Benevolent Foresight.

It can disturb hearers with weak [faith] that, at the beginning of this reading from the gospel, the Savior promises his disciples, “If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Not only do people like us not receive many things they seem to ask of the Father in Christ’s name, but even the apostle Paul himself asked the Lord three times that the angel of Satan with which he was tormented might depart from him, and he was not able to obtain what he asked. But the perplexity caused by this question has already been resolved by the old explanation of the fathers. They understood truthfully that those people alone ask in the name of the Savior who ask for those things which pertain to eternal salvation. They understood, therefore, that the Apostle did not ask in the Savior’s name [when he asked] to be relieved of the temptation which he had received as a protection for his humility. If he had been relieved of it, he could not have been saved, as he affirmed when he said, “And lest the greatness of the revelations should make me proud, there was given to me a goad of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me” [2 Cor 12:7]. . . .

It also sometimes happens that we seek things entirely related to salvation with our eager petitions and devoted actions, and yet we do not immediately obtain what we ask. The result of our petition is postponed to some future time, as when we daily ask the Father on bended knees, saying, Your kingdom come, and nevertheless we are not going to receive the kingdom as soon as our prayer is finished, but at the proper time. It is a fact that this is often done with benevolent foresight by our Maker, so that the desires [inspired by] our devotion may increase by deferment. When they have advanced more and more by daily growth, at length they embrace perfectly the joys they are seeking.

St. Bede the Venerable, Homily II.12. Taken From Give Us This Day.

St. Bede the Venerable (ca. 673–735) devoted his life to the study of Scripture, to teaching and writing, and to prayer. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1899.