Delayed answers?

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HardtoHear

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I am amazed that we live in a world where evil is so easy to recognize, but God’s wishes for us are very hard to discern.

I prayed one of those “never known to fail” 54 day Novenas, and I wasn’t exactly fervent every day I prayed it, but I tried very hard to focus, and for a guy with OCD, sticking to something like that is pretty amazing. It became something I looked forward to, and it made me relax.

Does anyone have a story about finding an answer to his or her prayer long after it was asked for?

Anyone have any testimonies in regards to the 54 day rosary novena?

How have you realized that you had an answer?
 
Given the late hour, it’s a struggle just to write a coherent sentence. Giving an example would be an impossibility right now. But I have had some prayers that took a long time for an answer - years, even. I’m not even totally sure I have the right answer. Sometimes God makes us wait for answers because we’re not ready for them. Sometimes he reveals His answers in stages. Be patient. It might not be a bad idea to seek a spiritual advisor to help you in discerning the answers.

Good luck!
 
Neither Christ nor His Church endorses such “never known to fail” prayers. Prayer is not like a chain letter.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
Neither Christ nor His Church endorses such “never known to fail” prayers. Prayer is not like a chain letter.
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Yes, but Jesus does seem to sell prayer quite by saying it is as easy as knocking on a door, a bit and the memorae is a catholic prayer that guarantees some aid.

But the 54 day novena doesn’t promise it won’t fail . I misspoke. But it is a legitimate novena that Mary gave to a witness and she healed this girl through it.

My,main issue is with answers anyway.
 
DAML72 said:
Given the late hour, it’s a struggle just to write a coherent sentence. Giving an example would be an impossibility right now. But I have had some prayers that took a long time for an answer - years, even. I’m not even totally sure I have the right answer. Sometimes God makes us wait for answers because we’re not ready for them. Sometimes he reveals His answers in stages. Be patient. It might not be a bad idea to seek a spiritual advisor to help you in discerning the answers.

Good luck!
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That was a helpful answer thanks! If you’d just move further west you wouldn’t be so tired right now, you know.

😉
 
God does answer in more than one way. It could be yes, no, not yet, or not this but that. Sometimes we may just be praying for the wrong thing. But God does hear us, and answers accordingly. Anything but a yes answer seems to get us all worked up. We who are used to an instant everything world can’t seem to slow down enough to wait for the answer. Or to hear the one given.
 
Well, I’m looking for actual testimony. I know the reasons why God does, does not answer , etc.

Some prayers are prayed in an emergency, urgent setting. And need a definite answer. That’s why I prayed the 54 day novena rosary. I’ve waited my entire life for some prayers to be answered.

Truth be told, I’d simply just like to have an answer, so I know that God is at least listening.

I’d like to hear from anyone that has actual experience when they had a delayed answer and they knew it was from God.
Christy_Beth said:
God does answer in more than one way. It could be yes, no, not yet, or not this but that. Sometimes we may just be praying for the wrong thing. But God does hear us, and answers accordingly. Anything but a yes answer seems to get us all worked up. We who are used to an instant everything world can’t seem to slow down enough to wait for the answer. Or to hear the one given.
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HardtoHear said:
Well, I’m looking for actual testimony. I know the reasons why God does, does not answer , etc.

Some prayers are prayed in an emergency, urgent setting. And need a definite answer. That’s why I prayed the 54 day novena rosary. I’ve waited my entire life for some prayers to be answered.

Truth be told, I’d simply just like to have an answer, so I know that God is at least listening.

I’d like to hear from anyone that has actual experience when they had a delayed answer and they knew it was from God.
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Well . . . I guess you can say that I am one such person who has received a delayed answer. There has been definite movement on God answering my prayer request via opportunities that were so coincidental that I know God heard me.

Specifically, my prayer request is to have some sort of friendship (holy, of course) with the soon-to-be pastor of my parish. I’ve been praying for this for over two years now and have prayed countless novenas, rosaries, chaplets, Mass intentions, and other prayers. God through his saints has given me signs that He has heard me through sending me roses from St. Therese, St. John of the Cross, and he Blessed Mother. I’ve also received rainbows, certain songs, and other things as signs. But, not only this, I have also received openings to talk and work with this priest when I asked God for some sort of opening. Yet, to date these openings have not been substantial enough to establish a friendship.

I am not certain why I desire to have this friendship. This priest is a holy man, for sure, but I also believe my desire may be also related to things involving our parish. Counsel from my spiritual director and others has not uncovered the “why.”

So, since God allows this desire to remain in my heart, I intend to continue to pray about it and act on any promptings from the Holy Spirit. Only God knows why I desire this and when He plans to answer it fully. As several others have said on your post, I am open to how and when God plans to grant my request. It may be that I suddenly lose this desire. But, until then I intend to keep working toward building some kind of friendship with this priest.

