It is important that our prayers express a high level of intensity, commitment and focus.

In the sixteenth century, the great Scottish reformer John Knox exclaimed to the Lord in one of his prayers on behalf of his nation: "Give me Scotland or I die!" That is the kind of desperate prayer that God has been pleased to honor through the centuries, and which has always drawn power from the throne of grace. Sometimes God allows us to find ourselves against a rock and a hard place so that the posture of concentrated faith is aroused in us that provokes from heaven the response we expect. Often times, the delays and silences of God are part of his treatment in our souls, to purify us of everything that contaminates our requests and takes away their strength and intensity.

In Jeremiah 29:12, God promises the Hebrew exiles in Babylon that at the end of seventy years of discipline and spiritual treatment their prayers will finally reach His throne, because they will have acquired that quality of total surrender and concentration: “Then you will call upon me, and you will come and pray to me, and I will hear you; and you will seek me and find me, because you will seek me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, says the Lord. It is precisely that passion, that state of definition and lucidity regarding what we are asking for, which allows us to be clear and precise in presenting our requests. When our passion takes on red-hot intensity, our action and our request will possess that definite quality that is so pleasing to God! Many times throughout Scripture we see that it is precisely that kind of passionate action that generates a favorable decision from heaven.

In the case of Blind Bartimaeus, in Mark 10: 46-52, we see those three elements of passion, action, and petition clearly illustrated. When Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing by, he instinctively knows that he will have only one chance to receive the miracle that he so desperately needs. All the pain that has accumulated over decades of blindness and misery is poured into a cry of passionate petition to the Lord: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" At that time, Bartimaeus does not care about the recriminations or criticism of the people. He does not care that he is making a fool of himself by screaming like a madman at a Jesus who at first does not seem to be listening. He only lets himself be guided by his passion, his burning desire to escape his sad condition as a beggar and blind. This leads him to desperate action, to violate all the rules of etiquette and decency, to shout until he is heard, and to impose himself on the agenda of Jesus despite the rebuke of the disciples, who insistently commanded him to shut up.

When the Lord stops and sends for him, motivated by Bartimaeus' persistent and daring action, he asks him an intriguing question: "What do you want me to do to you?" Why are you asking that unnecessary question? Obviously what Bartimaeus needs is sight! As we have said in a previous meditation, God likes to hear our verbalized requests, declared clearly and specifically, born from a heart that has incubated and nurtured them over time, which has been concentrating and reducing them through repetition and cultivation to the point of turning them into a smooth, super concentrated and ultra dense pebble.

When we present to the Lord that humble but powerful product of our tears and sleeplessness, it instantly elicits a positive reaction from heaven. Bartimaeus answered the Lord without hesitation, with great intensity: "Master, let him regain his sight." Five words. But more than enough to provoke the long-awaited response from Jesus: "Go away, your faith has saved you." The word says that "At once he regained his sight, and was following Jesus on the road."

Passion, action and petition - three elements that will always base a successful cry.