🙏 SUNDAY INSIGHTS - 17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 🙏

First Reading - Genesis 18:20-32 

Second Reading - Colossians 2:12-14 

Gospel - Luke 11:1-13

One of the most remarkable truths about the Christian faith is that God invites us to speak to Him as children to a loving Father — with trust, with honesty, and even with boldness. Today’s readings teach us how to approach God in prayer, and more deeply, what kind of God we are praying to.

In the first reading, Abraham stands before the Lord in a conversation that feels almost daring. He pleads for the city of Sodom, asking God again and again if He would spare it for the sake of the righteous. Each time, Abraham lowers the number: fifty, forty-five, forty, all the way to ten. What is striking is not only Abraham’s persistence, but God’s patience. God listens. He does not grow angry. He responds with mercy. Abraham is not manipulating God — he is interceding with the confidence of one who knows God's justice is never separated from His compassion.

In the Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus a simple question: “Lord, teach us to pray.” And in response, Jesus gives them not just words, but a relationship: “When you pray, say: Father…” That one word changes everything. We do not pray to a distant power, but to a God who knows us, who loves us, who wants to be close.

Jesus then encourages persistence in prayer through a parable: a man knocks on his friend’s door at midnight, and though the friend is reluctant, he eventually gets up and gives what is needed. Jesus is not saying God is reluctant — quite the opposite. He is showing us that if even human friendship responds to persistence, how much more will our heavenly Father respond to the needs of His children?

Then He says, “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” These are not empty words. They are promises from the heart of a God who delights in giving. And what is the greatest gift we can receive? Not wealth or comfort or success, but the Holy Spirit — the very life and love of God poured into us.

The second reading reminds us of what makes this relationship possible. Paul tells us that in Christ, we have been buried and raised to new life. Our sins, our debts, our past — all of it has been nailed to the cross. We don’t pray as strangers or beggars. We pray as those who have been forgiven, raised, and loved.

So how should we pray?

We pray with the boldness of Abraham, who believed God's mercy could reach even the darkest places.

We pray with the trust of a child, calling God “Father,” knowing He hears and He gives.

We pray with the freedom of the forgiven, because in Christ, nothing separates us from the love of God.

Dear brothers and sisters, prayer is not about getting everything we want. It is about being in relationship with the One who knows what we truly need. It is about trusting the heart of the Giver more than the shape of the gift.

So let us ask. Let us seek. Let us knock — again and again. Not because God forgets, but because we remember who He is: the Father who gives, the Son who intercedes, and the Spirit who dwells within us.

And may our prayer always draw us closer to the God whose love never tires, never ends, and never fails to answer.