17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Bullet Points (Luke 11:1-13)

• The gospel text for today offers us a model prayer, or the Lord’s prayer, as part of Jesus’ response to the disciples’ request: Lord, teach us to pray”.
• If we try to analyze the Lord’s Prayer, we see that Jesus offered a model for prayer that begins with God, not with ourselves. It begins with God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. Many Christians still have to earn this. Only afterward do we begin to petition for daily care, forgiveness, and safety. Many Christians have still to learn this. Many of our prayers still sound like a wish-list rather than prayers. When our prayer is more concerned with our desires than with God’s desires, it is not prayer; it is shopping. Of course, God cares about our desires, but there must be a sense of surrender in prayer that yields to God’s care and will.
• After the Lord’s Prayer is the parable that illustrates the trust we can have in God. If a friend will get up in the middle of the night to provide for a persistent neighbor, how much more will God be willing to provide for the needs of those who ask Him? If an earthly father will only give good and helpful gifts to his children, how much more would our Father give good and useful gifts to us, his children.