The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today affirm our understanding of the desire of God to provide the things we need to live fully in community as we consider the confusion we may hold between “needs” and “wants”.
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The Reading from the Prophet Malachi emphasizes the Need to Serve God.
* [3:14] As mourners: the adverb translated “as mourners” means something like “with a long face.”
* [3:16] Record book: see note on Ex 32:32.
* [3:20] Wings: a common symbol of the manifestation of a god in the ancient Near East is the winged sun disk found, for example, on premonarchic jar handles. Cf. Nm 6:25; Ps 4:7; 31:17; 34:6; 84:12. (Malachi, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)
Psalm 1 is a preface to the whole Book of Psalms.
* [Psalm 1] A preface to the whole Book of Psalms, contrasting with striking similes the destiny of the good and the wicked. The Psalm views life as activity, as choosing either the good or the bad. Each “way” brings its inevitable consequences. The wise through their good actions will experience rootedness and life, and the wicked, rootlessness and death. (Psalms, PSALM 1, n.d.)
The Gospel of Luke presents Further Teachings on Prayer and The Answer to Prayer.
* [11:1–13] Luke presents three episodes concerned with prayer. The first (Lk 11:1–4) recounts Jesus teaching his disciples the Christian communal prayer, the “Our Father”; the second (Lk 11:5–8), the importance of persistence in prayer; the third (Lk 11:9–13), the effectiveness of prayer.
* [11:13] The holy Spirit: this is a Lucan editorial alteration of a traditional saying of Jesus (see Mt 7:11). Luke presents the gift of the holy Spirit as the response of the Father to the prayer of the Christian disciple. (Luke, CHAPTER 11, n.d.)
Becky Nickerson comments that Luke’s message in today’s Gospel encourages us to be persistent in our prayer.
Similarly, Matthew West’s song lyrics go on to say:
Don’t stop believing
‘Cause mountains move with just a little faith
And your Father’s heard every single word you’re saying
The Gospel of Luke urges us: Ask. Seek. Knock. God sees us and hears us. Now, that doesn’t translate into getting everything we want the way we want it and when we want it. For me, it wasn’t that if I kept on praying, God would finish my dissertation for me, ensuring that everything was clear, concise, and grammatically correct. Persistent prayer isn’t about wearing God down and getting your way. It was that if I kept on praying, I would center myself where I needed to be – wrapped in God’s steadfast love and grace.
Today’s Gospel ends with a reminder that God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift includes wisdom, courage, strength, assurance, and goodness. All gifts that I need in times of stress, despair, and doubt. So, I will continue asking, seeking, and knocking persistently. I invite you to listen to West’s song, reflect on its connection to the Gospel for today, and don’t stop praying. (Nickerson, n.d.)
Don Schwager comments that “Ask by praying, seek by proper living, knock by persevering,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.
"Desiring that we arrive at the joys of the heavenly kingdom, our Lord and Savior taught us to ask these joys of him and promised that he would give them to us if we asked for them. 'Ask,' he said, 'and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.' Dearly beloved..., we earnestly and with our whole heart must ponder these words of our Lord. He bears witness that the kingdom of heaven is not given to, found by and opened to those who are idle and unoccupied but to those who ask for it, seek after it and knock at its gates. The gate of the kingdom must be asked for by praying. It must be sought after by living properly. It must be knocked at by persevering." (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.51.20) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 11:5-13 comments that God wants you to come to him in the way a child goes to his father or mother: full of faith and trust in his goodness. He even promises that the Father is more than happy to give his Spirit to you.
So don’t hesitate to come to your Father today. Seek him out, open your heart to him, even pester him! Bring him your worries and fears, your very real needs. Ask his Spirit for the wisdom, grace, and strength that you need and for a fresh outpouring of God’s love. And if you fear that he won’t answer you, tell yourself, “This is my Father! I know he will take good care of me.”
“Father, help me to trust more fully in your love for me.” (Meditation on Luke 11:5-13, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments that Malachi may be an actual or symbolic name as it means “messenger”. Malachi warns about superficial motions but not internal change in our relationship with God. The insincere would suffer for playing games and going through the motions. Luke offers the message that we need persistence in prayer. We need to “storm the heavens”. A friend who receives a guest at midnight, as travel is often in the cooler time of day, will give bread to get rid of the person. Friar Jude reminds us that God is a loving parent and as more than human parents gives what we need not what we want.
Fr. Mike Schmitz highlights the severe persecution against the Jews and the desecration of the Temple led by Antiochus Epiphanes. We also begin our journey in the book of Sirach today and learn about the fear of the Lord, clinging to the Lord in trials, and the importance of honoring our parents. Today's readings are 1 Maccabees 1, Sirach 1-3, and Proverbs 21:29-31.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Robin Wall Kimmerer author of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, who cherishes the notion of the gift economy, that we might back away from the grinding system, which reduces everything to a commodity and leaves most of us bereft of what we really want: a sense of belonging and relationship and purpose and beauty, which can never be commoditized.
I don’t think market capitalism is going to vanish; the faceless institutions that benefit from it are too entrenched. The thieves are very powerful. But I don’t think it’s pie in the sky to imagine that we can create incentives to nurture a gift economy that runs right alongside the market economy. After all, what we crave is not trickle-down, faceless profits, but reciprocal, face-to-face relationships, which are naturally abundant but made scarce by the anonymity of large-scale economics. We have the power to change that, to develop the local, reciprocal economies that serve community rather than undermine it. (Rohr, n.d.)
We ask for the gift of perseverance and hope from the Spirit as we continue to work for justice, compassion, and care for the needy as we ponder Jesus' parable on persistent prayer.
References
Luke, CHAPTER 11. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/11?5
Malachi, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/malachi/3?13
Meditation on Luke 11:5-13. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/10/09/1404019/
Nickerson, B. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-october-9-2025
Psalms, PSALM 1. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/1?1
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). How Much More Will the Heavenly Father Give! Daily Scripture Net. Retrieved October 9, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/
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