Luke 11:5-13
This passage in Luke is very famous, very well known because of its attractive expressions. Jesus tells us to ask, to search and to knock. These three activities are all forms of prayer and the Lord guarantees that asking will get an answer, searching will always find and knocking always opens a door.
We need to be told three times and in in three different ways because we find it hard to believe that our prayers are heard at all. And finding it hard to believe, we stop praying completely. At least we stop asking.
The Lord then reinforces his message by telling us if we are good parents how much more is God good and kind towards us. He really does encourage us to ask every day.
But the great issue comes at the end. What is the greatest thing to ask for in life? What would you ask God to give you that really would make a difference to your life? Jesus supplies the answer. God will give you his Holy Spirit to live in your heart.
The greatest thing I could ever be is the kind of person whose heart grows great with kindness and thoughtfulness of others, a person who has come to terms with the journey of his own life, with all its sorrows and hardships, and who now lives this day in a peaceful and humble acceptance of life as it is, and contributes goodness and kindness and understanding to all that happens around him.
The image of my father and my mother comes to mind when I think of people who have lived life bravely and found peace at the end. The Holy Spirit of God lived in them, I am sure. That is what I shall pray for, today and tomorrow and every day.
Brian Fahy
6 October 2022
Erris Poetry 