May God bless you.

houston1
 
HardtoHear said:
I am amazed that we live in a world where evil is so easy to recognize, but God’s wishes for us are very hard to discern.

I prayed one of those “never known to fail” 54 day Novenas, and I wasn’t exactly fervent every day I prayed it, but I tried very hard to focus, and for a guy with OCD, sticking to something like that is pretty amazing. It became something I looked forward to, and it made me relax.

Does anyone have a story about finding an answer to his or her prayer long after it was asked for?

Anyone have any testimonies in regards to the 54 day rosary novena?

How have you realized that you had an answer?
Click to expand...
A priest who went fishing at a lake left his fishing pole to pray his breviary and then realized that he did not lock his pole (thus a fish could easily drag it under water). Something did drag his pole underwater and the pole was lost. The priest prayed to St. Anthony for the recovery of his fishing pole. Four years later when he was on a boat at the lake he found his pole at the bottom of the lake. His prayer was finally answered after 4 years! St. Monica had to wait 20 years for her prayer for her son’s conversion (and for him to be wed) to be answered; and her prayer was answered in a much more marvelous way than she could ever have imagined – Augustine not only was converted, but became a bishop and saint! He did not end up marrying a woman like Monica had prayed for, but he did end up marrying the Church!
 
I’ve been praying against my loneliness, my mental illness, been praying for God to forgive me, and been praying for a financial miracle in my life- through a job (I’m unemployed) or some other means. I shudder to think of waiting 20 years, but which time I’ll be 60. I don’t know if I can last to that time.

Part of me feels that maybe everything I’ve prayed has been in vain, because of some major sin of mine, a major sin to come from me, my predestination as a bad person, or maybe because God cannot talk to mentally ill people. It is very disheartening. Maybe this is as good as it will get for me. Maybe my mental illness requires such a dramatic intervention by God, a miracle that I don’t deserve, that I’m always going to feel lost and directionless.

Maybe I’m so blind I will never see the answers, or, maybe I will refuse to accept them. Maybe I am truly evil and lost. Maybe I was never meant to be part of then normal world.

I have to admit I am very down about the 54 day rosary novena. When I finished the petition phase, I realized that God’s answers take time, and then over the next 27 days of the thanksgiving phase I had doubt, but I kept praying nonetheless because I know God would rather us pray than do nothing. I also know that money is not a great thing to pray for…and I’m starting to understand that my needs are dire, but not as dire as others, and I’m not the center of the universe, and my needs don’t supersede others’.

Everything I ever thought about myself, God’s will for me, and God’s nature is in question now. I know I’m not right.

Discernment is hard for me…but then, it is hard for everyone.
ready said:
A priest who went fishing at a lake left his fishing pole to pray his breviary and then realized that he did not lock his pole (thus a fish could easily drag it under water). Something did drag his pole underwater and the pole was lost. The priest prayed to St. Anthony for the recovery of his fishing pole. Four years later when he was on a boat at the lake he found his pole at the bottom of the lake. His prayer was finally answered after 4 years! St. Monica had to wait 20 years for her prayer for her son’s conversion (and for him to be wed) to be answered; and her prayer was answered in a much more marvelous way than she could ever have imagined – Augustine not only was converted, but became a bishop and saint! He did not end up marrying a woman like Monica had prayed for, but he did end up marrying the Church!
Click to expand...
 
HardtoHear said:
I’ve been praying against my loneliness, my mental illness, been praying for God to forgive me, and been praying for a financial miracle in my life- through a job (I’m unemployed) or some other means. I shudder to think of waiting 20 years, but which time I’ll be 60. I don’t know if I can last to that time.

Part of me feels that maybe everything I’ve prayed has been in vain, because of some major sin of mine, a major sin to come from me, my predestination as a bad person, or maybe because God cannot talk to mentally ill people. It is very disheartening. Maybe this is as good as it will get for me. Maybe my mental illness requires such a dramatic intervention by God, a miracle that I don’t deserve, that I’m always going to feel lost and directionless.

Maybe I’m so blind I will never see the answers, or, maybe I will refuse to accept them. Maybe I am truly evil and lost. Maybe I was never meant to be part of then normal world.

I have to admit I am very down about the 54 day rosary novena. When I finished the petition phase, I realized that God’s answers take time, and then over the next 27 days of the thanksgiving phase I had doubt, but I kept praying nonetheless because I know God would rather us pray than do nothing. I also know that money is not a great thing to pray for…and I’m starting to understand that my needs are dire, but not as dire as others, and I’m not the center of the universe, and my needs don’t supersede others’.

Everything I ever thought about myself, God’s will for me, and God’s nature is in question now. I know I’m not right.

