July 27, 2025

Dear Parishioners,

Intercession is one of the themes of our reading this weekend. Abraham intercedes on behalf of Sodom to try and save it. He goes back and forth with God–save it for 45, for 40, for 30, for 20, for 10? It’s like Jordan Plain is a car dealership. Abraham is trying to “get” something from God. Then Jesus gives the image of the neighbor knocking on the door in the middle of the night. The neighbor is trying to “get” three loaves of bread.

Jesus encourages intercession. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened, he says.

This is one of Jesus’ commands that many of us Catholics take to heart. In fact, we take it a little too much to heart. How many of us are constantly praying for people? How many of us have our list of intentions that we daily read off? It’s a beautiful action and gesture of love and generosity. We aren’t selfish and we care about people’s souls. This is commendable, and our Lord would be proud.

However, I believe some instruction on intercession is in order. For I also witness people burdened by their “prayer lists.” Something so beautiful becomes so unfortunate. A whole hour can be consumed just going through the list of people we pray for. It feels like a chore. There is pressure. If we don’t mention that person today, does that mean they won’t receive grace and that we’ll have failed them? So we white-knuckle our intercession. Day after day of just reading intentions and, before we know it, prayer is stale at best, miserable at worst. Weeks, months, years go by of this kind of praying and it’s like we don’t even know Jesus any more. We haven’t actually talked to him or given him our heart, we’ve been so consumed by just offering up these intentions.

I recently read some advice from a Cistercian monk. He says this: “Have no scruples about only devoting little time to ‘devotions,’ about not overloading yourself with particular intentions: the official prayer of the church provides for all, and the honor which the church renders to the saints in her offices and the apostolic efficacy of her supplication, far exceed any private homage or intercession of yours. Jesus in heaven, says Hebrews, ‘is living forever to intercede on our behalf.’ He does this, not by formulated requests, but by the sole presence of the glorious scars of his passion: the reminders of his love and obedience.”

Basically, don’t put pressure on yourself to read or call to mind every single intention. This isn’t magic. It’s not like God will help your grandchild or save the country or whatever because you said it in the Adoration Chapel (and the inverse: that your grandchild or the country will be doomed because you didn’t pray). God knows your heart and all your desires and intentions. You can be at peace that he will take care of things. More importantly, the liturgy of the Church–the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, etc.–does it for us.

And, yet, there is still room for intercession and praying for intentions. This is where we need to let the Holy Spirit lead us. Sometimes you might indeed feel called to go through the list and pray individually for those intentions. That’s fine. That is following the Spirit’s prompting. But other times you can just offer up the entire list at once, which takes a couple seconds, and then put it aside and go on with other prayer. When prayer feels forced and that it’s more our willpower–we’re straining rather than yielding–then we know we’re not praying in the Spirit. The prayer of intercession, thus, requires careful discernment.

Finally, we must couple intercession with surrender. We are not God and it’s not our desire that determines the outcome of events. Abraham interceded for Sodom to try and save it, and it was still destroyed. That was God’s will. This is why Jesus’ discourse about intercession follows after he gives the Lord’s Prayer. And one of the key lines in the Lord’s Prayer? Thy will be done.

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We welcome to our parish this weekend Fr. Hugh O’Donnell and Mr. Tom McGuire who are here for the annual Archdiocesan Mission Appeal. You can read more about Fr. O’Donnell and their mission in serving churches overseas in the bulletin. Thank you for your generosity to the mission appeal.

This Friday, August 1st following the 8:30 a.m. Mass the Social Services Ministry is hosting its inaugural Serving our Seniors (SOS) event. All seniors are welcome to attend the 8:30 a.m. Mass and then the event following Mass in the HFC. A special thank you to Leni Duffy for creating this ministry to our seniors.

This Saturday at 9 a.m. in the HFC is the last Discern and Decide prayer workshop. Thank you to the E-Team for hosting this event and helping us grow in our spiritual lives.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James Wallace