Homily for Thursday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

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

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

It is the Holy Spirit that will give us the courage, trust, and faith we need to ask in faith 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 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.