Persist in conversation with God. What is more complex than to pray or not to pray?

They brought the grandmother to the intensive care unit. She kept moving her lips. After a few hours, the nurse put her ear to the grandmother’s lips. Although it was impossible to communicate with the grandmother, she did not answer the questions of the staff; the nurse heard the quiet words of prayer. Grandma was praying. Those who knew her knew, and many of those around her said it aloud: “How can this woman bear it in her life? When she was carrying her fifth child, her husband was killed by a tree in the forest. They burned down that year. She took care even then about her father-in-law, who was bedridden. And this woman didn’t complain to anyone. She also found time to go to Holy Mass at least once or twice on working days of the week. The children were clean and decent, and she sent them to school… When they got married and they got married, she took care of her grandchildren. She didn’t say much, but they often saw a rosary in her hands. No one said a bad word to her in her life. She didn’t get angry with anyone. No one could deny her something when she asked for something.” On the third day in the intensive care unit, as quietly as she had lived, she died quietly, just stopped moving her lips.

Prayer. What is hidden behind this word? What do we know about prayer? What about our prayer? Even today, topical questions.

Evangelist St. Luke wrote: “Jesus told the disciples a parable about how always to pray and not give up” (Lk 18:1). The text of the Gospel speaks about the last things of the world, for which it is necessary to prepare – and that through prayer. We would be wrong if we claimed that we should only pray from morning to evening and be always on our knees. However, this does not mean there should not be a place in our lives for regular, pious, focused, persistent prayer of various contents in every place we live. Our life should be an intimate conversation with God. Prayer teaches love for God, neighbor, and self in the figure of a judge who is not a heathen but a Jew who does not practice the faith, who lives as if he never had to appear before his God the Judge after death. He was not interested in justice or public opinion; he passed unjust judgments and did not care about the oppressed. The second character of the Gospel, the widow – represents misery and helplessness; she is alone and exploited. But the widow is persistent and unyielding. She will not give rest to the judge until his patience runs out. The judge, although not in the interest of justice but to have peace from the widow, takes over her dispute.

The parable is our lesson. If the unjust man obeys the nagging widow, how much more will the reasonable God uphold the just cause of his faithful ones against their enemies? Indeed, many do not pray today. We pray little. The quality of prayer is declining. And yet prayer belongs to our lives at least as much as we breathe. We know the body needs oxygen, and the soul should not need prayer. Do we not doubt the right human way of life, and should we underestimate the way of life of the soul? Prayer recharges heaven.