Prayer Life Dilemma

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DeniseNY

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I guess one could say I’m having a bit of a dilemma regarding prayer.

For the last two years, I have dealt with a chronic health condition. It’s not life threatening, but after a certain period of time, if it doesn’t go away, all doctors will say it’s permanent (I don’t want to go into details of it).

So here’s the dilemma, I believe that regardless of what medicine has to offer, God can heal me. I believe that with all my heart. My doubts come in because I have this belief, but as of now, I have not been healed. It makes me think that the answer is just “no”. Because this condition is not curable by human skill or effort, does that mean that when someone gets it, God’s will is always for them to have it? I’ve offered Novenas (even though they’re not really in the Byzantine tradition), lit candles, offered Liturgies and Masses, sent prayer requests to numerous shrines…

Am I wasting my time? Should I just stop praying about it, or is there a different way to pray about it? Waiting for God to heal me has kind of stopped me from accepting that this may be permanent.

I’m rambling, if you’ve gotten this far and have any advice to offer, I’d appreciate it.
 
I am sure God could heal you if he willed. It may be that God is saying “No”.

However, if it were me, I would select one and only one person up for sainthood who needed a miracle and then pray unceasingly just to that one person for their intercession with God.

It may be that a healing would occur sufficient to provide the “miracle” needed to move their sainthood cause along.
 
Have you remembered to pray His Will be done?
Pray that if He so wills, you can take the suffering that comes with this and offer for it to be unified to the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the world.
 
Thank you. I’ve prayed for the intercession of Rhoda Wise and I’ve visited her home in Canton, OH on many occassions. I haven’t been there in a while, though.

http://rhodawise.com/
 
I have. Some days I feel accepting of God’s will, but on others, not so much. It’s a struggle for me.
 
I pray for Rhoda’s cause every day after I finish the St. Therese novena and Jesus prayer that are posted on her website.

Actually, now that I think of it, you were the one who had the house linked in your sig on the old CAF. That was how I found out who she was. I am from Cleveland area and had never heard of her.

She’s a good one to pray to if you are in need of healing, but it didn’t happen for everybody who visited her, if God didn’t will it.
 
This is a difficult question to answer and if I may, allow me to respond in a slightly unorthodox manner. Let us faithfuly accept that God allows suffering as it is to result in one, or more, of the following three ends…
  1. That we be sanctified: meaning that through our suffering, satisfaction is made to God, and with that we find favor with our creator who in His very being is owed all.
  2. That someone close to us becomes sanctified: this is the offering of our suffering for the satisfaction owed to God, for the sake of another’s soul, out of love for God. A less wordy way to say this would be that we offer our suffering as penitential or redemptive suffering, for the sake of someone else’s soul.
  3. That God may be glorified: As in the book of Job, the suffering with reverent fidelity to God, showed glory and reverence to God the Father, the Creator. Job was said to be Holy and although he did not merit suffering he was a means to God’s glorification.
I pray that God grants you His divine peace and consolation. I pray that He may allow you to see the spiritual fruits of your physical suffering. You are not alone! I pray that God’s will be done and that you continue to progress in holiness. Pax Christi!
 
Thank you very much. I do appreciate your (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
Hi @DeniseNY, disease is a reality of our human condition just as death is. All of this is the way God made this valley of tears. Somewhere in the old testament it says that you should obey your medical doctors because God installed them as medical doctors.

Now, have there been many miracle (extraordinary) cures through intercession prayer, sacrament (anointing) of the sick, and even resulting from “promises” to visit shrines like Lourdes: YES! Cures do happen.
DeniseNY said:
God’s will is always for them to have it?
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Now, these cures are not deterministic and neither are they the rule. God can certainly cure you. But remember becoming sick is a natural part of living.

From my view point, the most important thing is eternal salvation of our souls, and of others souls. And even health in this life (like wealth or success in a lesser degree) are secondary to the eternal bliss of heaven and the beatific vision.
DeniseNY said:
Am I wasting my time?
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Certainly not! Prayers are not wasted. And Our Lord uses them as He sees fit many times even better than we’d expect or hope for. Although, sometimes we don’t exactly get what we want many times we get more and even much better than that what we asked for.

There is a complex science to the “economy of salvation” called Soteriology of which prayers are a part of. Also, there is your own spiritual life and the “economy of grace”, you might not receive exactly what you wish yet graces are nevertheless obtained through you prayers to your profit and the profit of others.

And many times, one of the hardest parts is accepting God’s Holy will, in this instance that we are finite, vulnerable to disease and suffering. Sometimes I don’t have the preserverance (worst even the will) to cooperate with the graces I receive, and the spiritual sloth called acedia.

I will give an example: Sometimes God wills something and other people disobey by sinning, we are hurt and suffer the damage of a third parties sin. Did God will those persons to sin and cause us damage? I don’t think so, yet God permits it due to their freedom and we should strive to be wise in dealing with it. In your case God permits disease as a part of our human condition. We are still paying the price of original sin.
 
Thank you very much @adgloriam for your posts! Both are incredibly helpful to me!
 
Code: 
 DeniseNY,
 I find this from Fr. Charles Grondin very helpful.
 "My advice is to remember that God does not get us out of anything, but
He will get us through everything…"
 
Hi Denise, you posted before asking how to know when to stop praying for a particular intention. I remember that thread because I posted a similar question way back. I replied to your post saying I don’t know the answer, and still don’t.

Right now, what I did was stop praying for that intention for a while for two weeks. I thought I needed a break from thinking about it at least once a day. I told myself, I can probably hink about it for these two weeks, but don’t pray anything about it.
 
Hi, fin. Thanks for responding. I thought I had posted about this before, but wasn’t sure. I kind of feel like you; I need a bit of a break.

I will say a prayer for you this evening.
 
Hi Denise,

I also think that it sometimes can be difficult to find that kind of balance when you’re dealing with suffering through illness in particular, and you’re trying to find that balance of how long do I pray, do I keep praying for healing, do I stop praying, when do I pray, how do I pray, and so on.

Sometimes I feel like I “don’t even know how to pray.”

I have found for myself that God definitely works through others when it comes to helping with some of my own chronic health conditions, so I really try and keep an open mind to that.

With another health issue that I’m dealing with right now, I found out that I just basically have to coast through it for now.

I just try and “offer up” what I’m dealing with for the members/friends of CAF. I know that we all have Crosses and that we all struggle in so many ways.

I’m sorry for your struggles too, Denise. ❤️

May God comfort you and bless you during this difficult time for you. ❤️
 
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Thank you so much! This is very helpful!

May God bless you as well!
 
I think I’m going to take a drive to Rhoda’s house tomorrow morning. I feel the urge to go there again.
 
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