Our Lord describes his grace as the "food of children."  His love finds a special home in hearts which are pure, and simple, and trusting.  Again and again Our Lord encouraged his disciples to have Faith like that of little children, to offer prayers with the purity and sincerity of little ones, to love and cling to God as a child loves and clings to his parents.  And we are called to have the boldness and shamelessness of a child.  To believe that whatever we ask of God with a pure heart, we will truly receive.  We’ve all experienced how insistent children can sometimes be in their requests: “Mommy, please can I have some ice cream, please can I have some ice cream.  Please, please, please.”  Over and over.  And parents can be very vulnerable to that line of attack, especially if the child is asking for something that’s good for him.  Imagine if your daughter said, “Please, Daddy, please can I have some green vegetables.”  “Yes.  Absolutely.”  God is a true father, and we are truly his children.  And he listens to our prayers every time. 

Now good parents won’t always give their children ice cream every time they ask for it.  “No…it’s 6:30 in the morning.  It’s too early for ice cream.”  Likewise, just like your kids asking for ice cream for breakfast, sometimes what we ask from God isn’t actually, truly in our best interest.  Or not in our best interest right now.  A mother and father tend to know better than their children what might be good for them, because parents have life-experience, and perspective, and the practical wisdom that only comes through the years.  Parents can help their children know what is good for them now, what is good for them but at another time, and what isn’t good for them at all.  God, the perfect parent and the source of all parenthood, knows better than all of us: knows what we need, and when we need it.  That’s because of his perspective.  A parent can look back over a broader experience to help make choices. God is without beginning or end, knows all things at all times, and sees everything which has ever been, and will ever be.  Talk about perspective.  We don’t see the whole picture, but he does.  We don’t see how everything fits together, but he does.  We can’t always see God’s will in the events of our world.  We can’t always see why he would permit certain things to be.  We can’t always see meaning and purpose in the events of our lives.  But we are called to trust anyway. 

We are called to have Faith like a little child: when a little child is scared, he runs into his Mother’s arms.  When he’s curious or confused, he asks his Father to explain things to him.  When he falls and skins his knee, he runs to his Mother to hold him and to make it better.  We should never be embarrassed to act like a child before God.  We should never be embarrassed to plead with him for our needs, over and over.  We should never be embarrassed to run to him when we feel wounded by our sins and by the world around us.  We should never be embarrassed to be like a child, but not childish: not unserious, not unsophisticated, not imprudent: not childish, but child-like.  Always trusting that our heavenly Father knows best and that he is watching out for us, caring for us, protecting us.

Our Lord is saddened by the lack of Faith of his own disciples.  But he admires the faith and the calm persistence of the Canaanite woman.  God listens in a special way to those who know how to love, who will keep praying even when he seems to reply only with silence.  God wants our Faith to become more strong, our hope to become more profound, and our love to become more pure and trusting.  And he wants us to pray.  We know that God showers down countless blessings upon all of us, without us ever asking for them.  But we also believe that he has prepared many graces to give us in response to our personal prayers, or in response to the prayers of those who are close to us.  Our prayers can’t change God’s mind, but they might obtain for us those things which God has prepared to give us if only we would ask.  That’s why our prayers matter.  Both for ourselves and for others.  And we will never know on this earth the incredible good that our prayers do for the world and for those around us.  But we will know one day: one of the joys of heaven, will be to see all the good that God has done through us, and through our prayers and our acts of charity.  And so, in a very special way, we should always remember to pray for our families and for everyone that the Lord has placed in our lives near us.  Parents, never forget to pray for your children. Children, never forget to pray for your parents.  And always ask the saints to join you in those prayers, especially those closest to you and your family: your patron saints, your Guardian Angels, the perfect Mother of us all, Holy Mary, and the patron of all Fathers, the great St. Joseph.  May our prayers be filled with trust and with the courage and conviction of the saints.