Tag: persistence

“To the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” | Thursday of the First Week in Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Your right hand saves me. The LORD will complete what he has done for me; your kindness, O LORD, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 7:7-12, today’s readings)

Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus goes on to ask the disciples how they would respond to the son who asks for a loaf of bread or a fish. He asks whether instead they would give them a stone or a snake instead. “If you then, who are wicked,” Jesus says, “know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.” Jesus then commands that the disciples follow what has become known as the Golden Rule: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” In the first reading, Queen Esther pleaded for help from the Lord from a place of anguish and desperation. God hears our cry and gives graces to those who ask for them. We bring God’s grace to others whenever we give generously to others who ask in need.

God, thank you for the good gifts you give me, providing for every need, great and small. Hear my prayers and care for me even when I don’t know what it is I need. Help me be attentive to the needs of others and provide for them just as you respond to those who seek, ask, and knock. Open wide the door of your mercy so that with the psalmist all will come to give you thanks and praise, saying with the psalmist: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“For everyone who asks, receives.” | Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 11:5-13)

Jesus said to his disciples: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?”

Jesus continues to teach his disciples about prayer and reliance on the Father. He describes persistence in prayer through a parable about a man who goes to a friend at midnight for three loaves of bread. At first, the friend is reluctant to help: “Do not bother me,” the friend says, “the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.” Yet, Jesus tells the disciples, the friend will relent and give the man the bread he asks for, if not out of friendship then because of his persistence. If such a friend eventually provides, “how much more,” Jesus says, “will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” The Holy Sprit is the answer to our prayers and food that sustains.

Father in heaven, help me remember to come to you today to ask for whatever I need. If I don’t call you to mind, how can I remember to ask you for what I need? Give me the grace, then, to pause throughout the day to look to your generosity for what I need in that moment. When I feel pressed by the constraints of time, help me give full attention to what I am doing as a way of being aware of your presence. In the parable, the man goes to his friend because he has nothing to give his friend who arrives from a journey. Take me as I am, Lord, in my neediness and through your Spirit provide me abundantly with what I most sorely lack.

From the responsorial psalm: “He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.