St. Paul Prays for Us

November 25, 2017

I made a prayer card and reflection rocks yesterday. It took me all day to print, cut, paste, paint, and be creative and free with the process. As I was sifting through Scriptures, I found Ephesians 3:14-21, St. Paul's "Prayer for the Readers." Paul prays that God grants his readers, God-willing, the strength of the Holy Spirit to be in us so that Christ can dwell in our hearts through faith. He prays that our faith be grounded and rooted in love and that we may be able to comprehend the vast, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God. He prays that his readers know the love of Christ because it surpasses knowledge and allows them to be filled with the fullness of love. That all of this be done so that these readers can, in turn, give all of the glory back to God.

Wow, amidst writing his letter to the Ephesians, he pauses to pray for them. He could've just said the prayer in his head and continued writing his letter, but instead he wrote the prayer down. I wonder if he knew that people throughout history would read it and I wonder if he knew that he was praying for centuries-worth of generations of readers. That is proof that the Holy Spirit is moving. From persecuting Christians to his own conversion to preaching Catholicism, St. Paul shows us his inner relationship with God through this prayer. Paul prays that we receive love, the Holy Spirit, and everything else, God-willing. He recognizes that even though he wants all of these things for us, God has the ultimate plan, and all of us have to surrender to that in His time. To be able to wish and to pray for all of these things for someone else, you have to have been graced with experiencing them. What a conversion Paul experienced. What an open and loving relationship he now has with God, and it is so open that he wants to share it with his readers.