Jesus loves us so much that he poured out every last drop of his blood for us.  “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28; see also Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20).  Our Lord is so generous that not only does he pour out his life for us, to give us life, but he also pours out his mercy (Sirach 18:11) and his Spirit upon us.  “I shall pour out my spirit on all humanity” (Joel 3:1; see also Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 39:29, Acts 2:4, 17, Acts 10:45).  And the Holy Spirit which has been given to us pours the love of God into our hearts (Romans 5:5).  

Our Lord has given us everything.  What does he want from us?  Our hearts and our love!  “God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances,” but the Lord “looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  He is calling us to come to him with all our heart (Joel 2:12).  The greatest commandment is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind (Matthew 22:37).  Even after Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus simply asked him, “do you love me?” (John 21:15-17).  We will receive so many blessings when we seek the Lord with all our hearts (Psalm 119:2; see also Matthew 5:8), and when we search wholeheartedly for the Lord, we are sure to find him (Jeremiah 29:13-14).

Prayer is a beautiful way to offer our hearts and love to the Lord.  On us, the Lord “pours out a spirit of grace and prayer” (Zechariah 12:10); in turn, we can pour out our hearts to him.  In the words of Saint John Henry Newman, cor ad cor loquitur: heart speaks to heart.

The Bible includes many moving examples of the Lord hearing us when we pour out our hearts to him, both in times of distress and joy.  Hannah prayed “with many tears,” speaking “from the depth of her grief” and “in the bitterness of her soul” (1 Samuel 1:10, 16).  She said, “I am a woman in great trouble; I have not been drinking wine or strong drink—I am pouring out my soul before the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:15).  The Lord heard Hannah’s heartfelt prayer, remembered her, and she conceived and gave birth to a son (1 Samuel 1:19-20).  

Tobit and Sarah were so distressed that they had both come to the point of praying for death (Tobit 3, 4:2).  However, they both poured out their hearts to the Lord, beginning with praise and then begging to be delivered from their afflictions.  The Word of God beautifully says, “This time the prayer of each of them found favor before the glory of God, and Raphael was sent to bring remedy to them both” (Tobit 3:16-17).  A great deliverance ensued for both Tobit and Sarah. 

The Psalms also speak of pouring out our hearts to the Lord in prayer.  Yearning and thirsting for the Lord, the Psalmist says, “I have no food but tears day and night . . . This I remember as I pour out my heart, how I used to pass under the roof of the Most High” (Psalm 42:1-4).  “I pour out my worry in his presence, in his presence I unfold my troubles” (Psalm 142:2).  “In God is my safety and my glory, the rock of my strength.  In God is my refuge; trust in him, you people, at all times.  Pour out your hearts to him, God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:7-8).  

Psalm 77 is yet another touching example of crying out to the Lord in times of distress.  The Psalmist acknowledged that his heart refused to be consoled and his spirit fainted away as he thought of God; yet, as he remembered all that the Lord had done, he was able to say, “God, your ways are holy!  What god is as great as our God?  You are the God who does marvelous deeds” (Psalm 77:2-3, 11-14).

We see in the Gospels that Jesus, too, poured himself out to the Father in prayer, showing us how to submit to the Father’s will in our moments of greatest anguish.  In Gethsemane, Jesus said, “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38).  He prayed, Father, “if you are willing, take this cup away from me.  Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.  Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him strength.  In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood” (Luke 22:42-44).

We also see many beautiful prayers of exultation and rejoicing in the Bible, including from those who had previously poured out their hearts to the Lord in sorrow.  When the Lord grants Hannah’s prayer for a child, she sings a canticle of joy in 1 Samuel 2.  “My heart exults in the Lord, in my God is my strength lifted up, my mouth derides my foes, for I rejoice in your deliverance.  There is no Holy One like the Lord, (indeed, there is none but you) no Rock like our God” (1 Samuel 2:1-2).  

After Tobit and Sarah are healed, Tobit and his family “praised God with hymns; they thanked him for having performed such wonders” (Tobit 12:21).  “I for my part extol God and my soul rejoices in the King of heaven.  Let his greatness be on every tongue, his praises be sung in Jerusalem. . . . My soul blesses the Lord, the great King because Jerusalem will be built anew and his house for ever and ever.  What bliss, if one of my family be left to see your glory and praise the King of heaven!” (Tobit 13).

The Psalms, too, include wonderful prayers of pouring out our hearts to the Lord in praise and thanksgiving.  For example, the Psalmist in Psalm 118 says, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his faithful loves endures forever. . . . I was pushed hard, to make me fall, but the Lord came to my help.  The Lord is my strength and my song, he has been my Savior. . . . You are my God, I thank you, all praise to you, my God.  I thank you for hearing me, and making yourself my Savior.”

Likewise, in the Magnificat, Mother Mary says, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant.  Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me.  Holy is his name, and his faithful loves extends age after age to those who fear him” (Luke 1:46-50).

The Lord wants us to pour out our hearts to him in prayer.  “Unload all your burden on to him, since he is concerned about you” (1 Peter 5:7; see also Psalm 55:22).  “Tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude” (Philippians 4:6).  When we call to him and come and pray to him, he promises to listen to us (Jeremiah 29:12).  

Therefore, let us have no hesitation in pouring out all that is within our souls before “the throne of grace,” which is in heaven (Hebrews 4:16).  We will be amazed at the loving mercy and grace of God who always rushes to meet us, to cleanse us, and to raise us up when we cry out to him in prayer.  At all times – be they times of grief, sorrow, sadness, anguish, loneliness, rejoicing, or gratitude – let us lift up our hands, hearts and souls in the Lord’s presence and answer the summons of Scripture to pour out our hearts before him so that he may draw near to us and quickly come to our help:

“Pour your heart out like water in the Lord’s presence!” (Lamentations 2:19).