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It’s Day 335!!
JESUS TEACHES US TO PRAY
Paragraph 2607 says, “When Jesus prays he is already teaching us to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theologal path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus’ explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in the Church.”
Just by watching Jesus approach the Father in prayer, that is our template for how we can approach the Father as well
Jesus also explicitly teaches us how to pray
Let’s pray!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus, your only begotten Son, we enter into your presence. By the Power of your Holy Spirit, teach us to pray. Help us to pray. Help us to be the men and women that you have called and redeemed us to be. Help us to always approach you as our good Father who is just, and loving , and merciful, and good. And so, good, good Dad, good Father, we ask that you please, in this moment, continue to teach us how to pray. Not just in moments where we are saying our prayers, but in every moment. Help us to have that glance turn toward you. A cry of recognition and of love embracing both trial and joy in every moment of our lives. Help us to always pray as your Son, our Lord taught us how to pray. In His name, we pray. Amen”
So there we have it!!
Paragraph 2607 says, “When Jesus prays he is already teaching us to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theologal path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus’ explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in the Church.”
The people Jesus teaches how to pray are the Jewish people
They know who God is, but Jesus is revealing a new dimension of God that they did not realize
They did not know that God is a Trinity
They did not know that God’s very identity is love
Paragraph 2608 says, “From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart: reconciliation with one’ brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.”
Our prayer, liturgy, worship, etc. are external
But they have to match up with this conversion of heart
What does “I belong to the Lord” look like?
⬆️Jesus makes it clear in the Sermon on the Mount ⬆️
We are being converted into God’s sons and daughters
It’s not coming before the Lord only in our prayers and then doing whatever we want in the rest of our lives
“We pray as we live because we live as we pray.”
If my heart is far from God during the day, then how in the world and why in the world would I imagine that my heart would be close to God when I pray?
Paragraph 2609 says, “Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to ‘seek’ and to ‘knock,’ since he himself is the door and the way.”
I am adhering to the Father as His child, beyond what I feel and beyond what I understand
Our prayer happens in faith
Paragraph 2610 says, “Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us filial boldness: ‘Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.’ Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt: ‘all things are possible to him who believes.’ Jesus is as saddened by the ‘lack of faith’ of his own neighbors and the ‘little faith’ of his own disciples as he is struck with admiration at the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman.”
The more and more the figures of the Old Covenant learned about the identity of God, the more and more their prayer changed
They realized that they could come before God because He is good and He cares
They realized that they could intercede for others
We have been learning about God and learning what God’s heart is like
Because of that, we know that we have the heart of a good Father who is just, who cares about us, who knows your name, who has counted the hairs on your head, who knows every strand of DNA, who has been with you every breath and every heartbeat
Because of that we get to have filial boldness
Because we know who God is, we get to humbly come before Him with this strange mix of humility and boldness
Paragraph 2611 says, “The prayer of faith consists not only in saying, “Lord, Lord,’ but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan.”
Remember Jesus said, “Not all those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But only those who do the will of my Father in Heaven.”
Faith is not just something we hold in our hearts although we do have conversion of heart and conversion of life
Faith is something that has to be LIVED
If we don’t LIVE that faith, is it really faith?
Paragraph 2612 says, “In Jesus ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ He calls his hearers to conversion and faith, but also to watchfulness. In prayer the disciple keeps watch, attentive to Him Who Is and Him Who Comes, in memory of his first coming in the lowliness of the flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory. In communion with their Master, the disciples’ prayer is a battle; only by keeping watch in prayer can one avoid falling into temptation.”
Watchfulness is also an awareness that God is active in your life right now
God is with you and God is attentive to you in this moment
Jesus teaches us how to pray with this watchfulness for His final coming but also an awareness that He is with you right now
By the Power of His Holy Spirit, God is attentive to you and present to you
That has to change the way we pray
We have conversion of heart, faith, filial boldness, faith that moves, watchfulness/awareness
Paragraph 2613 says, “Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke: -The first, ‘the importunate friend,’ invites us to urgent prayer: ‘Knock, and it will be opened to you.’ To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will ‘give whatever he needs,’ and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts. -The second, ‘The importunate widow,’ is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. ‘And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ -The third parable, ‘the Pharisee and the tax collector,’ concerns the humility of the heart that prays. ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison!”
Let’s listen to Fr. Mike explain the parables…
Keep knocking…
We need to pray with faith and we need to persevere with patience…
We need to have humble hearts…
Paragraph 2614 says, “When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to ‘ask in his name.’ Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life.’ Faith bears its fruit in love: it means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus.”
When we pray in Jesus’ name in the Power of the Holy Spirit, we have access to the Father
When we live like the Son, we get to abide like the Son in the Father, who in Christ, so loves us that He abides with us
We get to ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, for all things
As the Father’s adopted sons and daughters, we get to take our place with the Son
We pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but we also pray in the name of Jesus
When we keep the words and commandments of Jesus, we get to abide with Jesus in the Father who in Jesus, so loves us that He abides with us
Jesus says, “Father, I know you hear my prayer. You always hear my prayer.”
We have certitude that our prayer will be heard
Now, our prayer is answered according to the Father’s will
But we know that our prayer is always heard
Your cries are always heard
Because what is revealed to us in the Son and through the rest of Scripture as well is that the Father loves us
The Father loves YOU
That is how we approach God
God is good
God is holy
There is no shade, or shadow, or blemish, or weakness in Him
AND YET…
God loves us in our weakness, in our shadow, in our shade, in the midst of our sin
So we can approach Him in confidence, in filial boldness, but also humility, knowing God loves you as you are
God loves you too much to let you stay that way
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT…
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