Day 317: Persistence in prayer

Luke 11:1-4 Teach us to pray: In response to this request, Christ gave us the “Lord’s Prayer,” also known as the Our Father. This prayer invites us to call God “Our Father” and to reflect on the divine filiation that we enjoy by reason of our Baptism. The use of the first person plural stresses that this is a communal prayer of the Family of God, the Church, as well as the communion that exists among all of her members. It centers our prayer on the adoration of God and on his kingdom and then petitions him for what we need in order to receive and collaborate with that kingdom. Finally, it links our forgiveness from God to our forgiveness of our neighbor. It remains a fundamental prayer of all Christians and is recited in the public worship of the Church, including at every Mass. Tertullian wrote that the Lord’s Prayer “is truly the summary of the whole gospel” (De orat., 1: PL 1, 1155). (CCC 520, 1425, 2601, 2632, 2759-2865)


Ch 11:3 Daily bread: The Church teaches that this refers to both bread for bodily nourishment and the bread of life, i.e., the Eucharist. (CCC 2861)


Ch 11:5-13 Christ followed up the instruction on the Lord’s Prayer with a lesson on the need to persist and persevere in prayer. If a friend who is hesitant to fulfill a request will do so because of our persistence, how much more so will a father give what his son asks as long as it is for his good? Because of our status as adopted sons and daughters of God, he will grant us what we need and the confidence to expect it will be fulfilled. (CCC 728, 2613, 2623, 2671, 2761)


Ch 11:14-28 Accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan, Christ gave a response that would make it obvious from whom his power came. He also taught that it is not enough to be free from sin and demonic influence; we must also seek a life of holiness, allowing ourselves to be filled with Christ. (CCC 385)


Ch 11:20 Kingdom of God: This is not an earthly kingdom but rather a spiritual one, reigning in the souls of Christ’s followers, which is made present through the power of the Holy Spirit.


Finger of God: The term indicates the direct act or authority of God, and it is used three times in the Old Testament to indicate that God himself wrote the moral law (cf. Ex 8:19, 331:18; Dt 9:10). It also refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. A liturgical hymn during the Mass on Pentecost, Come, Holy Spirit, calls upon the Holy Spirit as the “finger of the Father’s right hand.” (CCC 700)


Ch 11:27-28 Mary was certainly blessed for her role in the Incarnation and Birth of the Son of God as well as for her role in rearing him. However, the high praise she received from her Son was for her complete fidelity in fulfilling God’s will. (CCC 484, 494, 511)


Ch 11:29-32 Performance of miracles requires faith. While Christ performed miracles for those who had faith, he refused to humor the skeptics and critics who simply challenged him for a “sign.” The “sign of Jonah” refers to his own Death and Resurrection. Just as Jonah spent three days in the whale before being washed up on the shores of Nineveh (cf Jon 3:1-5), so would Christ spend three days in the tomb before rising again. The “queen of the south” is the queen of Sheba, a Gentile who came to Solomon and was impressed by his wisdom (cf. 1 Kgs 10:1-13). Both the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba would serve as an example of the faith that Christ expected from his own people. (CCC 1151)


Ch 11:33-36 Christ compared clarity of sight to clarity of discernment. In his day, it was commonly believed that we see because of a light source within our eye that illuminates our path. Just as healthy eyes enable us to see well, a life of purity enables us to see God, while sin and immorality blinds us to the beauty of faith and selfless service to others. By orienting ourselves to the will of God, we can begin to more clearly discern the truth. (CCC 2846-2847, 2863)


Ch 11:37-54 Christ came to perfect the Old Law, not to abolish it. While the Law was good, its practice and interpretation had become removed from its original intent. The perfection of the Law requires it to be put to the service of charity towards God and neighbor, and its practice requires the grace of God. Because of these teachings, Christ’s enemies sought to discredit him in the eyes of the people. (CCC 579, 588)


Ch 11:38 Did not first wash...cleanse the outside: The kind of hand washing discussed here was not the hygienic hand washing prior to meals but the more elaborate ritual of hand washing that had become an exterior act devoid of spiritual meaning. (CCC 1968)


Ch 11:42 Tithe: Pharisees gave one-tenth of their income and crops to the Temple. The fifth precept of the Church is to “provide for the needs of the Church” (CCC 2043). (CCC 1836, 2447)


Ch 11:52 Key of knowledge: The scribes and Pharisees explained the contents of Scripture to the people, placing their own interpretations on the Law. Their emphasis on exterior acts and rituals eclipsed interior love for God, the need for interior reform, and the love for neighbor. (CCC 2033)


