Contend in prayer, character alert in it with thanksgiving; at the same time, pray for us, too, that God may open a account to us for the word, to speak of the mystery of Christ, for which I am in put in prison, that I may make it homely, as I must speak.
(CCC 2638) As in the prayer of request, every get down and craving can become an gift of refinement. The packages of St. Paul regularly begin and end with refinement, and the Lord Jesus is customarily perform in it: "Detail thanks in all circumstances; for this is the motivation of God in Christ Jesus for you"; "Take up again resolutely in prayer, character alert in it with refinement" (1 Thess 5:18; Col 4:2). (CCC 2636) The foremost Christian communities lived this form of fellowship brilliantly (Cf. Acts 12:5; 20:36; 21:5; 2 Cor 9:14). Therefore the Apostle Paul gives them a assortment in his ministry of preaching the Gospel (Cf. Eph 6:18-20; Col 4:3-4; 1 Thess 5:25) but also intercedes for them (Cf. 2 Thess 1:11; Col 1:3; Phil 1:3-4). The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries: "for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions," for persecutors, for the salvation of populate who force back the Gospel (2 Tim 2:1; cf. Rom 12:14; 10:1). (CCC 2849) Such a warfare and such a triumph become viable now through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, apiece at the begin of his communal assignment and in the last effort of his pain (Cf. Mt 4:1-11; 26:36-44). In this request to our restful Boon, Christ unites us to his warfare and his pain. He urges us to alertness of the center in communion with his own. Attentiveness is "concern of the center," and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Prove them in your name" (Jn 17:11; Cf. Mk 13:9, 23, 33-37; 14:38; Lk 12:35-40). The Delightful Deity persistently seeks to stir up us to clasp picket (Cf. 1 Cor 16:13; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:6; 1 Pet 5:8). Sooner or later, this request takes on all its sensitive meaning in qualified to the spill challenge of our sequential battle; it asks for definite persistence. "Lo, I am coming what a thief! Saintly is he who is conscious" (Rev 16:15).
