Gospel: Lk. 11: 1 – 13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him, ‘and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Homily
Many years ago as head of the mission in Paraguay, I was making arrangements to have a congregation of sisters come to work with us. I invited them up to our mission area and took them on a tour of the area and the villages where we worked. In one of the villages the Superior of the community asked one of the village leaders why he wanted the sisters to come to his village. His answer surprised me. I thought that he would have said something about the need for education or health care. His answer was that he wanted the sisters in his village so that they (the sisters) would teach the villagers how to pray.
The male reproductive health problems gradually become viagra from india online clear and the blood pumping when it counts. It occurs with order tadalafil insignificant sexual incitement and before the individual wishes. It serves intensify the sexual aspiration in men turning them effortless and easy cheap viagra levitra to enjoy a sexual pleasure. Penile blood buying levitra without prescription vessel constriction causes reproductive organ to attain firmness. I remembered that incident as I read the gospel passage given to us for our meditation this weekend. The disciples see Jesus in prayer, they are enthralled and they want to learn how to pray as Jesus did. Jesus in reply taught his disciples the Lucan version of the Our Father which is extremely short. It has five basic invocations. He then goes on to tell them that the main characteristic of prayer is perseverance. “I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”
As I reflected on this extremely short teaching of Jesus It dawned on me that the disciples must have seen an attitude in Jesus which caught their attention and from the words which Jesus gave them it seems to me that the attitude which they saw was one of total absorption in God and with God’s purpose in the world. That is why the first invocation tells us “Hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come” If the attitude is one of total absorption in God and God’s purpose in the world this is reflected in our very lives. Prayer then becomes not only a recitation but a quality of presence in which God is present to us and we are present to God. This mutual presence is then not limited to our programmed times of prayer but overtakes our very lives. We live increasingly in the presence of God who then directs our every thought and action. We learn to put total trust in God and our love for God increases. When this happens, we become more Godlike. We forgive as God forgives, not once or twice or three times but seventy times seven times. We become protagonists of God’s purpose in the world both by direct action and by the example of our lives.
As I have read the lives of the saints, our heroes in the faith and deep in my heart have desired to be like them, I have come to realize more and more that the secret of their saintly lives is not their actions on behalf of humanity but rather their deep lives of prayer which allowed them to live continually in the transforming presence of God. That was the secret of mother Teresa of Calcutta; it was the secret of Mons. Romero; it was the secret of St. Francis and of all the saints to whom we prayer and whose lives we are called to imitate.
This what that peasant farmer in Paraguay was saying to that religious sister when he told her
that the sisters would teach the villagers how to pray. Those villagers, like us, all knew their prayers. They knew which prayer was powerful and for what but they wanted something else. They, as we all do, wanted to live in that transforming presence of God. As we thank God them for the examples of those saints who have lived in the transforming presence of God, we pray for ourselves so that we too may learn the secret of living in his transforming presence.
Prayer
Lord teach us to pray as you taught your disciples. Give us, as they had, a thirst the transforming presence of our Father so that like your disciples and all the saints we may be absorbed in God and God’s purpose n this world. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother. Amen
