Scripture Reflections for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“the message is not ‘you can’t change God’s mind, so don’t bother trying’, but ‘you can’t annoy God, so don’t be frightened of asking.’ We should indeed ask, as little children ask their parents, in the confidence that they are loved”

“He want us to start by asking for what we know and feel drawn towards. Christ is encouraging us: never lose hope in prayer. Be persistent, ask for what you need.”

“Read so many of the spiritual masters as they talk about the Lord's prayer but every step of it is opening up a window and a door to the spiritual life. Next time you pray it...I'd invite you to do it very slowly. As you do meditate on each of these phrases”

“as a friend suggested, maybe the insight is that what God offers in answer to prayer is beyond my imagination”

“the same intimacy that Jesus has with his 'Abba' he invites us to share...we're not just praying the words he taught us, we're entering into his attitude and manner of prayer when we pray”

“a desire to pray is planted very deep within us because prayer just means the conscious desire to communicate with God, to speak to God, to listen to him.”

“The Christian life is being portrayed as a perpetual Exodus, a continued experience of freedom from slavery to sin and Satan, which nonetheless requires struggle and divine help to maintain, just as Israel struggled through the wilderness”

“perseverance in prayer for others frequently leads me to changes in myself—understanding that makes forgiveness easier, ideas for new ways to cope with a difficult situation, resolution of difficulties that often begins with softening in me, rather than the other person”

“We are reluctant, yet God continues to seek our friendship. In the end, God’s prayers (like ours) are always answered: but are we giving him a Yes or a No?”

“We must be the hands of God that give bread, open the door even when it is in the middle of the night and we are warm in our beds, and that seek justice for every one of God’s beloved people.”

“when Jesus teaches his disciples a prayer that calls for the coming of God’s reign, it is in distinction to Caesar’s. Love and nonviolent relationship were not other-worldly pious beliefs but rather the practical path to transforming what the empire had wrought. Do we think in such global terms when we say “thy kingdom come”?”

“if we stop talking to God, and stop asking Him “Why?”, and we stop asking questions, and stop seeking to understand, and we unfriend Him from our lives – then evil wins”

“God does bring about good things in answer to our prayers, but what that good might be is often very different from any expectation and understanding we might have”

“It is only the one who is like Jesus who prays like Jesus, who has no shame before God to keep on asking. Namely, one who is a child of God. Jesus teaches us that prayer is about simply and confidently calling God, Father. And because he is our Father, we can be bold and persistent.”

“The prayers God hears the most are those spoken from the heart. Giving Him our heart in prayer, opens our heart itself. It opens the door to our heart. The more our hearts open to the Lord, the more the Holy Spirit can enter in.”

“A child pulls the heartstrings, but only when his father lets him. He lets him because a father already knows how to give good gifts. The Father who gave us his Son. The Son who gave us the Our Father.”

“The disciples were learners, and asking led to a deeper knowledge of his teachings, which later they would be commanded to preach to all the nations of the earth.”

“Prayer is not about somehow getting hold of God, to put him to work for us, but being drawn beyond ourselves, into friendship with the thrice-holy God”

“at the heart of our Christian faith lies this very mystery, that we changeable, weak and foolish creatures can enter into a relationship with the eternal and almighty God: a relationship so intimate that it can be called friendship, and we can dare to call God our Father”

“When you pray do so in faith. When you pray forgive someone that you're warring with. When you pray do it persistently. When you pray do it in Jesus' name.”

“Faith is a passion for the impossible even when it's the end of my strength beyond what I can know. I, nevertheless, trust.”