The focus of today’s lessons is prayer.

In St. Luke’s Gospel Jesus teaches his disciples, and us, how to pray. He has provided a formula which contains the essence of all prayer. God is addressed as our Father and he really is since he made his son our brother. We praise and honor him and wish that all will honor him and his will be done. Then we ask for our temporal and spiritual needs. We ask forgiveness of our sins and promise to forgive our brothers and sisters who offend us.

Jesus doesn’t stop with the form and structure. He goes on to stress the necessity of perseverance in our prayers. He presents the example of going to a friend in the middle of the night to borrow three loaves of bread and being turned away. What this example says is if the friend won’t help you when you first ask, continue to knock and ask until he does. Jesus is saying, if you at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. I know we’ve all grown up with this one and most of us have no idea where it came from. Now you do and it has nothing to do with the American work ethic and drive for success.

These 13 verses of Luke’s Gospel is the source of a number of positive encouragements we’ve learned in our youth and repeat to this day. Seek and you shall find. Ask and you shall receive. Knock and the door shall be opened. And the best of them all, Our Father who art in heaven… Jesus is assuring us that all of this will indeed happen because our Father who is in heaven can be no less of a father then we who are on earth and he is in fact far greater. He also makes a subtle point, well maybe not so subtle, that the three loaves were being sought to feed a hungry friend. As we persevere in our prayers for our own needs we must also persevere in our prayers for the needs of others. We know this as intercessory prayer.

Today’s Old Testament reading from Genesis illustrates the power of intercessory prayer. When we pray for others God hears and answers our prayers. Abraham gives us a wonderful example of love of neighbor and intercession on their behalf. He didn’t wish to see the people of Sodom and Gomorrah suddenly sent to their death. He pleaded for them and he used God's own justice as a lever to move him from his resolve to destroy those cities. How could a just God condemn the innocent along with the wicked? If only ten just men had been found in them, the cities and their inhabitants would’ve been saved, saved by Abraham's intercession.

How often do we pray for our neighbors when they’re in temporal or spiritual danger or difficulties? Most of us, if we answer truthfully, will admit that we don’t anywhere near as often as we should. We entreat God when we ourselves are in need, but God will be much more ready to answer us in our need if we’ve proved true brothers and sisters to our neighbors by pleading for them when they are in need. There is another valuable lesson to learn from this story. Being in the presence of a group of pious people, people who’re close to God, provides a good chance you’ll more then likely be protected from divine vengeance which you may deserve.

There’re Catholics who question the purpose of enclosed communities of women or men who devote all their time to prayer. They ask why don't these people teach or nurse, or earn their keep in some way? Why should others (they really mean themselves) have to support them? These were the very sentiments expressed by the Reformers when they knocked down the convents in England and banished the sisters. Some Catholics are still of this opinion today. They forget, however, that the prayers of these devout lovers of God have often interceded to save them from the temporal punishments they deserve. The contemplatives are the spiritual lightning conductors in our communities. They sacrifice their personal freedom and enclose themselves behind their convent walls to intercede for all sinners, which, by the way, include all of us. Instead of criticizing them and questioning their sanity, we should thank God for them and pray that they’ll always be new members in their communities who will continue their good work. Their good work is a power house of prayer. A power house of prayer that spreads the light of God’s grace and will turn away the just wrath of God from those who, by their sins, deserve it. "For the sake of those ten innocent people," the Lord said to Abraham, "I will not destroy the cities."
 
Imitate Abraham's true, unselfish love of neighbor by always remembering your needy neighbor in your prayers. Help to protect our city, our country, our world and our fellow citizens of God’s kingdom on earth. Do this with a special prayer today. Say a special prayer today that God will shine his light and spread his grace upon us to inspire an increase in the number of just people living in our world.

Remember Jesus’ advice:
                "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you."