Expert: Marco - 10/2/2007

Question
I pray the Rosary at least twice a day and say other prayers.  I go to Mass three times a week and pray quite often, yet it seems my prayers are falling on deaf ears. I dont see any improvement -as I pray to be a better person but still sin.  How can one tell if all this praying is going anywhere?


Answer
Dear James,

God always gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him with faith.

I report below some verses from the Bible. Meditating these verses has always strenghtened my faith.

Luke
11:5 And he said to them, Suppose you have a friend and go to him at midnight, and say to him,
Friend, lend me three loaves;
11:6 For a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.
11:7 And from within he shall answer and say, Do not trouble me: the door is now shut, and my children
are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give you anything.
11:8 I say to you, Though he will not rise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because
of his persistence he will rise and give him as much as he needs.
11:9 And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened to you.
11:10 For every one who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be
opened.
11:11 Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
11:12 Or if he asks for an egg, will offer him a scorpion?
11:13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?


Mark
11:20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
11:21 And Peter remembered and said to him, Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which you cursed has
withered away.
11:22 And Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.
11:23 For truly I say to you, That whoever shall say to this mountain, Be removed, and be cast
into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says
shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he says.
11:24 Therefore I say to you, Whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that
you have received them, and you shall have them.
11:25 And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone: that your Father
who is in heaven may also forgive your trespasses.
11:26 [But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your
trespasses.]



Matthew
17:14 And when they had come to the multitude, a certain man came to him, kneeling down before him,
and saying,
17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and severely vexed: for often he falls
into the fire, and often into the water.
17:16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.
17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
how long shall I endure you? bring him here to me.
17:18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and it departed out of him: and the boy was cured from that very
hour.
17:19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, Why could we not cast it out?
17:20 And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief: for truly I say to you, If you have faith
as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there; and it shall
move; and nothing shall be impossible for you.
17:21 [Yet this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.]

21:19 And when he saw a fig tree by the way, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves,
and he said to it, Let no fruit grow on you ever again. And at once the fig tree withered away.
21:20 And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How did the fig tree so quickly wither
away?
21:21 Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, and do not doubt,
you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say to this mountain,
Be removed, and be cast into the sea; it shall be done.
21:22 And all things, whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

6:2 Therefore, when you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets, that they may have praise from men. Truly I say to you, They have
received their reward.
6:3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing:
6:4 That your alms may be in secret: and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you.
6:5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites: for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and at the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you,
They have received their reward.
6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and when you have shut your door,
pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you.
6:7 But when you pray, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do: for they think that
they shall be heard for their many words.
6:8 Therefore, do not be like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.


6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else
he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
6:25 Therefore I say to you, Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall
drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?
6:26 Behold the birds of the air: they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
6:27 Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to the span of his life?
6:28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they do not toil, nor do they spin:
6:29 And yet I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
6:30 Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?
6:31 Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what
shall we be clothed?
6:32 After all these things the Gentiles seek: but your heavenly Father knows that you have need of
all these things.
6:33 But seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
6:34 Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow shall be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for each day are the troubles of its own.

7:7 Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:
7:8 For every one who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened.
7:9 Or what man is there among you, whom, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall
your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
7:12 Therefore, all things that you would have men do for you, do for them: for this is the law and the prophets.

James
1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and without reproach; and it shall be given him.
1:6 But let him ask in faith, without wavering. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
1:7 Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord,
1:8 For a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

I hope this may help,

Your brother in Christ,

Marco
PS I think that faith cannot come only from logic, because to have faith in God means to trust and love God.
I think however that logics and science prove the existence of our soul and the existence of  God and that there are many rational arguments strongly supporting the christian faith.
The explanation of these aguments is rather long and Allexperts allows only to give short answers. You can find such arguments  in the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.