THREE  WOMEN AND 

FOUR KINDS OF PRAYER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily or reflection for today is, “Three Women and Four Kinds of Prayer.”

We only know the name of the first woman. It’s Gomer - the wife of Hosea the prophet - whose oracles or utterings we have this week as our first readings. The second woman is the young girl in today’s gospel who was very sick and thought to have died - whose father was an official who came to Jesus to come and see and heal his daughter. The third woman is the woman with the bleeding problems who wants to sneak up and just touch the tassel of Jesus’ cloak  so that she would be healed.

THE  9-1-1  GOD

Our God is a 9-1-1 God - no doubt about that. 

We call 9-1-1 for one reason: Help.

We pray for various reasons - one of which is “Help!”

In fact, I think the main prayer in life is the one word prayer, “Help!”

If someone doesn’t know how to pray, I simply say, “Can you say, ‘Help!’”

In the famous book, The Cloud of Unknowing, the writer says a person in a burning building doesn’t need to be told what to say. They simple scream out the window, “Help!”

Sometimes I want to say to people, “Put down your prayer books - stop saying all those prayers and simply scream, “Help!”

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s first reading from the prophet Hosea we have the early part of that book of the Bible and he kept asking God for two things: “Help my wife and help me to forgive my wife.”  She was a temple prostitute and kept going back to it.

In today’s gospel - as already mentioned - the official comes to Jesus and says, “Help!”

In today’s gospel - as already mentioned - the woman with the bleeding problems - simply reached out to touch Jesus for help!

FOUR  BASIC PRAYERS

If you heard it once, you’ve heard it 400 times: there are 4 types of prayer: Petition, Thanksgiving, Contrition and Adoration.

I like to translate or convert those 4 words to 4 simpler words: Help, Thanks, Sorry and Wow.

The only one of those 4 words that does not seem to fit is the last word, “wow”. So to make it fit, I would add that the wow is a Wow to the one who wowed us.

I like to add that if we can’t say those 4 words each day to each other in many of life’s situations, then we’re missing something when it comes to having a prayer life.

I base that statement on the First Letter of  John, where the writer says, if can’t love each other, whom we can see, how can we love God whom we cannot see.

So if we can’t talk to each other, whom we can see, how can we talk to God, whom we cannot see and hear.

So practice saying to each other those 4 words: Help, Thanks, Sorry and Wow.

Then you’ll find yourself praying.