Ch 12:1-12 In speaking about discipleship, Christ taught his followers to renounce all possessions in order to be totally committed to living the demands of the Gospel message. He also related that those who follow him would suffer persecution but could trust in the Holy Spirit to assist them and to teach them what to say when called upon to defend the Faith. Those who remain faithful will be rewarded both in this life and in Heaven. However, one who sins against the Holy Spirit, i.e., who commits final impenitence and rejection of God’s mercy and gift of salvation, cannot be saved because refusal of mercy is itself a choice to refuse salvation. (CCC 1287, 1864)


Ch 12:1 Beware of the leaven...hypocrisy: Christ taught that his disciples, unlike the Pharisees, must practice what they preach. Their example, for good or for bad, will permeate the community in the same way that leaven permeates dough. (CCC 854, 2832)


Ch 12:2-3 At the Last Judgment, all our thoughts and acts will be made known, and we will be judged accordingly. (CCC 678)


Ch 12:6-7 The Book of Genesis reveals a hierarchy in the created order of increasing perfection. If God watches over the least of his creatures, he will care all the more for human persons, who were given dominion over all other creatures and made in his image and likeness. (CCC 302-308, 342)


Ch 12:13-21 This parable teaches us that a life centered on greedy ambition and satisfaction is devoid of meaning. The fool is oblivious that his life will end, together with all his accumulated material possessions. A genuinely fruitful life involves charity toward others and detachment from material goods. (CCC 2407, 2727)


Ch 12:14 Who made me a judge or divider over you?: The central mission of Christ was to liberate humanity from the slavery of sin. He leaves the specific application of his teachings and the moral law to us. (CCC 549)


Ch 12:22-34 Our detachment from worldly goods should mean we have no anxiety about our basic necessities. If we do our part to secure basic needs, trust in God, and sincerely seek his will, we can be assured that he will provide everything that we need. The beauty of God’s creation is itself a testimony to his existence and providence. (CCC 305)


Ch 12:33 Sell your possessions, and give alms: Christ urged spiritual poverty, which includes detachment from material goods. Ridding ourselves of excess wealth and accumulation of material possessions as well as generous almsgiving is a requirement of discipleship. (CCC 2545)


Ch 12:35-48 Girding one’s loins (i.e., tucking the bottom of the tunic into the belt in order to free the legs for physical activity) and keeping the lamp burning were signs of preparedness and vigilance. Christ called his followers to maintain such vigilance at all times for no one knows when the end of life shall come. Each person has a specific calling that must be fulfilled diligently in this life with love and a spirit of service. The servant who presumes his master will not return home for a while and so fails to carry out his master’s wishes will be dealt with severely upon the master’s arrival. This means that a failure to live the Gospel will squander the chance for happiness both in this life and in the next. Those who remain prepared at all times will be amply rewarded when the master returns. (CCC 2730, 2849)


Ch 12:49-53 God offers us his love, mercy, and salvation and ardently desires that we accept and respond to these gifts. Although these gifts are offered freely and generously, not all are willing to receive them, and thus divisions will occur even within families-further evidence that Christ is a “sign of contradiction.” In Scripture, fire symbolizes God’s presence, his love, his judgment, divine purification, and the power of the Holy Spirit to effect change within us; in this passage, the word carries all of these meanings in various degrees. (CCC 696)


Ch 12:50 I have a baptism to be baptized with: Christ was anticipating his Passion and Death on the Cross, which he likened to a baptism. His firm desire to fulfill his Father’s will and plan of redemption inspired his entire earthly ministry with a sense of urgency as the time for his Crucifixion approached. (CCC 536, 607, 1225, 2804)


Ch 12:53 They will be divided: Following and serving Christ must come first in our order of priorities even over family relations and obligations. (CCC 229)


Ch 12:54-59 The faithless generation seeks miracles as proof of Christ’s identity but fails to perceive the lessons behind the signs already manifested. Rejection of the moral law and of Christ’s invitation to conversion leads to blindness and, at times, hatred towards the truth. An individual is morally culpable for willful disregard of the truth. (CCC 2088)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


  • GOSH YOU GUYS!!

  • SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT!!

  • A couple things worth noting

  • When it comes to perseverance in prayer

  • So this is Luke Ch 11 where Jesus teaches the disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer

  • But also he then goes on to Perseverance in Prayer

  • This is important for a couple of reasons

  • When Jesus uses the term PERSISTENCE it’s a word that essentially means “the shameless refusal to quit.”

