For the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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.
Luke 11:9-10
The words of Jesus describe the power of prayer within a living faith. Prayer is talking to Jesus in a two-way conversation. Jesus invites us to tell him our hearts’ desires. He longs to know our supplications, to satisfy our spiritual hungers. In my earliest quest to find Jesus, in my teen years, this verse was a promise that told me my spiritual hunger was not in vain: “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find” (Luke 11:9). I’m living proof that God does keep his promises. A little flicker of faith decades ago has become a flame that has illuminated and guided my entire life.
A big change to my prayer came in my late 20s when our parish church began to offer Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament one day a week. And for years since then, I make a weekly holy hour. I have come to find Jesus there in a quiet, beautiful way. His loving gaze on me is there, and I know it. I ask, I seek, and I knock.
In the scant writings of St. Clare of Assisi, she wrote something in her Second Letter to St. Agnes that has stayed with me, and taught me how to respond to the gaze of Jesus:
Gaze upon Him,
Consider Him,
Contemplate Him,
As you desire to imitate Him.
Jesus really is present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. And before that very special Presence I recommend you take your time to talk with Jesus.
If we were talking with Jesus right now, right here, what might we be saying?
Are we asking? Are we seeking?
When was the last time we took the time to unpack our hearts before the One who loves us, the Maker of Our Hearts?
This weekend, let’s tell Jesus exactly what’s there in our hearts. In our own words. We already have his invitation.
Lord, Jesus, I love you. Never let me be afraid to come to you, open-hearted and with true confidence in you.