Discernment is hard for me…but then, it is hard for everyone.
Click to expand...
Offer up your mental illness and other sufferings in union with Christ’s sufferings for some good intention; know that God loves and listens to the mentally ill with compassion on them; confess your sins to a traditional priests with true sorrow and make a perfect act of contrition; try not to sin and avoid the near occasions of sin; love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; seek first God’s kingdom and his justice (virtue) – all things will be added unto you; know that God is very close to the contrite who are afflicted; pray your rosary faithfully and fervently every day; when you pray for something that is not opposed to God’s Will, with a humble and contrite heart, pray with 100% confidence that your prayer will be answered in the best way possible; seek spiritual direction from a traditional priest; know that you you are a child of God who is loved by God with inestimable love; don’t think of yourself as evil unless you are a proud and unrepentant person who could care less about God and His laws; don’t give into excessive anxiety and discouragement so you won’t become the devil’s toy; do spiritual reading daily; do mental prayer and some sort of morning and evening prayer daily, along with your rosary; look to God, Mary, the Angels, Heaven and the next life for comfort, not to this world; ask God for what you need spiritually before you ask for what you need or desire temporally, and remember that what you want temporally may be the worst thing for your soul: and if it is, don’t expect God to grant your prayer request in the way that you want. God bless you.
 
You dear person of course God has forgiven your sin. You have repented it. You have asked God’s forgiveness, and presumably you went to Confession, and you’ve tried not to do it again. You are forgiven.
And just because you did a bad thing, doesn’t make you a bad person.
You are a good sincere person.

I believe there is a very special place in heaven for those heroic people like yourself who try so hard to cope and to do the right things, and to be prayerful and faithful,
even though everything is harder, even some ordinary things are harder,
than for those who don’t have mental illness or challenges.

A priest I knew spoke of ‘gray’ martyrdom. It is the martyrdom of souls like you who battle so hard every day, who try and pray the best they can manage…and I mean, “can manage” not some ideal way they think they should.

Even that you come here to CAF with your hurting heart, is a gift from God, as sisters or brothers like me can tell you that you are precious in God’s eyes, that while you seem to get nowhere, you are doing well on your spiritual journey.

Don’t think you’re not good because sometimes everything feels useless and disappointing. One of the most extraordinary saints of last century was Padre Pio, now canonized. Yet, his letters to his spiritual director showed how much he doubted himself, how much he saw his faults, but he trusted to God.

I look forward to meeting you in heaven ‘one day’ thanks to God’s mercy for us both.

God bless you dear one,

Trishie
 
Holy Spirit, I need wisdom and love. Will You share Yours with me?
I have many needs, in all aspects of my life, and my faith is wavering.
You seems not to hear my urgent pleas.
Yet, help me to persevere, even where there is wounding within me greater than anyone is aware.

I need You, Holy Spirit.
Help me to find healing for injuries and scars that prevent me from fully becoming the person I am created to be. Come into my mind and soul, and help me through the rest of my life.

Help me to carry my daily responsibilities with faith and hope, and mindful of Your command to love God above all and others as self, in Sacramental worship and with practical acts of kindness.

I cannot see that beautiful person I am in Your sight, nevertheless You dearly love me. For others’ benefit and for Your glory, bless me with Your grace and constant presence even when I do not feel or see You in my life.

:grouphug:

The Lord said: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways…Yes, and the heavens are as high above the earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:8-9]

Isaiah says, “I was thinking: ‘I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing.’ And all the while my cause was with God, my reward with my God.” [Isaiah 49:3-4]

For “the Lord is not being slow to carry out His promises…but He is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.” [2 Peter 3:9]
 
When God seems far away

Loving God please give us the grace to remain faithful when You seem far and disinterested.
Please help us to persevere though trials and losses that may shake our trust in You as attentive, loving God.

Yet, our God, how can we know what further dangers and evils might befall us or what good may be lost without Your grace and protection?

Saint Therese asked that if a father protects his child from breaking his leg, does he love him less than a father who allowed his fall but took tender care afterwards? We cannot know all good that has occurred or evil that might have happened had You not protected and blessed us. Thank You for safeguarding us!

Pleading for strength and grace, I choose to continue following You for others’ sake as much as for mine. In Your loving mercy let this choice endure and triumph. Please grant that it will and that Your blessings will fulfill Your desires in my life and within the lives of those whom I love and serve as Your instrument and witness.

Loving God please may Your will be fulfilled in and through me even when You seem far from me and from those I love.
I continue to hope that You will restore experience of love in my life and theirs.

O Silent God

Our God, we pray to You for others and ourselves, and sometimes it seems, if only for a time, a time of awful pain and loneliness, that no one is listening, that You are not there.

