“That prayer with which Joachim and Anna asked God for the Blessed Virgin Mary lasted almost 50 years – with patience, with hope, – said Metropolitan Onufriy . – They had already become elderly, and, of course, there are laws of nature, there is a certain age when people can no longer give birth to children. But they… prayed to God, and God listened to their prayer”.

He noted that “from this holy story we learn how to pray.”

“We pray, we ask God for something, and sometimes God gives it to us immediately, or sometimes after a certain period, or at other times we can’t wait and give up praying. Prayer, if we ask God for what is useful for salvation and not for perdition, is always fulfilled by God. But the greater the gift we ask from God, the more patient the prayer should be,” the Primate explained.

According to him, “prayer is spiritual gold; a person today may not have anything worthwhile, but he will pray, and tomorrow he may receive very much.”

“May the Lord help us, give us courage, so that our prayers, which we offer to God, are done with patience and humility. These are the two virtues that make prayer strong. The more a person humbles himself before God, the stronger his prayer is, and the more a person prays patiently, the greater the gift he can ask God for,” His Beatitude noted.

Source: www.spzh.news