The Gospel for this Seventh Sunday after Pentecost is from Luke 11:1-13. It begins with a disciple asking for instruction in prayer. The request results in Luke's sort version of the Lord's Prayer. Then in Luke 11:5-13, our Lord gives a general encouragement to pray that is illustrated by two short parables and concludes with a brief statement about prayer.
The Lord's Prayer is at the heart of the Christian devotional life. Its words and its pattern provide basic guidance for spirituality and worship. Briefly, it teaches believers that God is our heavenly Father who is to be honored and served on earth as in heaven. We pray that His rule may be known everywhere and that He will always be merciful to our bodily and spiritual needs. We depend on His mercy and forgiveness to us, sinful creatures, and we should be merciful to others. We must always depend upon His guidance and His power to deliver us from evil of all kinds.
In the two parables, Jesus stresses the need for us to be persistent in prayer, to keep asking for divine help. We should also trust God, who is good and loving, to give spiritual blessings to those who pray. So, in today's Gospel, besides providing a meaningful basic prayer, Christ teaches His followers two general principles about prayer. 1) Never stop praying; be persistent. 2) Aware of God's fatherly love for believers, be confident that the spiritual results of prayer will be good for us. As we pray daily and weekly, individually and corporately, let us keep both the Lord's Prayer and these two great principles in mind!
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