July 24, 2022: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Prayer is a way for us to communicate with God.  Ultimately, we come to know God more closely through prayer, and are transformed to reflect Who He is and see everything from His perspective.

Through prayer, we grow in faith and became more assured that our God is gracious and merciful.

That is why Abraham dared to beg God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, as he bargained from pleading for 50 to down to 10 innocent people.  He had faith in God's mercy, and God recognized Abraham's faith, and so kept granting his requests.

So in our prayer, we seek from God the greatest good, the gift of the Holy Spirit, His living presence ever abiding with us.  Reading that last sentence in the Gospel reminds me of this day 17 years ago, Sunday, July 24, 2005, when I attended a summertime Confirmation preparation meeting.  It was an opportunity to embrace the greatest treasure of all that we have by faith.

We constantly ask, as a sign of our faith that God is the giver of the greatest goods. God may not always give us exactly what we ask, but, by faith, we are confident He will give us the very best, and so we go deeper into faith as a result.