Many have turned away, disappointed and bitter, that You have not answered their urgent prayer, their painful need for self and for others. There is no satisfactory human answer to their challenge, whatever one might say of Your ways, Your time, because their anguish or their anger is the reality they experience.

Dear God, You need no reminder, but my humanness leads me to remind You that we are human in our minds and hearts and bodies. We have little or no actual sense or knowledge of ourselves as spirit.

If You do not touch us as human beings living in a physical world that we acutely experience, then who can blame anyone for losing faith and hope in You. I cannot blame those who do…but I pray for them with all my heart and life.

O silent God let us hear Your voice in the words of others, and let us be Your love spoken to them. Yet may I ask that You also speak directly to their hearts and minds with unmistakeable Love even where we cannot detect the action of Your Spirit in ourselves or in others. Speak to them in their last moments, if not before.

Please be mindful of our needs, and nurture us as we pray and seek Your healing and care. Embrace all who have lost their hope in God and prayer.
 
You are asking for testimonies of answers to prayers.

Yes, in my life, delayed answers to much prayers.

Some helpful links?

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=472820

missionbell.homestead.com/Afavourgrantedbytheholysouls.html

Remember that even for the saints. not all prayers are answered as we wish.
Even St Paul didn’t have his prayer answered as he wanted for himself.:

He wrote in 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10

"…a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.

Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,
but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’
So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong".
 
HardtoHear said:
I’ve been praying against my loneliness, my mental illness, been praying for God to forgive me, and been praying for a financial miracle in my life- through a job (I’m unemployed) or some other means. I shudder to think of waiting 20 years, but which time I’ll be 60. I don’t know if I can last to that time.

Part of me feels that maybe everything I’ve prayed has been in vain, because of some major sin of mine, a major sin to come from me, my predestination as a bad person, or maybe because God cannot talk to mentally ill people. It is very disheartening. Maybe this is as good as it will get for me. Maybe my mental illness requires such a dramatic intervention by God, a miracle that I don’t deserve, that I’m always going to feel lost and directionless.

Maybe I’m so blind I will never see the answers, or, maybe I will refuse to accept them. Maybe I am truly evil and lost. Maybe I was never meant to be part of then normal world.

I have to admit I am very down about the 54 day rosary novena. When I finished the petition phase, I realized that God’s answers take time, and then over the next 27 days of the thanksgiving phase I had doubt, but I kept praying nonetheless because I know God would rather us pray than do nothing. I also know that money is not a great thing to pray for…and I’m starting to understand that my needs are dire, but not as dire as others, and I’m not the center of the universe, and my needs don’t supersede others’.

Everything I ever thought about myself, God’s will for me, and God’s nature is in question now. I know I’m not right.

Discernment is hard for me…but then, it is hard for everyone.
Click to expand...
I also battle lonliness along with being mentally ill. And my income is from disability, so I know what you mean about the job situation. I’d rather be working than receiving disability. But God hasn’t given me the answers I have sought for so long. One thing he has given me, or is giving me, is enough faith to get through each day. Sometimes, especially on Fridays, I’m surprised that I managed to get through the day/week. But that’s God’s work, not mine.

Sometimes I also feel like my prayers bounce off the ceiling. I seem to be getting nowhere in life. But I have to remember that God doesn’t judge us by how much we do, but with what obedience we live our lives. I fall short many times, but I always pray for God to help me get back up. This last week was a rough one, and I face the new week a bit unsure. Will it be a continuation of last week, or will it be totally different? That’s another thing that comes from God. Despite how the week turns out, I’ll still lean on him from where my help comes from.
 
Thank you for this.
Christy_Beth said:
I also battle lonliness along with being mentally ill. And my income is from disability, so I know what you mean about the job situation. I’d rather be working than receiving disability. But God hasn’t given me the answers I have sought for so long. One thing he has given me, or is giving me, is enough faith to get through each day. Sometimes, especially on Fridays, I’m surprised that I managed to get through the day/week. But that’s God’s work, not mine.

Sometimes I also feel like my prayers bounce off the ceiling. I seem to be getting nowhere in life. But I have to remember that God doesn’t judge us by how much we do, but with what obedience we live our lives. I fall short many times, but I always pray for God to help me get back up. This last week was a rough one, and I face the new week a bit unsure. Will it be a continuation of last week, or will it be totally different? That’s another thing that comes from God. Despite how the week turns out, I’ll still lean on him from where my help comes from.
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Thank you for all you’ve done to try to help me. I appreciate it 🙂
 
I just realized that not only do I have OCD, but I also have Borderline Personality Disorder. This explains my extreme sensitivity, anger, impulsiveness feelings of loss, and extreme negativity. It explains my inability to handle criticism and esp… rejection.

I am so messed up.
 
Sometimes, God makes us wait to strentghen our faith.

I have borderline personnality disorder too.
 
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