An unlosable proposition

I'm having a raggedy Lent so far this year, which on the upside means I'm not at risk of vainglory in how well I'm keeping Lent.

But I have managed to actually complete a novena -- to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots -- in the nine days since Ash Wednesday. (I probably complete on time about 10% of the novenas I start.) And just a couple of hours after I finished the ninth day's prayer, I received some fantastic news related to my prayer intention.

Correlation? Empirically so. Causation? Impossible to say, as impossible as when something good happened related to my prayer intention the other time I completed a novena to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots.

Now, there's nothing at all miraculous about the good things that happened. I'm inclined to think -- even, in a way, hope -- they were purely coincidental. If it turns out to be the case that God wants to answer my prayers, then my lousy prayer life is responsible for a whole lot of grace missing in this world.

Frankly, though, it doesn't matter. The act of prayer is in itself a grace, which if maintained becomes the habit of prayer, and that's a good in itself. Whether or not we get what we pray for in some discernible way, we are sure to get what praying does for us, which we can then give to those we've been given to love.

Offer yourself to Jesus. Invoke Mary's aid. Trust.

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