In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. 

One of our specialties is asking for things. In the introductory prayer that we just recited, we asked for things. I asked your pardon for my sins, the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. Some of the most remarkable moments in the New Testament are those moments when one person or another came up to Jesus and begged him for a favor. Take that unforgettable moment when an official came forward, knelt down before Jesus and said, "My daughter has just died. But come lay your hand on her and she will live." We can't imagine the passion, the desperation with which this father of the young girl spoke these words. In fact, it would be pretty hard to reenact that scene. But you can imagine, "My daughter has just died, but you can make her live." This scene comes to mind in a very special way because we are celebrating the 120th anniversary of a very striking moment during the life of St. Josemaria. This event took place in the year 1904, when the young Josemaria was all of two years old. The doctor who examined the young child said to his mother," Your child will not live through the night." That's it. In fact, the diagnosis was so clear that the next morning when the doctor came, he asked very simply, "At what time did your child die?" At the same time, the mother of St. Josemaria, to whom we refer as the grandmother, she turned to Mary with that same sense of urgency and trust, and said to Our Lady, "Intercede before Jesus for the life of this son of mine. And if he lives, I will take him, we will make a pilgrimage to an ancient shrine dedicated to Our Lady." A shrine called Torreciudad, which means the city of the tower. It's a shrine in northeastern Spain that dates back to at least 1066. When the next morning, the child was not only alive, but in great shape, his mother then made those plans to set out and make that pilgrimage out of gratitude. This is a very important lesson for us. Ultimately, a lesson in the power and the necessity for the prayer of petition. The greatness of the grandmother, the greatness of the official, well, we can find that greatness in the fact that they had so much trust in God, and at the same time, the deep conviction of their need and our need for God's help. 

The prayer of petition needs to be understood correctly. As one writer puts it, "We must never flinch from believing that God's answer to our prayers, whether or not directly favorable, cannot be but an answer of love." This point is very important because at times we could end up thinking, I'm going to say one quick Hail Mary, and if I don't get what I'm asking for, well, then God is just not listening. That's not the way it works. As we read just a minute ago, "never must we flinch from believing that God's answer, whether or not directly favorable, cannot be but an answer of love." Underlying this statement is our core belief that we have to view everything, whether it be something joyful, something that causes pain, but to see that whatever it is, as an expression of God's love for us. Way back in the early 19th century, the Curé of Ars, John Vianney, said in one of his homilies, "Won't you agree with me that if we do not receive what we asked God for it is because we do not pray with faith, with a sufficiently pure heart, with enough trust, or because we do not persevere in prayer as we should." God has never denied and never will deny anything to those who ask for his graces in the right way. Our very loving, trusting relationship, and God will lead us to turn to him in a very childlike way. That is to say, with this conviction that we need him. The problem is that so often we set out, really not asking for anything, or even worse, not taking his presence in our life into account. We could go for days for weeks like this for months, which would be a shame. It would be a shame because all that time, our Father God is looking, watching, waiting for us to pay attention to him. And above all, waiting for us to ask for all that we need. 

You may have come across this very charming anecdote of a man who dies and is led by his guardian angel to Heaven. And on the way, before they get to the gates of Heaven, the guardian angel first says, "Before we get there, let me show you something." The angel leads the man over to a huge warehouse. And over the entrance of the warehouse, there is a a banner with the deceased person's name on it. You can imagine his intrigue as he enters the warehouse, and starts to look all around and seeing things, material things, spiritual things, things that he would have loved to have when he was still alive. He saw one item and thought to himself, "That is exactly what I needed before my wedding." Looking on the other side of the aisle, he saw another item and said, "If only I had that, on the day I started working." One thing after another in front of him was all that he had needed during his lifetime. He felt frustrated, and asked his angel, "But why? Why didn't you give me these things when I needed them?" The angel looked at him with a bit of disappointment, and answered, "Why? Why didn't you ask for them?" That kind of anecdote stings a bit. Because it makes us realize, I need to be more greedy, in the best sense of the word if we can speak like that. In other words, I need to realize that I desperately need God. At the same time, we need to ask for things of substance. It's not a matter of asking for frivolous things. In fact, a wonderful use of this time of prayer together could be to ask the Holy Spirit to bring to our mind, the things, the intentions, the needs, that really count. The last thing we need is to spend the day thinking of stupidities, of things of material goods, for example, that could capture our imagination. And yet in the bigger picture of things, mean nothing. On the other hand, how many people have asked us for prayers? How many people do we know who need us? They need our prayers because they're ill, because they have a mother-in-law who is dying. They need a job. They need the grace of forgiveness. Those are the things that really matter. A wonderful result of this time of prayer would be to be able to draw up a list of the top 10 intentions, and even put that list in front of us and to start pounding away day after day, offering up hours of work, offering up rosaries, Masses, etc. 

