Lord teach us to pray
Lord Teach Us to Pray….
Our gospel reading for Sunday July 29th is taken from the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Luke.
An unidentified disciple of Jesus observed Jesus in prayer. When he finished praying the disciple approached Jesus and said Lord teach us to pray.
In preparing to read the gospel the following observations came to mind, I pray they may speak to your spirit as well.
Jesus prayed and his example caught the attention of the disciples. Jesus taught by example but he followed his example by providing instruction. In many cases our example is not sufficient to lead others to follow our example. Instruction is required. Parents set the example for their children when the children see them pray. We follow the example with instruction by praying with the children.
Jesus instruction is simple yet profound. We pray the Lords prayer each Sunday during mass. The instruction Jesus provided to his disciples is still teaching us today.
Jesus taught us to call God our father.
The name of God is to be reverenced.
God’s kingdom come, your will be done.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive others.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
The Lords prayer is so profound a life time of reflection would only scratch the surface of the lessons waiting to be discovered.
Jesus uses a parable to teach us about the benefit of persistence in prayer.
A man has an unexpected guest and discovers he has no food to offer his guest. He goes to a neighbor and asks for some bread to share with his guest. It’s late and the neighbor is in bed and refuses to get up. Jesus tells the disciples the neighbor will not be compelled by friendship to get out of bed but will get up and give his friend some bread if the man is persistent in his request.
We must be persistent in prayer. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened.
For an example of persistence in prayer read the first reading for this Sunday Genesis 18:20-32. Abraham intercedes for the people living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We have numerous examples of prayer to choose from found in scripture as well as examples provided by family members and friends. We don’t lack for instruction with regard to prayer, books and CD’s and numerous web pages provide hints and helps with numerous methods of prayer.
We don’t have any excuse we must follow the example and instruction set before us. You may be thinking you might not have an excuse but you have no idea what my life is like. Work family and the pressures of life in general don’t provide a great deal of time to pray.
You are right I don’t know specifically what your life is like. But we are all in the same boat. Circumstances may differ but we are all pulled in a hundred different directions. It is a struggle for me every day to pray the liturgy of the hours. My deacon brothers confess they struggle to find the time to pray. The answer for me is getting up thirty minutes early, driving to work getting a cup of coffee near where I work and using the time saved in commuting to pray.
I don’t have a specific solution for you but I encourage you to find a solution. I discussed my time problem with my spiritual advisor and his sage words of wisdom are still ringing in my ears “We don’t have a problem making time for what we want to do”.
So maybe it’s not a time problem after all but a priority problem.
Our gospel reading for Sunday July 29th is taken from the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Luke.
An unidentified disciple of Jesus observed Jesus in prayer. When he finished praying the disciple approached Jesus and said Lord teach us to pray.
In preparing to read the gospel the following observations came to mind, I pray they may speak to your spirit as well.
Jesus prayed and his example caught the attention of the disciples. Jesus taught by example but he followed his example by providing instruction. In many cases our example is not sufficient to lead others to follow our example. Instruction is required. Parents set the example for their children when the children see them pray. We follow the example with instruction by praying with the children.
Jesus instruction is simple yet profound. We pray the Lords prayer each Sunday during mass. The instruction Jesus provided to his disciples is still teaching us today.
Jesus taught us to call God our father.
The name of God is to be reverenced.
God’s kingdom come, your will be done.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive others.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
The Lords prayer is so profound a life time of reflection would only scratch the surface of the lessons waiting to be discovered.
Jesus uses a parable to teach us about the benefit of persistence in prayer.
A man has an unexpected guest and discovers he has no food to offer his guest. He goes to a neighbor and asks for some bread to share with his guest. It’s late and the neighbor is in bed and refuses to get up. Jesus tells the disciples the neighbor will not be compelled by friendship to get out of bed but will get up and give his friend some bread if the man is persistent in his request.
We must be persistent in prayer. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened.
For an example of persistence in prayer read the first reading for this Sunday Genesis 18:20-32. Abraham intercedes for the people living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We have numerous examples of prayer to choose from found in scripture as well as examples provided by family members and friends. We don’t lack for instruction with regard to prayer, books and CD’s and numerous web pages provide hints and helps with numerous methods of prayer.
We don’t have any excuse we must follow the example and instruction set before us. You may be thinking you might not have an excuse but you have no idea what my life is like. Work family and the pressures of life in general don’t provide a great deal of time to pray.
You are right I don’t know specifically what your life is like. But we are all in the same boat. Circumstances may differ but we are all pulled in a hundred different directions. It is a struggle for me every day to pray the liturgy of the hours. My deacon brothers confess they struggle to find the time to pray. The answer for me is getting up thirty minutes early, driving to work getting a cup of coffee near where I work and using the time saved in commuting to pray.
I don’t have a specific solution for you but I encourage you to find a solution. I discussed my time problem with my spiritual advisor and his sage words of wisdom are still ringing in my ears “We don’t have a problem making time for what we want to do”.
So maybe it’s not a time problem after all but a priority problem.
