Los Angeles archbishop highlights the privilege of prayer: ‘We can know that the Creator is listening’

It is essential to make time to pray daily, despite the modern culture’s demands and distractions, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, California, emphasized in a recent reflection.

Prayer, though perhaps not considered “efficient” by a fast-paced world, is a privilege and gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted, according to the archbishop’s Aug. 26 reflection for Angelus News.

“We have the beautiful privilege to talk to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One who made all the seas and mountains and planets and stars, and everything that lives,” Archbishop Gomez wrote. “And we can know that the Creator is listening. This will never cease to amaze me.”

The archbishop said privilege can be easy to overlook in a culture that prizes efficiency.

“It can be tempting for us to think that prayer is ‘obsolete,’ that we don’t really need to pray,” he wrote. “But we do need to pray.”

Archbishop Gomez pointed to what the faithful receive through prayer.

“God himself has given us this treasure of prayer, so that we can know him and love him and share our lives with him, both in this world and in the world to come,” he wrote.

Drawing from St. John Vianney, Archbishop Gomez recalled the saint’s description of prayer and love as humanity’s “noble task.”

“So we need to renew our attention to prayer. We need to put God first, to make our friendship with God our primary obligation,” Archbishop Gomez wrote. “Prayer is our ‘noble task,’ as the saint says.”

Making room for prayer, he said, requires intentionally giving the Lord time each day.

“Make a time every day when you can set yourself apart from the ‘noise’ of your responsibilities and activities. It doesn’t need to be a long time. Ten minutes is a good start,” he wrote. “Just make time to have some silence in your heart so God can speak to you — and so you can listen and speak back to him.”

Archbishop Gomez also reflected on what it means to approach God as a son or daughter.

“As children of God, we can talk to our heavenly Father, not out of fear, but out of love. We can talk to him with confidence, with that ‘filial boldness,’” Archbishop Gomez wrote. “When you pray, pray as a child who knows that you are loved, who knows that your Father has a beautiful plan of love for your life.”

Archbishop Gomez encouraged Catholics to pray for their family and loved ones, as well as for the difficult situations in their lives.

“And pray for ‘hard cases,’ too. We all have them in our lives,” he wrote. “We can ask our Father for miracles, healings, and conversions for us, and for people in our lives. All things are possible for the child of God, so let’s pray with a lively faith and a pure heart!”

Archbishop Gomez concluded by turning to the Blessed Virgin Mary as an example of prayer.

“And may our Blessed Mother Mary teach us to pray as she did — that God’s will be done in our lives, always and in all things.”