Ask and it will be given to you: the prayer that takes us to Seoul

We keep walking towards Seoul. Last month we told you that we mustn’t be afraid of the high cost of the trip. This month we want to talk about what holds this dream up from within: prayer.

WYD in Korea is not, first and foremost, a project of ours. We must live it as a gift. God loves us, comes out to meet us and offers us the grace of setting out on the way. He wants us to go to Korea. Precisely because it is a gift, we will truly receive it if we truly ask for it.

It is not only a question of money, nor only of sacrifice and effort, although there will be plenty of both. It is, above all, a question of faith and trust. The Lord wants to be with us, and we want to walk with Him.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Mt 7:7). Jesus says it again and again in the Gospel. God longs to bless us. He wants us to ask Him. Not because He needs us to inform Him of anything, but because asking opens our hearts and teaches us to trust.

A project like this needs faith. A small faith, but a living one: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you” (Lk 17:6). When we look at everything still ahead of us, Korea sometimes seems like that mulberry tree that can’t be moved. But it is not about our own strength; it is about the faith we put in God.

This faith does not grow on its own: it is fed by prayer. That is why we insist on it so much. If we don’t pray, we won’t be able to reach the finish line. If we pray, the Lord will do what we cannot do.

Prayer of petition. Asking simply, like children who trust their Father. We will do so especially with our pilgrimage prayer, asking for the intercession of our two patrons, St Thérèse of the Child Jesus and St John Paul II. We ask for the means, yes, but above all we ask that this pilgrimage be a true encounter with Christ.

Prayer of intercession. There are 54 of us travelling. Each of us needs the prayer of the others. Praying for one another, by name, with our struggles and our hopes, already makes us a family before we board the plane. The pilgrimage begins here, when we help one another through prayer.

Personal prayer. Nothing replaces time alone with Jesus. That is where we meet Him face to face, where we tell Him what we are living and let Him speak. He wants to dwell in us; He only needs us to make room for Him every day.

Liturgical prayer. Daily Eucharist and confession are the heart of everything. In the sacraments God acts directly in our hearts and gives us His grace. That is why we encourage you to receive them often during these months. Our Christian life is renewed when we live in grace, and this is the best possible preparation for Seoul.

We do not walk this way alone: Our Lady goes before us. She was the first pilgrim of faith. As soon as she received the angel’s message, she set out and went with haste to the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth (Lk 1:39). She carried Jesus within her and brought Him to others. That is just what we want to do on our way to Korea.

Mary is also our teacher of prayer. “She treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). She prayed in the silence of Nazareth, interceded at Cana when the wine ran out and persevered in prayer with the apostles as they waited for the Holy Spirit. With her we learn to ask with trust and to let God act.

And, above all, Mary is a model of self-giving. Her “let it be with me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) is the most beautiful answer anyone can give the Lord. She did not understand everything, but she trusted. We ask her to teach us, too, to say “yes” to this project, with its joys and its difficulties, and to place our trip in the hands of her Son.

We place our whole trip under the protection of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, patroness of the missions, who without leaving her convent travelled the whole world through her prayer, and of St John Paul II, the Pope who believed in young people and founded World Youth Day. With them we learn that small trust opens great paths.

From Sunday 25 October, a pilgrim chapel will begin to make its way around our homes. It will be a simple way for the prayer for Korea to enter every family and for everyone, including those who won’t be travelling, to join this journey.

May Our Lady and our patrons be with every home that welcomes it.

Seoul 2027 has already begun, and it begins on our knees. Let us ask, let us search, let us knock. We count on God’s grace and on our own effort, knowing that He is the first who wants this dream to come true. If we place a mustard seed in His hands, He will make the tree grow.