These words Papa Francesco in the general audience, continuing the catechesis on prayer.

“In fact - continued the Pontiff - when we pray we can fall into the risk of not being the ones to serve God, but of expecting him to serve us. Here then is a prayer that always demands, that wants to direct the events according to our plan, that does not admit other projects than our desires ”.

The Holy Father observed: "There is a radical challenge to prayer, which derives from an observation that we all make: we pray, we ask, yet at times our prayers seem to remain unheard: what we have asked - for us or for the others - did not happen. And if the reason for which we prayed was noble, the non-fulfillment appears scandalous to us ”.

Then, after an unheard prayer, there are those who stop praying: “The Catechism offers us a good synthesis on the question. It warns us against the risk of not living an authentic experience of faith, but of transforming the relationship with God into something magical. In fact, when we pray we can fall into the risk of not being the ones to serve God, but of expecting him to serve us. Here then is a prayer that always demands, that wants to direct events according to our plan, that does not admit other projects than our desires. Instead, Jesus had great wisdom by putting the 'Our Father' on our lips. It is a prayer of questions only, as we know, but the first ones we pronounce are all on God's side. They ask that not our project but his will towards the world be realized ”.

Bergoglio continued: "However, the scandal remains: when men pray with a sincere heart, when they ask for goods that correspond to the Kingdom of God, when a mother prays for her sick child, why does it sometimes seem that God does not listen? To answer this question, one must calmly meditate on the Gospels. The stories of the life of Jesus are full of prayers: many people wounded in body and spirit ask him to be healed ”.

Pope Francis explained that our plea does not go unheard, but the acceptance of the prayer is sometimes deferred over time: “We see that sometimes Jesus' response is immediate, while in some other cases it is deferred over time. Therefore, on some occasions the solution of the drama is not immediate ”.

Pope Bergoglio asked, therefore, not to lose faith even when prayers appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

ALSO READ: 9 tips from Pope Francis to couples about to get married.