17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Asking God

Points to note

This of course is the reading on the common prayer of the entire Christian Church.  We will not be dwelling on the Lord’s Prayer though.  This has been dealt with in Year A, where Matthew’s version of the prayer was discussed.  Of the two versions, Matthew’s is the one closer to the one we use today.

In the passage, Jesus teaches us the importance of persistence in prayers and gives us two little points to encourage us along.  The first is the parable of the persistent man.  The second is the very graphic depiction of the love of the Father.  A thorough discussion of one or the other may be sufficient to bring the point of persistence across.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

The word was made flesh and lived among us;

To all who did accept him

He gave power to become the children of God.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain to the children that Jesus has just left the house of his friends, Mary and Martha. He was somewhere praying when the disciples saw him and wanted to learn to pray like him.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Lk 11: 1-13)

Once Jesus was praying somewhere, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray.”  He said to them, “When you pray say this prayer:

‘Father, may your name be holy,

your kingdom come;

give us each day our daily bread’

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive anyone who has done us wrong,

And do not put us to the test.’”

He also said to them, “Imagine that you have a friend and go to him in the middle of the night and say, ‘My friend, lend me three loaves of bread because another friend of mine has just arrived at my house on his travels and I have nothing to offer him’; and the man answers from inside the house, ‘Don’t bother me.  The door is locked now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you.’  I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to you because of your friendship, if you keep knocking, it will be enough to make him get up and give you all he wants.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.  What father will hand his son a stone when he asked for bread?  Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg?  If human fathers know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

Do we pray?  When?  What prayers do you know?

What is a prayer? 

A conversation with God. Just like talking to a friend, we talk to God in our prayers.  Therefore, just like a conversation with a friend that can happen any time, a prayer can also happen at any time.  But just like we prefer to talk to our friends without anybody interfering, it is advisable to pray in a quiet place.  That is why Luke tells us often that Jesus was at a lonely place to pray by himself, as in the passage.

What types of prayers do you know?  

There are basically four types:

(i)         an exaltation, or a praise pray;.

(ii)        a penitential prayer, or a sorry prayer;

(iii)       a petitional prayer, or an asking prayer;

(iv)       a thanksgiving prayer, or a thank you prayer.

Discuss examples of each of the four types.

Discuss what happens in a petitional prayer.  Go through the stages of a petitional prayer.  First, we have to decide what we want to ask for.  Whatever we request must not be impossible.  What is more important, it must be something we need and is good for us.  Notice that in the reading, Jesus talks about ‘human fathers know how to give your children what is good’.  That is why in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for our daily bread, and not more.  Petitions made out of malice, greed or anger will not work.

Secondly, we have to ask.  God has promised to listen.  Thirdly, we have to be persistent.  In all these, try and use examples from home.  We do ask Mom or Dad when we want something.  And similar to a petitional prayer, what we ask our parents must be reasonable.  When we ask, they will listen. But sometimes, we have to ask more than once.  We often have to bug our parents, don’t we?

St Luke tells us that Jesus prays often.  How often do you pray?

Go through the instances of prayers in our daily lives: Grace before and after meal, morning and nightly prayers, etc

Secondly, we have to ask.  God has promised to listen.  Thirdly, we have to be persistent.  In all these, try and use examples from home.  We do ask Mom or Dad when we want something.  And similar to a petitional prayer, what we ask our parents must be reasonable.  When we ask, they will listen. But sometimes, we have to ask more than once.  We often have to bug our parents, don’t we?

St Luke tells us that Jesus prays often.  How often do you pray?

Go through the instances of prayers in our daily lives: Grace before and after meal, morning and nightly prayers, etc