Persistence at prayer

Sunday, July 24, 2016
17th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Gen 18:20-32 Second Reading:
Col 2:12-14
Gospel Reading: Lk 11:1-13
One day 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.” And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this: Father, hallowed be your name, may your kingdom come, give us each day the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong, and do not bring us to the test.”
Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says: ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is traveling has just arrived and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside: ‘Don’t bother me now; the door is locked and my children and I are in bed, so I can’t get up and give you anything.’ But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need.” And so I say to you, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened. “If your child asks for a fish, will you give a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give a scorpion? Even you evil people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will the Father in heaven give Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Prayer is a relationship, an encounter between a God in love and a person in need. Both need each other. God’s need for the person praying is generated by love, while the person’s need for God is generated by his dependence upon Him. They do not use each other because it is love that binds them, not greed.
At prayer this bond of love is strongest. That’s why genuine prayer happens in an atmosphere of freedom. When love binds, the person is free to ask for anything. This is demonstrated with some exaggerations in today’s Gospel where a man disturbed a neighbor in his sleep because he needed bread for his guest. God won’t mind a similar persistence at prayer because He knows that when love binds, He is still free to deny the request. If the person loves God, his insistence at prayer accommodates God’s Will, convinced that God already knows what is best for his children. With love, one always comes out from prayer a winner. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MMExM., MAPM., REB., Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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