Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

In the opening of this Sunday's Gospel we hear the plaintive cry of the disciples, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'

As the starting point for teaching about prayer for over thirty years in schools, I've reflected on this passage from Luke's Gospel many times. Here is a group of men, raised in the tradition of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Men familiar enough with the Psalms and the prophets that Jesus uses these texts often as he teaches them. Men that have attended Synagogue and prayed the blessings of Passover their whole adult lives.

And yet they are asking Jesus, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'

So what do they see in Jesus' prayer life that they are so hungry for?

This is not the only time that we see Jesus praying in the Gospel. Often, He takes time in a quiet place and, even when he is in anguish, exhausted or drained by the demands of his public ministry, he finds strength and peace in prayer. For Jesus, prayer is not routine, it is renewing. Perhaps this is what the disciples are crying out for.

So, Jesus gives them this. Call God your Father. Do not be afraid to ask for what it is you need. And commit yourself to doing all that you can to building a world of merciful love.

Through Jesus' teaching we are reminded that our relationship with God is personal - God knows and cares about us and wants to live in relationship with us. But we are also reminded that it is not a private relationship, to the exclusion of others - by sharing these words we pray together, even when we are not all gathered together.

But the one thing that stands out most prominently for me in the Lord's Prayer is that it is meant to be prayed each day. Give us this day our daily bread, we ask.

As we reflect on this moment of Jesus' forming his disciples to build God's kingdom I pray...

Form me Lord, day by day, until I begin to realise the potential of your plans for me. And your kingdom is realised for all.

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