Newsletter 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 27th July 2025

Newsletter 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 27th July 2025.pdf

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Gospel Reflection

Luke 11: 1-13

One of His disciples asked, “Lord teach us how to pray?”  Jesus responded: by teaching us the prayer we now call the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer.  Our Lord begins by addressing His Father: “Our Father Who is in heaven.”  Our Lord called God, “Father”.  He used the Aramaic word “Abba” which is translated as “daddy”.  This is a departure from the old understanding of God.  The Jews called God “Yahweh” which means that God’s name should be unutterable or virtually unapproachable.  Then Our Lord makes His first request or petition: “Father, may Your Name be held holy” – or “Hallowed be Your Name.”  In other words, Our Lord prayed that God be honoured as He should be by every man, woman and child.  We are called to give Him the praise that is due to His Name.  Our challenge is to give Him the praise that is due to His Name, not only by our prayers, but by the way we live.  The second prayer that Jesus prayed and, therefore, the second most important prayer that we can pray is: “Your Kingdom Come” Our Lord, with all creation is groaning and waiting for the day when God’s Kingdom in heaven will be re-united with the kingdom on earth.  When Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered the earth, and therefore the earth was separated from heaven.  We long for the day when God’s Kingdom will be re-united, with this kingdom on earth.  Rev. 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.  “A voice from the throne said: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain.”  Then Our Lord prayed, “Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  This is the third most important prayer on Our Lord’s Heart and, therefore, that which should be the third prayer which weighs on our hearts the most.  This prayer will be answered when all people do God’s Will and never just do their own will.  We pray that every person will overcome their self-will and only do God’s will.  Our Blessed Mother is the ideal example; she always did God’s will.  She never, in all her life, did her own will - not even in thought.  Our Mother fulfilled these words: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven” because Our Mother did God’s Will as the angels and saints in heaven do.   The fourth prayer of Our Lord: “Give us this day our daily bread”.  Our Lord’s use of the word “bread” refers not only to our temporal bread or needs but, more importantly, our spiritual bread which is, of course, the Eucharist/Holy Communion.  Our Lord prayed for every person to receive Holy Communion every day, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Our Lord gives Himself to us as food, because He wants us to be in Communion or One with Him.  When we receive Holy Communion, we become all that Jesus is and all that He has.  In Holy Communion Our Lord gives us all of Himself or all of His Holy Spirit.  Our Lord would give us more if He could, but there is no more.  We long for the day when this prayer will be answered, when every person will be nourished by the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus – every day.  The fifth prayer of Our Lord: “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”.  So rigorous is Our Lord regarding forgiveness that He rejects the sacrifices of those who are not reconciled to one another.  Jesus said: “If you have unforgiveness towards your brother, go reconcile first, then present your sacrifice.” Therefore, in order to receive Holy Communion at the Sacrifice of the Mass you must make the decision to forgive your enemy.  Jesus said to Peter: “Forgive 70x70 times – in other words, always forgive! Our Lord gave us the ultimate example on the cross: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”  It is a serious sin not to try to forgive.  Also, if we ourselves, have done a serious sin, we must seek God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  The sixth prayer: “lead us not into temptation”.  God allows us to be tempted in order to test our fidelity or loyalty to Him and to encourage us to be more vigilant or virtuous.  In this petition we ask Our Lord to free us from temptation if we can’t say no to it.  The seventh prayer: “but deliver us from all evil”.   The evil one is “prowling round like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  Jesus calls the devil: “The prince or ruler of this world.”  We pray the devil will be banished back to hell in order not to hurt anyone again.  We would do well to model our own prayer time by praying for these 7 intentions.