Jesus was praying in a
certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)
We do a lot of praying in church. One would think we would be
experts by now. Strangely, this does not seem to be the case. After all, how
many of us would admit that we have this whole prayer thing down pat? Not too
many. Why is this? I would have it a guess that many of us are unsure what
prayer is all about. For some prayer is asking God to do such and such, for
others, prayer is a state of mind, a calming place that may or may not include
words, for others, prayer is what we do whenever we come to church. All of
these definitions fall broadly under what prayer can be, and rather than
explore them all, I want to say a few words about the kind of activity Jesus
instructed his disciple in as we hear it in St. Luke; prayer as the way we come to desire the gifts that God gives freely.
