Lk 11, 5-10 Ask and you will receive

(Lk 11, 5-10) Ask and you will receive

[5] And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, [6] for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' [7] and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' [8] I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. [9] "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. [10] For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

(CCC 2613) Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke: - the first, "the importunate friend" (Cf. Lk 11:5-13). invites us to urgent prayer: "Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts. - The second, "the importunate widow" (Cf. Lk 18:1-8), is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" - The third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector" (Cf. Lk 18:9-14), concerns the humility of the heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" the Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison! (CCC 2644) The Holy Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls to her all that Jesus said also instructs her in the life of prayer, inspiring new expressions of the same basic forms of prayer: blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. (CCC 2646) Forgiveness, the quest for the Kingdom, and every true need are objects of the prayer of petition. (CCC 2647) Prayer of intercession consists in asking on behalf of another. It knows no boundaries and extends to one's enemies. (CCC 2650) Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray. Nor is it enough to know what the Scriptures reveal about prayer: one must also learn how to pray. Through a living transmission (Sacred Tradition) within "the believing and praying Church" (DV 8), The Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray. (CCC 2651) The tradition of Christian prayer is one of the ways in which the tradition of faith takes shape and grows, especially through the contemplation and study of believers who treasure in their hearts the events and words of the economy of salvation, and through their profound grasp of the spiritual realities they experience (Cf. DV 8). (CCC 2645 Because God blesses the human heart, it can in return bless him who is the source of every blessing.