Lord, teach us to pray! What a great request. I doubt if any person who is trying to faithfully follow God thinks that they are praying too much, or too well. We all desire to grow in our prayer. To spend our time in God’s presence in a way that is more fruitful and more fulfilling. That allows us the privilege of being in God’s presence as a friend caught up in God’s love. I am reminded of the wise saying that the only real mistake that we make when praying is not to show up.
When we pray perhaps we need to remember the gift of the Lord’s Prayer – the intimacy of the Our Father.
To PRAY is to Pause; to Rejoice in the gift of God and his good creation that surrounds us; to Ask God for all the things that our world, our friends and our families, and we ourselves need; and to Yield to his love, and his mercy.
Sunday 17 in Year C
First Reading ‡ Genesis 18:20-32
Lord, do not be angry if I speak. Compare the argumentative, bargaining Abraham with the compliant sluggard a few chapters later in Genesis 22.
Responsorial ‡ Psalm 137:1-3.6-8
Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Second Reading ‡ Colossians 2:12-14
He has made you alive with Christ for he has forgiven all our sins.
Gospel ‡ Luke 11:1-13
Ask, and it will be given to you.