  • The PERSISTENT PRAY-ER (person coming back to his friend is the image Jesus gives us) to COME TO PRAYER

  • THAT PERSISTENCE

  • THAT SHAMELESS REFUSAL TO QUIT

  • Something in Fr. Mike responds to that REALLY POWERFUL

  • “Ok God, what you’ve invited and commanded us to do is to have this persistence, this shameless refusal to quit. That sense of I’m going to keep coming back. I’m going to keep coming back. I’m going to trust you throughout this whole thing.”

  • Also along with that PERSISTENCE

  • Along with that SHAMELESS REFUSAL TO QUIT

  • When Jesus teaches, “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you.”

  • We don’t get this very clearly in the English translation

  • BUT…

  • In the ORIGINAL GREEK, it was not ASK ONCE or SEEK ONCE or KNOCK ONCE

  • It was KEEP ASKING and it will be given

  • KEEP SEEKING and you will find

  • KEEP KNOCKING and it will be open to you

  • It highlights the SHAMELESS REFUSAL TO QUIT

  • God wants us to keep coming back to him

  • Only one way of prayer is PETITION or INTERCESSION

  • We ask for something for ourselves or for someone else

  • BUT…

  • When we DO, God has told us, “I want you to.”

  • THAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT!!

  • Why?

  • Luke 11:11-13, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

  • THE FATHER IN HEAVEN KNOWS HOW TO GIVE GOOD THINGS!!

  • IN FACT…

  • NOT JUST GOOD THINGS

  • SOME OF THE BEST THINGS

  • THE HOLY SPIRIT!!

  • This is one of the BIG KEY THINGS

  • God does not promise to give us EVERYTHING WE ASK FOR

  • THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT

  • Because if we were to believe that God just gives us WHATEVER we ask for, then God becomes kind of like a “sugar daddy” in Heaven (For our international brothers and sisters, a “sugar daddy” is a generous benefactor of a younger person in return for companionship 😁)

  • He’s not our Father in Heaven

  • He’s our sugar daddy in Heaven

  • That is NOT who God reveals himself to be

  • GOD WANTS OUR GOOD!!

  • Jesus says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to ANYONE WHO ASKS

  • If you ask for the Holy Spirit TODAY

  • RIGHT NOW

  • IN THIS MOMENT

  • The Father will GIVE YOU HIS HOLY SPIRIT

  • WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT MORE THAN EVER!!

  • If Fr. Mike needs the Holy Spirit in abundance then WE ALL DO

  • There is also this kind of complicated teaching...maybe it’s confusing

  • The Return of the Unclean Spirit

  • Luke 11:24, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

  • Fr. Mike was so confused by this when he first read it

  • How in the world?

  • What does this even mean?

  • There was a priest named Monsignor Charles Pope who was incredible

  • He wrote about this (I bet your brain is tickled right now because deep down, this sounds familiar to you...go back and read Day 261: Ornate Souls in The Bible in a Year Study Guide because you are correct!! We have learned about this Monsignor Pope before!! 😁)

  • He went back to the original language, he’s a language expert and Scripture expert

  • At one point….Msgr. Pope if he was elected he would be “Pope Pope”

  • Anyway, Msgr. Pope explains what this means

  • The demon is delivered from this person

  • The soul is left EMPTY SWEPT AND ORDERED

  • These all mean something

  • ORDERED is not necessarily the most appropriate word

  • But every one of these words MEANS SOMETHING

  • The house is EMPTY

  • So here’s the demon that’s delivered from the person’s soul and body

  • But the house is EMPTY

  • The evil has been REMOVED but nothing GOOD has TAKEN ITS PLACE

  • IT IS SIMPLY EMPTY

  • We all know that nature abhors a vacuum

  • I can get rid of bad vices and sins in my life

  • BUT…

  • Unless I replace those VICES with VIRTUES

  • Unless I replace those SINS with ACTS OF CHARITY AND GOODNESS

  • What’s going to happen is OTHER VICES WILL COME IN

  • So this person was delivered from evil but did not do anything to fill his life with GOOD

  • IT WAS EMPTY AND IT WAS SWEPT

  • Msgr. Pope said, “If a good person has, by God’s grace, been able to sweep sin from his life, praise the Lord. But there’s a temptation there to think that you cleaned yourself up.”

  • “I did the work. I made it clean. Satan was delivered. And I tidied everything up.”

  • The Sin of Pride, maybe THE DEADLIEST SIN, can come in

  • Not only will he be empty since he hasn’t brought virtue in

  • He looks around and sees the cleanliness of his soul and says, “I DID THAT.”

