When should one keep praying?

Recently, in the past several weeks, I wrote many posts on when to persist in catechesis or evangelization, and when to walk away.

Now, someone has asked me when do we stop praying for someone or something?

This is not an easy question to answer. Sometimes, rarely, God does speak to one’s heart and one hears loudly and clearly, “Stop praying.” This has happened to some holy prayer warriors I know concerning people for whom they were praying who had died.

“Stop praying” for a certain dead person may either reveal that the person is already in heaven, or worse, that they have chosen hell. But, none of us know for sure who is in hell.

As long as people are living, or one has a strong sense that a person is in purgatory, one should not stop praying.

However, this can happen-that one’s prayers change as one prays for a person.

For example, a person may be praying for one thing, one request, on intention for another, and find out that the prayer is really about something else entirely.

I have prayed for years for some aspect or situation in a friend’s life, only to discover over a period of time, that the prayer is really aimed at a totally different aspect or situation.

For example, I was praying for months to get back to Europe, and gradually, I discovered in prayer that I should be praying that all obstacles which are keeping me from living there be removed.

That emphasis slightly changed my prayers, as the key to getting back is not what I can see, but what I cannot see. These obstacles may even be in me, as God might want me to return in a state of His living grace higher than where I am now.

One may be praying for someone to be healed of cancer, and in those long days of prayer, the prayer may change to one of asking God to bring that person closer to Him.

Do not stop praying for those who have breath. Do not stop praying for those in purgatory, unless you have a sense the person has been freed.

Pray in the Will of God, but ask for specifics. St. Teresa of Avila noted that those who do not ask for specifics insult God. These people lack faith and hope in Divine Providence.

If something is on your heart and mind, pray, pray, pray. Trust that God has put the desire for good in your soul.

To be continued….