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Prayer, today\u2019s scriptures are all about prayer.\u00a0 We heard the Our Father and how it is a blueprint to prayer to the Lord.\u00a0 That is, it tells us how to pray and what to pray for.\u00a0 But there is much more to learn from the scriptures today than that.\u00a0 To begin with, prayer is when we join our minds and hearts with the Lord.<\/p>\n
Well, let me pose this question about prayer-\u00a0 How well do you know the Lord?\u00a0 Do you know the Lord well enough to join your minds and hearts with Him?\u00a0 It is pretty clear from both the Old Testament story about Abraham\u2019s petition for Sodom and Gomorrah and the Gospel where the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, that both Abraham and Jesus knew the Lord pretty well.\u00a0 Abraham is \u201cwalking\u201d with the Lord. \u00a0The conversation is casual and friendly.\u00a0 And Jesus addresses the Father as \u201cAbba\u201d, which means \u201cDaddy\u201d.\u00a0 So, the first thing we should notice about praying to God, is that those who are familiar with God are good at it.\u00a0 Think of it this way, can you imagine having an intimate conversation with someone you don\u2019t really know?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t sound like it would be very comfortable for either party.<\/p>\n
And then there is the matter of mutual trust.\u00a0 That may seem like a no brainer- trusting God.\u00a0 But do you really trust God?\u00a0 Our trust should be the same as that exhibited by little children a kind of unlimited, comfortable trust like the kind that comes with the relationship between a young child and a familiar parent.\u00a0 So being familiar with the Lord would really help when we pray.<\/p>\n
How do we achieve that familiarity?\u00a0 Well, knowing about the Lord would help.\u00a0 That means, for example, reading the Bible and knowing what the Catechism says.\u00a0 But it also means having frequent contact.\u00a0 The more often we pray, the more likely we will be familiar with the Lord, just like the more often we come in contact with any other friend, the more familiar and comfortable we become with them.<\/p>\n
And then there is the matter of persistence.\u00a0 Abraham was certainly persistent, carefully talking the Lord down from finding 50 good people in Sodom to just 10.\u00a0 Jesus uses a parable about waking a sleeping friend after midnight to ask for three loaves of bread as a way to address persistence.\u00a0 Now I have asked myself, why is persistence so important?\u00a0 After all, God knows what we want even before we ask for it.\u00a0 Why not just ask once; why burden the Lord.\u00a0 Well, I think it\u2019s because we should take the Lord at His word.\u00a0 He wants it that way.\u00a0 Ironically, the persistence in the Gospel story implies that the friend will open his door and give the three loaves of bread to the requester because he is irritated and just wants to get rid of the problem.\u00a0 But, as the story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows, God always listens no matter how many times we ask him.\u00a0 He is receptive when we do pester Him, our persistence doesn\u2019t put him off because it shows our commitment to Him; it shows our recognition of our limitations and need for God.<\/p>\n
Now in the story about Sodom and Gomorrah, we see a loving Lord who is willing to accommodate Abraham\u2019s petition, that is, his prayer.\u00a0 Abraham has confidence in the Lord, and is well aware of His power and might. \u00a0\u00a0So very respectfully, Abraham pushes the situation to the limit confident that the Lord will do what is best.\u00a0 Now, we all know what happened.\u00a0 Sodom and Gomorrah were totally destroyed by the Lord.\u00a0 This happens right after the story we just heard.\u00a0 So our loving, Lord, who was so willing to accommodate Abraham went ahead and destroyed Sodom because He couldn\u2019t find even 10 good souls in Sodom.\u00a0 Was Abraham\u2019s prayer answered?\u00a0 Yes, it was, because God kept his bargain.\u00a0 However, it seems like a \u201cno\u201d because saving Sodom was Abraham\u2019s objective and yet, that is not what was best.\u00a0 And we can all identify with that.\u00a0 Because we all can see that Sodom was a disaster.<\/p>\n
Sometimes when we pray, we ask for something but the answer is \u201cno\u201d by the Lord, only we don\u2019t see the other side of the story like Abraham did.\u00a0 We don\u2019t see what\u2019s best for us.\u00a0 In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that our heavenly Father knows what is best for us, and uses an example of a Father giving his son a fish rather than a snake.\u00a0 As a parent, I can identify with that.\u00a0 How many times do our children ask for snakes rather than fish?\u00a0 And as a parent, we have to tell them, \u201cno\u201d rather than \u201cyes\u201d, or \u201cnot right now\u201d for one of their requests\u00a0 Those are God\u2019s three answers too- yes, no, and not right now.\u00a0 But we need to trust God and be confident that he has answered our prayer, even when it seems like the silence is deafening because He gives us the Holy Spirit always to work through the situation when the answer is no or not now.<\/p>\n
In the clutter and humdrum of today\u2019s world where both parties work in a marriage, sometimes 60-70 hours a week; with cell phones and radios and TVs blaring constantly; we all need a friend- a real friend.\u00a0 Take some time to get to know the Lord.\u00a0 Pray; pray often to your friend and confidant, the Lord.\u00a0 Pray with confidence and persistence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time Gen 18: 20-32; Col 2: 12-14; Luke 11: 1-13 Dc. Larry Brockman Prayer, today\u2019s scriptures are all about prayer.\u00a0 We heard the Our Father and how it is a blueprint to prayer to the Lord.\u00a0 That is, it tells us how to pray and what to pray for.\u00a0 But there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155,4],"tags":[219],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}