  • EMPTY AND SWEPT

  • The last word is ORDERED

  • Msgr. Pope says a better word would be ORNATE

  • That word EMPTY SWEPT and ORNATE seems to indicate one of the things that Jesus is talking about when he talks about the scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers who are hypocrites

  • I want to APPEAR to be a certain way BUT I don’t want to BE a certain way

  • I want people to THINK that I have virtue BUT I don’t actually want to LIVE VIRTUE

  • I want to be DECORATED and have this FACADE this ORNATE PERCEPTION OF ME that sees me as being BETTER THAN I ACTUALLY AM

  • So when Jesus tells this parable and teaching here, it is less confusing when we break it down

  • It is EMPTY so it has not been filled with THINGS OF GOD

  • It is SWEPT so there is a temptation to PRIDE

  • It is ORNATE meaning it can just be a FACADE, all just SURFACE and nothing has penetrated INTO THE HEART

  • Hopefully you understand that parable now

  • One last thing when it comes to Luke Ch 12

  • There are so many teachings here but let’s just highlight one at the end

  • Jesus the Cause of Division

  • Luke 12:49, “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!...Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three;...father against son and son against father, mother against daughter etc…”

  • Fr. Mike has been reflecting a lot lately that there was a time in the history of Christianity where these few verses in Luke’s Gospel seemed a bit weird

  • Maybe in the beginning of the Church and people were converting to Christianity maybe there was division in families

  • Father against son

  • Son against father

  • Mother against daughter

  • But not now

  • AND YET…

  • Right now we have entered a time, at least in the west, when this is COMPLETELY TRUE

  • When Jesus is a cause of DIVISION in so many people’s families

  • When the teachings of Jesus are the cause of DIVISION in so many people’s families

  • It’s worth listening to the words of Jesus and TAKING HEART knowing that he said this would happen

  • Fr. Mike deals with college students every single day who are aggrieved when their parents aren’t believers

  • Maybe they raised them Catholic maybe not

  • There are lot of those who come into fullness of the Catholic Church on campus

  • But they are grieved by the fact that their mom and dad don’t know Jesus

  • That’s not meant to be a judgment against the parents

  • The kids want to go home and want to go to Daily Mass and the parents wonder why on earth…

  • They’re not trying to be weird or make a point

  • But they find that what they believe as believers in Jesus seems to contradict what their parents are professing to believe and it grieves them so much

  • There are many parents in this Bible in a Year Community

  • What grieves many of the parents is that their children have walked away from their faith

  • Or just look at the culture

  • We realize that in our world there is so much DIVISION

  • Jesus says, “I’m going to be a cause. I’m going to be one of the sources of division in your families.”

  • I know that GRIEVES US

  • IT BREAKS OUR HEARTS

  • AND YET…

  • We can also take COMFORT

  • We can also take COURAGE TO OUR HEARTS

  • Knowing that Jesus said this would happen

  • And so it’s not like we rejoice in this

  • We are not proud of this

  • We are not happy about this

  • BUT WE KNEW IT WAS COMING

  • So what we can do is PRAY FOR THEM

  • BE PATIENT WITH YOUR FAMILY

  • BE PATIENT WITH YOUR PARENTS

  • PRAY FOR THEM

  • SAME THING GOES FOR THE PARENTS!!

  • BE PATIENT WITH YOUR KIDS!!

  • PRAY FOR YOUR KIDS!!

  • THEIR STORY IS NOT OVER YET!!

  • YOUR STORY IS NOT OVER YET!!

  • We pray that we can be faithful and persevere until the end

  • This SHAMELESS REFUSAL TO QUIT TIL OUR LAST BREATH when we get to step into Eternity with the Lord

  • BUT…

  • Your parents’ story

  • Your children’s story

  • Your friends’ story

  • Your siblings’ story

  • GODWILLING IS NOT OVER YET

  • And if it is over, WE DON’T KNOW THE ENDING

  • WE DON’T KNOW THEIR HEARTS

  • WE DON’T KNOW HOW THEY ENDED UP WHEN IT CAME TO THE LORD

  • So we keep praying and ask the Lord, “Please meet them, meet us, where we are at with your Grace.”

  • We pray for them because we know we need it

  • FR. MIKE IS PRAYING FOR YOU!!

  • PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

  • PRAY FOR EACH OTHER


Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much for the ability to be able to hear Jesus, your Word, speak words. Thank you for the teaching of Jesus. Thank you for his example. Thank you for his coming, as we prayed before, his coming to fight for us. But not only that his coming to teach us and give us this wisdom. Lord God, we ask you please be with us this day and help us to pray in the way that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Give us your Spirit so that we can talk to you and listen to you the way that you deserve and the way that gives you glory and a way that just transforms our hearts and our lives. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”