Some of you may be old enough to remember those years during the 1960s and 70s and early 80s, when the founder of Opus Dei, up until his death in 1975, was asking us to pray for the Special Intention with capital letters. That special intention, of course, was finding the proper place in canon law for Opus Dei. And so for all those years leading up to 1983 we were praying. Members of Opus Dei, friends of Opus Dei, offering up who knows how many hours of work, how many Masses, etc., for this Special Intention. Finally in 1983 St. John Paul II created Opus Dei as the first and until now the only personal prelature. And just to give you a bit of amusement, shortly after that event, people would come up all the time, whenever they had the chance to actually physically address St. John Paul II and they would say, "Your Holiness, I am a member of Opus Dei, I want to thank you for the personal prelature." Well, he was getting used to that. One day he found himself in Scandinavia. In a country where there were very, very few Catholics. Someone walked up to him and said, "Your Holiness, I am not Catholic. I am a cooperator of Opus Dei. And I want to thank you for the personal prelature." And the Holy Father with a smile on his face, and a real twinkle in his eye, he said, in Italian, "Anche qui" - even here." Surrounded by non-Catholics on being thanked for the personal prelature. 

Great things happen when we focus on our needs. When we focus on asking for God's help. In so doing, we are identifying our will with that of God. We're saying to the Lord, "You're the one who really knows the depths of my need. You're the one who is helping me to grow, even as you delay in granting what I'm asking for. You make me wait so that I might be better disposed. So that I might desire those graces more earnestly and more fervently." There are times when the Lord does not grant us what we're asking for. Perhaps, because without realizing it, we are actually asking for something that is harmful, something that would be to our detriment rather than our benefit. This is why we just have to be so convinced that by asking God's answer, whether or not it is directly favorable, it cannot be but an answer of love. Well, finally a very surprising, and you could say, dangerous thought, from St. Thomas More. Those of you who are fathers of families listening to this will probably be alarmed when you hear the contents of this anecdote. And you'll see why. St. Thomas More, back in the 16th century, had a daughter who was extraordinary. Her name was Margaret. Margaret was extremely intelligent, capable of conversing with diplomats in Latin, and truly beloved by her father. One day, Thomas More wrote the following to his daughter, "You are too bashful and timid in your request for money from a father who wants to give it. And when you have greeted me with a letter, such that I would not only repay each line of it with a gold coin. But if my means were as great as my desire, I would reward each syllable with two ounces of gold. As it is, I send only what you have asked, but would have added more. Except that, as I am eager to give, so I like to be asked and coaxed by my daughter, especially by you, whom virtue and learning have made so dear to my heart. So the sooner you spend this money well, as you always do, and the sooner you ask for more, the more will you be sure of pleasing your father. Farewell, my dearest daughter." It is a truly remarkable anecdote, one that helps us to go deep into the sentiments of the heart of our Father God. He wants to give us the moon. He wants to give us anything and everything that we need. All he's waiting for is to see that very same passion in our pleading with which that official expressed as he was kneeling before Jesus praying for his dead daughter. The very same passion with which the grandmother prayed for her two-year-old son, St. Josemaria. And so with these two examples in our imagination, well, let us turn to the Lord right now and say, "Jesus, as I set forth, I hereby resolve to place before me, maybe even physically, that piece of paper so that every day I can ask you for things that really and truly count.”

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations which you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.