Homily for October 10, 2019

Today's Gospel passage comes just after Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray; what we now call the “Our Father” or “The LORD’s Prayer.” In that prayer, the intentions are simple and clear: We praise God and ask that His kingdom come upon the earth; we pray for that which we need each day, for forgiveness of our sins in the same measure with which we forgive, and, finally, that we not be put to the final test; that God will protect us from evil.

Jesus tells us that we need to turn to our Father in heaven, in prayer, and ask for that which we truly need in this life. He does not tell us to pray for miracles, for selfish things, for things as we would have them. Rather, He tells us to trust that the Father will give us good things; He tells us to trust that the Father will give us the Holy Spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit that will give us the courage, the trust, and the faith we need to truly ask that God’s will be done in our lives; to trust that, despite what we may believe to be the best for ourselves and our world, God’s ways are ultimately better; to trust that even when things don’t work out as we had hoped, our prayers are still answered in having God’s Holy Spirit alive in our hearts, minds and souls, giving us strength and wisdom as well as trust in the promise of Redemption and eternal life. +