St Scholastica — Prayer That Reaches God’s Heart

Today’s readings place side by side
two ways of relating to God.

One is rooted in humility,
openness,
and prayer.

The other is rooted in control,
appearance,
and self-protection.

The contrast could not be sharper.

In the first reading from 1 Kings,
Solomon stands before the altar
and prays.

This is not a performance.
It is an act of awe.

“Will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you.”

Solomon knows the danger
of confusing ritual with possession.

He has built the Temple —
but he knows God is not contained by it.

The Temple exists
not to trap God,
but to direct hearts toward Him.

Solomon asks not for domination,
but for attention.

“May your eyes be open night and day…
hear the prayer of your servant.”

This is prayer grounded in truth:
God is greater than all we can build,
yet close enough to listen.

Solomon understands
that true worship depends
not on precision alone,
but on humility of heart.

This prepares us
for the Gospel from Mark.

Here, Jesus confronts
a very different posture.

The Pharisees are deeply religious.
They observe traditions carefully.
They know the law.

But something has gone wrong.

Jesus quotes Isaiah:

“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.”

The problem is not tradition itself.
Jesus is not attacking ritual.

He is attacking substitution.

Human customs
have replaced God’s command.

External observance
has taken the place of obedience.

They are careful about handwashing
but careless about justice,
mercy,
and love.

Religion has become a shield
rather than a surrender.

Jesus exposes the danger clearly:
when tradition stops serving faith,
it begins serving control.

This is not a rejection of ritual.
It is a purification of it.

Ritual exists
to shape the heart toward God —
not to protect the heart from God.

This is where St Scholastica speaks powerfully to us.

Scholastica lived a hidden life.
She did not preach.
She did not govern publicly.

She prayed.

Each year she met her brother,
St Benedict,
for prayer and spiritual conversation.

On one occasion,
as evening approached,
Benedict insisted on leaving,
bound by his rule.

Scholastica asked him to stay.
He refused.

So she prayed.

Immediately, a violent storm arose,
making it impossible for Benedict to leave.

Later, Benedict said
that Scholastica had prevailed
because she loved more.

This is not a story
about bending rules.

It is a story
about their purpose.

The Rule existed
to lead to God.

Scholastica’s prayer did exactly that.

Her love did not reject order. It fulfilled it.

Pope Gregory the Great tells us that God listened to her prayer
because her heart was aligned with God’s own desire.

This is the heart of today’s readings.

Solomon prays in humility. Scholastica prays in love.
Jesus calls us back to hearts that truly belong to God.

The Pharisees kept the forms but lost the centre.

Scholastica kept the centre and let everything else serve it.

This matters for us.

The Church treasures ritual. She guards tradition carefully.

But ritual must always lead to conversion.

Tradition must always serve the Gospel.

When prayer becomes routine,
or observance becomes defensive,
we risk honouring God with our lips while our hearts drift elsewhere.

St Scholastica reminds us that prayer is not about leverage.

It is about relationship.

Not about control, but about trust.

Today we ask for her intercession.

That our prayer may be real.
That our worship may be sincere.
That our traditions may lead us not away from God,
but deeper into His heart.

For God cannot be contained — but He can be loved. 

And where love is real, God always listens.