Inaugurating the year of prayer as declared by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, in January 2024 in preparation for the 2025 jubilee year, the Archbishop of Abuja, Most Rev. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, pointed out that if prayer is removed from the activity of many Nigerians, they will spiritually suffocate badly, and their hope of overcoming crises, violence, and social challenges will be completely dashed. 

He further added that without persistent and hope-filled prayer, many Nigerians would have fallen deep into the darkest abyss of depression and sorrow due to the multidimensional problems bedeviling the country. 

The Prelate, stated this in homily during the Mass to officially inaugurate the Year of Prayer for the Archdiocese of Abuja at St. Christopher Catholic Church, Games Village, Abuja on Saturday, 6 July, 2024. He declared that they are gathered to collectively express the relevance of prayers in their lives, because prayer helps keep them going, even against all odds.

Recounting the various Scriptural instances at which Jesus demonstrated the imperatives of prayer during his life and ministry on earth, the homilist adjudged that prayer, which was an integral part of Jesus’ life and ministry, should therefore be the oxygen of every Christian’s heartbeat.

He added that Jesus, in his prayers, demonstrated how to pray the prayers of praise, gratitude, submission, trust, and petition and urged all to emulate the same.
“At the beginning of Jesus’ public life, when the Spirit descended and the Father spoke words of approval, Jesus was praying.

He spent forty days praying and fasting in the desert. Mk 2:35 says that Jesus, rising very early, went off to a deserted place and prayed. Before choosing His Twelve Apostles, He departed to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer. 

Jesus prayed a prayer of thanksgiving when His disciples returned from a successful missionary journey, a prayer of gratitude and praise (cf. Mt 11:25–26). It was after observing Jesus at prayer that one of His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, and Jesus then taught them the Lord’s Prayer (cf. Lk 11:1-4). 

Even at the peak of His suffering, culminating in His death, Jesus did not stop praying. He prayed for His glorification, for the unity and holiness of His apostles; he prayed at Gethsemane, and at the end, on Calvary, he prayed, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46).”

Furthermore, the homilist, emphasizing that there is no such thing as unanswered prayer, stated that if God does not give them what they need, it is because he has done other things for them, and that what they get is the answer of the love and the wisdom of God, whose ways are not the ways of man. He advised Christians to avoid panic prayer by approaching God only in terrible situations, but to remain calm in their approach to God and to verbalize their prayers with decorum.