Daily Reading
First Reading
Jonah 4:1-11
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. The Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah replied, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was yet in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?”
Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, made a booth for himself there, and sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
The Lord God appointed a bush, and it came up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.
But God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he was faint and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” He said, “Yes, angry enough to die.”
The Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Psalm
Psalm 86:3-6, 9-10
Be gracious to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.
Make glad the soul of your servant, for to you, Lord, I lift up my soul.
For you, Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
Give ear, Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication.
All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
Gospel Reading
Luke 11:1-4
He 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.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”
Reflection
Friends, our Gospel for today gives us an opportunity to reflect on the great prayer that Jesus taught us. Think how this prayer links us to all of the great figures in Christian history, from Peter and Paul to Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, John Henry Newman, G. K. Chesterton, John Paul II, and right up to the present day.
A desire to pray is planted deep within us. This just means the desire to speak to God and to listen to him. Keep in mind that prayer is not designed to change God’s mind or to tell God something he doesn’t know. God isn’t like a big city boss or a reluctant pasha whom we have to persuade. He is rather the one who wants nothing other than to give us good things—though they might not always be what we want.
Can you see how this prayer rightly orders us? We must put God’s holy name first; we must strive to do his will in all things and at all times; we must be strengthened by spiritual food or we will fall; we must be agents of forgiveness; we must be able to withstand the dark powers.