Daily Collection taken from the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Collect: Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son…
“Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you”
— Although we speak of merit, we always recognize that the ability to merit something is itself God’s gift to us. The gift of cooperating with our own salvation is but one of the many ways in which God shows His generosity. Because of his abundance, we are free to ask in prayer what we could never hope to earn, be it the conversion of loved ones, freedom from our own sins, or extraordinary gifts of the Spirit.
“pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask”
— It is often said that one should not pray for patience or humility because God often answers these prayers by placing us in humiliating or difficult situations to teach us such virtues. This is actually unwise because patience and humility are necessary virtues for growth in holiness and for ensuring ever further our own salvation. Resting on the assurance of God’s abundance, the Church herself prays for these things on our behalf and encourages us to join in Her prayer. She also invokes His abundance to beg forgiveness of sins which the sinner himself might feel is too unspeakable to even beg mercy for. Indeed, the ability to recognize sin and ask for mercy is itself dependent upon the Grace given by God in His mercy.
Advice: Aim high, go for the gold, shoot for the stars! Do you seek a rare spiritual gift? An opportunity you don’t deserve? Do you desire radical holiness or even martyrdom, but feel you’ll never be worthy? Do you know some terrible or notoriously hardened sinner who seems completely beyond conversion and repentance? Are you worried about the Synod or particular bishops there, but fear you cannot possibly sacrifice enough to do anything? Go ahead and ask! It is a holy thing to offer prayer, alms, and sacrifice for our requests or for the conversion of sinners so that we can merit the grace of their conversion. Yet, we can also ask for these gifts out of hope in God’s sheer generosity and He sometimes grants them. So pray and offer sacrifice, but do not let the littleness of your own merit and holiness keep you from believing that God can and does answer big prayers.
I recommend a prayer like this: “God, I do not deserve this and probably should be ashamed to even ask, but I am confident in your abundant generosity. Laying all my hope in your kindness, I ask you to grant me this favor [mention request here], which I do not deserve as a sign of your overflowing love and for the salvation of souls, especially my own.”