I really love this story about Hannah from the First Book of Samuel because it shows what the Lord can do in our lives when we approach Him with deep faith, when we bring Him our petitions with a sense of trust that He is going to hear us. But it also shows us how the Lord draws closest to us in our times of trial, how He desires to heal our hearts and bring us peace.

Here is this woman who has longed, desperately, for a child. She is unable to have children with her husband for whatever reason. And despite the fact that we’re told her husband loves her immensely, we also know that he has another wife who was able to have children. And the relationship between the two women was, obviously, not the best to say the least. In fact, we’re told that Hannah was being tormented by this other woman, basically made fun of because of her inability to conceive. So, Hannah brings her hurt, she brings her sorrow, she brings the deepest longing of her heart to the Lord.

After making this prayer, after coming back to worship the Lord, Hannah and her husband return home and conceive and bear their son Samuel, the son who will eventual become the last of the Judges in Israel and the first of the Prophets. An interesting point about Samuel’s name: it means “name of God” or “God has heard.” That last one in particular has significance for this story…that God heard the petition of Hannah.

In the following sections of the First Book of Samuel, we see how Hannah presents her son to Eli, tells him that he is what she was praying for that day in the temple. He is dedicated to the Lord for the entirety of his life. In response to that, Hannah breaks into song, the song that we hear in our Responsorial Psalm.

The story of Hannah should be an encouragement for us. When we are lost in sorrow, when we are experiencing torment and anguish, when the deepest longings of our hearts are being unfulfilled, what do we do in those circumstances? We have a choice: we can either dwell in the hurt, the sorrow, in the anguish and just experience it over and over again with no relief; or we can, in faith and confidence, bring it to the Lord. When we do the latter, when we bring the Lord into those situations, even if He doesn’t bring a positive resolution right away, we at least can know that He is walking with us in the midst of them and, sometimes, that’s all we need to make it through those things.

So today, whatever might be on our hearts that is causing us hurt, anger, sorrow, despair…as we come forward to receive the Eucharist, bring those things to the Lord. Present them to Him with trust and know that He is hearing those prayers and is drawing closest to us.

Image: Hannah giving her son Samuel to the priest by Jan Victors, 1645. Wikimedia Commons. Used under Public Domain license.