The Daily Gospel

DAILY GOSPEL «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 Wednesday, 08 October 2008 Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh week in Ordinary Time Today the Church celebrates : St. Pelagia Saint Augustine : «Teach us to pray» Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11,1-4. He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test." Commentary of the day : Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church Sermon 80 «Teach us to pray» My brethren, do you imagine God is ignorant of what you need? He who knows our distress foreknows our desires also. That is why, in teaching them the Our Father, the Lord counselled his disciples not to use many words: «When you pray, do not keep babbling because your Father knows what you need before you ask him» (Mt 6,7-8). If our Father already knows what we need, why tell him about it even in few words?... If you know about it, Lord, do we even need to pray? However, he who says to us here: «Do not use many words in your prayers» says to us elsewhere: «Ask and you will receive», and so that we don't think this is said casually, he adds: «Seek and you will find», and so that we don't think this to be a mere figure of speech, see how he concludes: «Knock and it will be opened to you» (Mt 7,7). So what he wants is for you to begin by asking so as to receive, to set yourself to seeking in order to find and not to stop knocking so as to enter in the end... Why ask? Why seek? Why knock? Why weary ourselves with praying, seeking, knocking as though we had to inform him who already knows it all? We even read elsewhere: «Pray always without becoming weary» (Lk 18,1)... Well, to clear up this mystery, ask, seek, knock! If he disguises this mystery it is because he wants to move you to seek and find the explanation for yourself. We should all encourage ourselves to pray.