In this Sunday’s Lukan Gospel we hear Jesus tell his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. In fact the gospel tells us the parable of the Judge who is consistently approached by a woman with great perseverance and that her “stick to it” attitude wins her the judge’s attention. The opposite of the key point of today’s gospel is that for many folks today—and I suppose in every age—the “power” of our personal prayer can fizzle out—not the power of prayer but rather our attention to prayer. We can become tired of our rote prayerful ways, especially when it competes with a million other things on our schedules.

Oh, if that were the only reason.

Today it seems that prayer has fallen off many a “to do” list. Why? There are numerous reasons I am sure but perhaps a key reason is that prayer—and for that matter faith—has been construed to be in opposition to other important things in our lives, like logic and science. But au contraire. A friend of mine, a former parishioner, recently moved to Texas with his family and atop the public elementary school in his new home town is the following: Religion-Science-Patriotism. Hmmm?

A misunderstanding of faith is that it is opposed to logic and reason (science). In fact, it is the Roman Catholic Church that founded and instituted our current university system. And, many of today’s great scientific breakthroughs, like genetics and astronomy, initiated from Catholic individuals and institutions. The Vatican has one of the greatest scientific centers on the earth and the Vatican libraries are second to none. Religious orders from the very beginning of the Church were the first to bring education and healthcare to the world and were the driving forces behind the belief that healthcare and education were meant to benefit all of God’s creation.

So is prayer meant to replace science and logic? No! Faith and reason are not “boxing opponents but rather are dance partners” and are meant to not just “coexist” but work hand-in-hand, after all—the human brain as part of God’s creation is a gift to humanity that enables His creatures to cooperate with Him and continue His plan for human salvation. And those my friends are certainly not fighting words.