May 17, 2026 Essay: “Lord, Hear Our Prayer”

Are there times when you struggle to believe in the power of prayer?  This is certainly true for me—more times than I care to admit. When I’m having the most difficulty with prayer, I find myself at a loss: feelings are indescribable, my words become mere generalizations, and I can become spiritually cold and distant. There are times when my attempts also feel ineffectual, and I find myself just going through the motions. It’s akin to a friend sincerely asking me how I’m doing, and all I can muster in reply is a detached, “I’m fine.” Sometimes the things we need seem too big to understand, let alone articulate in prayer. Does this sound familiar? Is this something that you similarly struggle with?

It’s not always easy to be truthful in our prayer, and not always natural to express our needs and desires directly to God. Even less easy is it to trust that our prayers are always being heard and acknowledged. It might offer a bit of consolation to know that the same held true for so many holy people who have come before us. Thomas Merton, for example, notably began a prayer in the following way:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact the I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so…”

In many ways, I think that Jesus knew that we would constantly struggle in this regard, and so the Gospels are full of reiterations and encouragements, reminding us of the Lord’s closeness to us. In the Gospel this Sunday, for instance, Jesus prays to the Father with these words:

“I pray for them[…] because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you…”

Yes, you heard that correctly: Jesus prays for US! Think of how powerful that is!  In all our weaknesses and deficiencies, in all the ways that we might turn away from God and reject goodness, in all the ways we struggle to pray ourselves, Jesus still lifts us up in prayer. More so, through his prayer, Jesus reminds us that he is glorified in us—that as small and powerless as we can feel and seem, Jesus chose to dwell in you and me. What a gift and a grace! We are assured that even if we can’t form the words of our deepest needs and desires into prayer, God already knows them—because we belong to God and God dwells within each of us. It’s too easy to take this for granted or to forget that this is true, but these sentiments are a constant refrain in the readings of Eastertide because they are a reminder of the reason for the Paschal mystery; Jesus died and rose from the dead so that the Spirit of God could be with us always and in all ways, “until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Next Sunday will bring us to the end of this Easter season as we celebrate Pentecost and rejoice in the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the One who accompanies us, empowers us, and gives us the strength to live out our calling as Christians. With trust in the Holy Spirit, may we pray for the deepest yearnings of our hearts with true conviction. No matter how limited and broken our words and sentiments may seem, let us entrust our prayers to the God who dwells within and knows all our deepest desires. And alongside Thomas Merton and all the Saints, we say:

“My Lord God…
I believe that the desire to please you, does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore, I will trust you always,
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.”

— Roxanne De La Torre, Pastoral Associate for Ignatian Spirituality & Faith Formation