Thursday, July 21, 2016

Reflection for Sunday July 24, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; Luke 11:1-13


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?"
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Reflection:
Can we live life without prayer? No we cannot live life without prayer because prayer sustains life without prayer there would be no life. This is the guiding principle of those who are prayerful and those who have developed a profound relationship with God.

On the other hand many would also say that there’s life even without prayer.  This would be for those who do not pray and who seldom pray. But if we look at the lives of those who do not pray they may seem externally ok most especially if they have material riches.

However, deep inside them they may not be ok they may be yearning for that something that could give them peace and contentment. And this peace and contentment they can only have when they learn how to pray.

So we learn now the importance of prayer in a person’s life. But why do we need to pray? Because we need God, that’s why we need to pray and we recognize the primacy of God over anything else in this world. 

In the gospel, Jesus presents to us the importance of prayer in one’s life. That prayer should be simple, with a heart and persistent. Why? For the reason that God listens more to those who pray with simplicity, with a heart and with persistence.

Let us therefore have a prayerful life because we communicate with God when we pray. This is where we open our whole being to God and in the process we also listen to God. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

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