Luke 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?”

(Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/25/sunday_gospel_july_28_2013/en1-713547
of the Vatican Radio website)

Prayer:

“Persistence.”

Lord, with this gospel I understand more clearly the significance of the Holy Rosary and novenas to the Blessed Mother and the saints. Persistent prayer, over and over again, such as the ten Hail Marys in every decade of the Rosary, the same prayer over a nine-day period in novenas such as that for the Mother of Perpetual Help in Baclaran Church or for the Lady of Mount Carmel, gives the prayer petition a robust push because of its repetition and constancy. Never allow us, Lord, to tire in our repetitive prayers such as the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. While always on the same track, seemingly lacking creativity or personality, these prayers drill into the petitioner’s mind the importance and impact of the prayer request upon one’s life. How simply put are “give us this day our daily bread,” or “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” or “world without end.” Praying in our own words surely has its significance in your eyes and ears, O Lord, but Jesus did give us a formula with which to approach you, the giving God. Formulaic, standard, even unexciting or boring, the prayer that Jesus himself taught us may seem to lack the stamp of our personhood but it does reach you, and it is not so much the words of the prayer as the intention, the urgency, the persistency of the request, the unceasing knocking. Thank you, God for the Our Father. Thank you, God for teaching us well, so that even if Jesus Christ had physically left the earth a long time ago, the Holy Spirit is with us 24/7, and we are reminded in the gospel and homily, at Mass, in Rosary and in our devotions to Mary and the saints, of the stark simplicity of asking, of knocking on your door without tiring, straightforward and simply put. In Jesus Christ, through Mary and the saints, amen.