Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (July 25, 2004)

Suggested Emphasis

"Lord, teach us to pray…"

Salesian Perspective

The Our Father. The Lord¹s prayer. The one prayer that is entirely of divine origin. In it we acknowledge God¹s power and goodness and our own neediness and dependence upon Him.

Probably the first prayer that we learned at home, one that is recited in ever Mass and has crossed our lips thousands of times. However, we must be careful not to say it mechanically or without thought. Its purpose must be to awaken and stimulate our faith.

Prayer is necessary for salvation. Without prayer we can not resist temptation, nor obtain God¹s grace, nor grow and persevere in holiness. Before speaking our prayer we should learn to listen and reflect. We must be attentive to His voice in the silence of our hearts. Let not our hearts be full of preoccupations that Our Lord can not find a place to dwell there! Whatever the prayer, we should feel comfortable in coming to God and confident that He will address our needs, our concerns and whatever else is going on in our lives.

The Holy Scriptures are full of examples of the efficacy of prayer as a means of obtaining whatever we need to secure for our salvation. It was by prayer that Peter¹s chains were loosened and he was set free from Herod's jail. It was by prayer that the Lord awoke the Holy Spirit in Daniel in order to obtain the proof of Susanna¹s innocence and by prayer that Paul was able to cure Publius' father, sick with fever and dysentery. It was by prayer that Hannah, whose womb the Lord had closed, was able to conceive and bear a son.

After teaching His disciples how to pray, Jesus stresses the importance of prayer with a parable. Jesus encourages boldness in prayer by telling us to "seek and knock" till the door that reveals God¹s holy will be opened. We see an example of this in today¹s first reading from genesis where Abraham begins his conversation with God by humbling himself before the Lord, "I am but dust and ashes" and then proceeds to test God¹s patience and mercy by bargaining with the Lord until there may only be ten righteous people left in order to save Sodom from destruction.

One form of prayer is mediation and Francis de Sales offers us these steps: place yourself in the presence of God, acknowledge your own unworthiness and ask for God¹s help. Don¹t forget to conclude with acts of thanksgiving, offering and supplication. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, de Sales teaches us that if we contemplate Our Lord frequently in meditation, our whole soul will be filled with Him, we will grow in His likeness, and our actions will be molded on His.

Be faithful each day to prayer!

Jack Kramer is a member of the faculty at the Salesianum School in Wilmington, Delaware