Teaching his disciples about prayer Jesus said: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you. The first letters of each sentence combine to form the word ASK. They suggest a progression in our line of asking that demands a certain refinement in our asking in order to bring it into Divine alignment which is also for our highest good. Sometimes we look back with gratitude for unanswered prayer where from a different vantage point we see how wrong it would have been had we been granted our request. The little girl who prays that she might have teeth like her granny that she can take out and put in a tumbler every night is not praying for her highest good! In the Holy Land a stone can look like a loaf of bread but will break our teeth. Similarly a species of scorpion can look like a fish but carries a nasty bite. We need to be careful about what we ask for.
Fr Jim Cogley