This Sunday's Gospel

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?"

So often it seems we ask for things and never receive them. It is too easy to give up on prayer, to say, "Well, that didn't work." Perhaps we move on and pray for something else, saying that what we had wanted must not be God's will. Perhaps it is not, but Jesus says something interesting here:
"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:
"Ask and you will receive;... for everyone who asks, receives."
What does this mean? Jesus must want us to ask, and ask again and again and... again.

If I were God, I would find this to get annoying. "I told you no once. That is my answer. You don't have to ask again" is a common phrase in this house. But not so with God, Jesus says.

Think of Saint Monica. She prayed for years and years and years and years for the conversion of her sinful son. She never gave up on asking God for this one favor. And we know what happens - her son became a very holy man, in fact one of our earliest and best known saints: St. Augustine. We know the story, but it is too easy to forget how long those years of praying and yet seeing her beloved son fall into one sin after another must have been for Monica.

I have been very concerned about my Blaise recently. Isaac too, but more so Blaise (Some of you experienced moms may laugh at this a little - and I realize I will likely too when he is a little older and I am perhaps going through this with one of his younger siblings). He is 5 years old today (Happy birthday, my big boy! I will hopefully post something regarding his birthday soon). He is my emotional, trying kid, though some days he can be absolutely wonderful and helpful, but just flip the coin and... He seems to make too light of prayer time and even seems to disdain it at times. When we do take him to Mass, which has been infrequent until yesterday (another post), he tries to misbehave and make us angry. I do not want to be angry at Mass or with prayer, especially in that I do not want the boys to associate Mass and prayer with anger, when patience is the virtue I should be exhibiting. Well, obviously, I have been praying only 5 years and 9 months for this particular child, compared to Monica's years of prayer for hers before his conversion when he was 29 or 30. This gives me hope that, with continued, and more fervent, prayer, my children will indeed become holy men and women.

But I digress. I like the reflections in a book I have, The Better Part, by John Bartunek, LC. So I will end with something from this book: "Prayer is much simpler than you think. [Jesus] is always with you, always at your side and in your heart. [He is] always paying attention to you, thinking of you. [He is] always interested in what you are going through and what is on your mind and heart. Remember this, believe it, and prayer will be as natural as breathing... Live in the awareness of [His] presence; let [Him] be your life's companion."

And a prayer from the same book:
"I trust in you, Lord. Send me the gifts of your Holy Spirit. Fill my soul with your light and your peace; wipe away all the stains of selfishness. I want to live each new day with the freshness of your everlasting love. I want to live with the joy of the simple child and the wisdom of old age. I want my life to be a window, clear and spotless, that faces the vista of your Sacred Heart."