Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

It is easy to bypass the opening words of today’s gospel and focus immediately on the famous prayer that Jesus gave us: “Our Father, who art in heaven…” Let’s back up and focus our attention on the very first words of the sentence: “Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”

Jesus gives us the model for prayer in the context of just having prayed to his Father! If we look carefully, there are many such references in the gospels to Jesus taking out time to pray:

After the cleansing of the leper, Luke writes: “great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” (Lk 5:15-16)

Just before selecting his disciples, we read: “In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” (Lk 6:16)

Before Peter’s confession of faith, we hear: “Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am? (Lk 9:18)

The introduction to the Transfiguration scene: “About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.” (Lk 9:28)

The agony in the garden: “After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling, he prayed.” (Lk 22:41)

It is so easy to overlook these simple “scene descriptions” in St. Luke’s gospel. Yet, they are extremely important. Jesus gives us not only a model for prayer, but we discover that he spent a good deal of time in communion with his Father in prayer—sometimes entire nights in prayer.

How is your prayer life? Are you able to make time each day for personal prayer? Fr. Jacques Philippe defines mental prayer as “Facing God in solitude and silence for a time in order to enter into intimate, loving communion with him.” (Time for God, p. 1). Many people feel self-conscious when it comes to prayer, particularly when they attempt something other than memorized or recited prayers. One of the most comforting passages in all of the scriptures is from John 6:37—“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me…” Jesus says that anyone who reaches out to God in prayer will not be rejected. Even the feeblest of attempts to pray will be acceptable in the eyes of God. “Even when we are arid or wretched…we should never doubt God’s loving, welcoming presence to someone who prays to him…God is there long before we put ourselves in his presence. It is he who invites us to come and meet him—he, our Father, who is waiting for us and who seeks to enter into communion with us” (Fr. Jacques Philippe, Time for God, p. 7).

Following Jesus’ example, let us then turn to our Heavenly Father in prayer, trusting that he hears our every word and that he takes delights each time we enter into his loving presence.

Reflection by Br. Michael Marcotte, OSB