Last month on the 20th of June we celebrated the Solemnity of the Patroness of our Shrine, Our Lady Consolata. I take this opportunity to thank all of you for making our celebration of Consolata Day a great success. Great appreciation goes out to all those who donated the flowers for sale and for decorating the Church, the Charities committee for co-ordinating the flower sale with the sub-committee led by Ms. Connie Kato, and to all of you for being there on that great day at our Parish. May the Lord through our Patroness Mary Consolata bless you all.

During this month of July, I would like to share a few thoughts on Prayer: How to Pray Better.

The apostles said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us how to pray." In response, he taught them the "Our Father." If we're serious about our faith, we will often say something similar to Jesus. We will say, "Lord, teach me to pray better; teach me to pray more effectively; teach me to pray as you want me to pray."

And this is certainly something Jesus wants to do for us: he wants to help us pray better, since he knows how important and how powerful prayer is. In the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. Obviously, Jesus knew his disciples would be tempted at times to get casual about their prayer or to neglect it entirely, and he wanted to motivate them to resist those temptations. So he told them the parable about a poor widow seeking justice. His message to them was, "Look, if this dishonest, despicable judge will honour the persistent requests of this widow, how much more will your loving, compassionate Father respond to the sincere and persistent prayers of his beloved children? So pray-and pray with confidence and with perseverance; in good times and in bad; when you feel like praying and even when you don't feel like praying." Notice that Jesus does not say or imply that God will always respond to our prayers in precisely the way we want him to; he merely assures us that God will respond-and ultimately that response will be according to his perfect and holy will.

Of course, God has many different ways of truly answering our prayers. Sometimes he answers them through events; sometimes he answers them through other human beings.

Here are some simple, practical points on praying more effectively; how to pray better:

Praise and give thanks first; then asking for anything should come second. The New Catholic Catechism speaks of prayer as "the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit." A good relationship does not begin with the words, "Give me . . . " Prayer that begins with petition is usually superficial prayer. And here's a consequence to this suggestion: When you do offer up your petitions and ask God for things, pray for others as well as for yourself. We know that's what God wants us to do because in the ‘Our Father' (which is our model prayer) we never use the pronoun "I"; it's always "us" and "our".

To pray better, pray to a Person. We pray to a personal God who loves us just as we are. In this regard, it may be helpful to imagine Jesus standing before you when you pray-especially when you do so in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. (Because when you pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus IS right there in front of you!)

Here's another suggestion: To pray better, focus on quality and not on quantity. It's better to say one ‘Our Father' slowly and with real devotion, than to say a hundred ‘Our Father's at the speed of lightening. Quality is more important than quantity.

Think about what you're saying when you pray. Do not pray like a parrot, pray like a prophet! Parrots just say words without thinking; prophets reflect on what they're saying.

But don't say too much! To pray well, practice listening. This may be quite difficult-but well worth the effort. A great way to begin practicing may be as follows: before Mass, slowly read over the Scripture passages for the day. Look for a word or phrase that strikes you and touches your mind and heart. Then spend some time pondering that word or phrase, and ask the Lord to help you to see how it applies to your life. At times you'll be surprised at how many ideas fill your mind. That is one way to practice "listening to God."
If you want to pray better, always expect Someone to speak to you when you pray. You can only listen to a message if someone says something you can hear. Perhaps one reason why many of us find prayer tedious is that we don't really expect to "hear" the Lord speak to us in his Word or in our heart when we pray to him! Consequently, we keep our "spiritual ears" closed!

Another suggestion: Don't judge the effectiveness of your prayer by how you feel. Think about Moses when he stood there for hours in prayer with his hands raised up in the air, while Joshua and the Israelites fought the Amalekites. After awhile, he definitely felt exhausted! In fact, he was so tired that Aaron and Hur had to support his hands! But his prayer was extremely effective, in spite of the fatigue he felt in his body.

Here's a crucial point about praying well: Never think that you can "change God" when you pray: that can't possibly happen, so it will only make you frustrated! Prayer doesn't change God, but it will change us if we allow it to, opening us up to the many blessings the Lord already wants to give us.

To pray effectively, pray like Jesus i.e. pray even for your enemies, and make every effort to forgive them! Remember the prayer Jesus offered on the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 1 Peter 3:7 indicates that if we pray with love in our hearts, nothing will prevent our prayers from being answered. But our love must be universal, because the love of Christ was universal. If you have trouble putting into practice any or all of the suggestions I just mentioned, don't give up. Keep praying and the Lord through Our Lady Consolata will show you the way.

During this month of July, we have two important seminars taking place. The first seminar is organized by the Christian Education Committee on the topic, ‘What dampens Love after Marriage.' I invite all the married couples to attend. This will take place on Sunday 11th July after the 9.00am Mass at the Parish hall. The next seminar will be about the Constitution organized by the Justice and Peace Committee and facilitated by Mr. Charles Kanjama, an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya; and Dr. Stephen Karanja of the Justice and Peace Committee of Consolata Shrine. This will take place on the 18th of July after the 9.00am Mass. I kindly urge you all to attend.

Finally, our annual Pilgrimage to Subukia is here with us once again and will take place next month on the 7th of August. Registration is taking place at the Parish office and outside the Church on Sundays. Those who cannot go on the pilgrimage but are willing to sponsor a pilgrim or more are invited to do so. Kindly look at the posters on the notice boards for more information.

May God continue to fill you with his love and may he grant you and all those dear to you his blessings of joy, peace and love through Our Lady Consolata; the Patroness of our Parish.

Rev. Fr. Marino Gemma, IMC

Parish Priest