Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's readings focus on what our prayers should be like. In the first reading, Abraham shows the importance of persistence in prayer. In the Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples the way to pray. Our pastor pointed out that the Apostles weren't asking Jesus "what" to pray, but "how" to pray. While Jesus' response has become our universal prayer, the Our Father, we also gives us a number of guidelines that show that prayers can be made for any situation.

These guidelines include persistence, specificity, openness, and initiative. We need to actively pray and expect God to help us with our needs. Often, it won't be the way we want, but God will provide what is best for us.

My real takeaway from today's homily was that, rather than get upset at the distractions that grab my attention when I am trying to pray, I should realize that those distractions might be the very things that God wants to talk to me about. Too often, I try to fit my prayers, and thus God, into a kind of daily pattern, but our priest pointed out that real relationships need to adapt over time. Just as our conversations with one another shouldn't be the same day after day, so too should our conversations with God be less by rote and more from what is on our minds and in our hearts.