17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 11;1-13
Sunay Gospel Reflections by Sister Rosalie Pizzo

This Sunday, the Gospel’s message is “Lord, teach us how to pray.” Is this not a life-long desire within each of us as it was in the hearts of the disciples of Jesus?

Our earliest recollection of this desire for learning how to pray was initially the task of our parents. Each evening, my siblings and I were led by the hand to the side of the bed, we knelt, clasped our hands and said our prayers. The emphasis was mainly on posture and saying the right words. How then did we transition from the mechanics of prayer to the essence - that loving conversation with the One Who draws our undivided attention to that place of saying less, listening more, so as to engage us in a more profound dialogue?

Recently, I had an experience that changed the way I begin my prayer. I came across the scripture passage of the man born blind when Jesus, with the utmost sensitivity and compassion, asked him “What do you want me to do for you”? For the first time I saw this question directed at me. What an opportune way of consciously giving back to God that rightful place of speaking first. This focus of conversation has kept me ever mindful that the source of all grace is always at God’s initiative. What surprising and grace-filled moments this change has brought about in the way I pray!

Gerald Collins,SJ shares insight into the way that Jesus prayed. He addressed His Father as, “Abba”. This expression was that of the God of his deepest experience. Jesus used terms of endearment. In Aramaic, his native tongue, he called on His Father as Abba, “My own dear Father.” In the vernacular the word that comes close to this meaning is “Daddy.” How authentic our prayer would be if we achieved that level of intimacy with God! The way we pray tells who we are and how we live. The “Our Father” encapsulates the way that Jesus thought, taught and lived throughout His life. Our model is clear! Our desire persists. Like the disciples of Jesus, we ask, “Lord, teach us how to pray.”

Jesus 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."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

            This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

Sister Rosalie Pizzo

Having just retired from full time ministry, I feel privileged to have served in a variety of ministries within several Dioceses. Following twenty-two years in formal education either as teacher or administrator, I served as staff member at our House of Prayer, as community coordinator at our SND Generalate in Rome, as staff member at the Office for Human Concerns & Emergency Housing, as team member on the California Province Leadership and the last nineteen years as Pastoral Associate in a parish. California has been home to me both by birth and entrance into the SND Family.

There is no professional training for retirement. However, the experience of others enables one to gain insight. In Richard Morgan’s book, I Never Found That Rocking Chair, he shares his reflections on retirement citing the many challenges and surprises. Still learning what this means for me, I find myself in a posture of standing next to the “rocking chair” not quite ready to sit down! Now it is time to gather all the blessings of the years of service, the wonderful friends made along the way, the sisters who have been faithful companions and ask the Good God for new energy to begin a new day.