We all have our own prayer history or prayer habit, but this weekend’s Gospel takes us back to the core and beginning of praying, that is with and in our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, this Gospel account is more than a recounting of a pious moment in the life of Jesus, more than a story of how we got the Our Father, more than a lesson from Jesus our Master. Rather, through it, Jesus teaches his disciples, and all of us too, how to pray and for what to pray. His words, his teachings, and especially his life of prayer become important and has remained important for the life of his first disciples, for our lives, and for the life of the Church.

To begin to pray, Jesus encourages us to address and approach God as “Father,” just as He does. In other words, Jesus is saying something like this: “Consider God as a Father, as one who is as near as and behaves just like a father toward his very own children.” In a world where existence was so fragile – a condition that has not changed but only increased today – Jesus’ prayer reminds us that there is one who has power over all and who is near to us.

The two phrases that follow call on God to be God: “Hallowed be thy name” and “thy Kingdom come.” Actually, God’s name is always holy and his kingdom is everlasting. Therefore, God does not need our prayers to be holier or be more eternal. However, when we praise God that way, we are trying to dive deeper into the relationship with God and be purified and sanctified by God and his reign and ultimately profit us for our salvation. Additionally, these two petitions implore God to truly take charge of life, our lives, and to bring justice and peace to the world, something only God can bring about.

The remaining petitions concern three basic needs. Notice that the plurals in these petitions give the prayer a communal rather than an individual dimension. This accords with the Mediterranean cultural preference for groups over individuals. Having praised God, the community can now ask for daily sustenance or food, forgiveness of sins, and fidelity or preservation from temptation to apostasy. These petitions name what is essential for the life of our communal body, be it society, the church or the world, the life of our individual bodies, and the life of our ongoing relationship with God.

Jesus ends this prayer session with a parable and some advice urging persistence and perseverance in prayer, especially the prayer of petition. “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Remember, they are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ recorded in this Gospel and speaking directly to us, today, too. Take Him at His word. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. God will never ignore us neither disappoint us nor let us down.

So, the Gospel messages of the 17 th Sunday of Year C invites all of us to reflect on the nature of prayer, the story of our prayer life and where it has taken us. We owe a debt of gratitude to Jesus and to people who put us on the path to prayer as an essential part of our life. And for our parts, we continue to teach those entrusted to us to pray. They may be our children, our grandchildren, our students, our nephews and nieces, our friends, our people, and any goodwill man and woman. We continue to teach them to pray as Jesus taught us, confident that our prayers will find favor with our God.