225 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER91 Before Holy Communion 1. “if you ask anything of the Father, [H]e will give it to you in [M]y [N]ame” (Jn 16:23). Christ, the heavenly Teacher, the true Son of God, calls His disciples to pray with trust, and also promises that none of their prayers will be without effect. He says: “if you ask anything of the Father, [H]e will give it to you in [M]y [N]ame.” It is as if He were saying, “As long as I remained with you, you had no worries or pressing concerns. For I defended you from the Pharisees, I nourished you with the words of salutary teaching as well as with corporeal food. I provided the necessary things for your soul and for your body. I took such care of you that I did not even hesitate to pay the tax for some of you” (cf. Mt 17:23-26). “But now, when the time of My departure is getting near and I will soon go to My Father, I leave only prayer to you. With it you are going to overcome your enemies and obtain the gifts of the Holy Spirit, both for yourselves and for others. And finally, in every matter have recourse to prayer alone as your protection, your treasure, and the horn of Amalthea.92 Moreover, I promise you that nothing will be denied to your heart, whatever it would desire and request. Now if any of you should have doubts whether he will obtain the things that he would request, let him ask in My Name, and it will certainly be given to him” (cf. Jn 16:23-24). Therefore, believe prayer to be so powerful that it moves God to grant whatever man would ask for, as is attested to by the heavenly Orator, who says: “Prayer is what conquers Heaven and 91 In the Novus Ordo this Sunday is the “Sixth Sunday of Easter.” 92 Amalthea is the name of the sacred goat that replaced the infant Zeus’ (Jupiter’s) mother in providing him with milk. One of the goat’s horns, broken off by accident, was placed among the stars as the Cornu Amaltheae or Cornu copiae: cf. CLD, pp. 33, 138 (s.v. Amalthea, and Cornu); E.M. Berens, A HandBook of Mythology: Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, Charles E. Merrill Co., New York 1894, p. 15. [Hereafter A Hand-Book of Mythology will be abbreviated as BHM.] Hence the horn of Amalthea is the sign of plenty.
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