This week's readings Sunday, Oct. 21 Reading I: Ex 17:8-13 Reading II: 2 Tm 3:14--4:2 Gospel: Lk 18:1-8 Monday, Oct. 22 Reading I: Rom 4, 20-25 Gospel: Lk 12, 13-21 Tuesday, Oct. 23 Reading I: Rom 5, 12. 15. 17-19. 20-21 Gospel: Lk 12, 35-38 Wednesday, Oct. 24 Reading I: Rom 6, 12-18 Gospel: Lk 12, 39-48 Thursday, Oct. 25 Reading I: Rom 6, 19-23 Gospel: Lk 12, 49-53 Friday, Oct. 26 Reading I: Rom 7, 18-25 Gospel: Lk 12, 54-59 Saturday, Oct. 27 Reading I: Rom 8, 1-11 Gospel: Lk 13, 1-9 Pope's Prayer Intentions October General Intention Appreciation for the riches every culture and religion contribute to the common good. The wisdom to appreciate the cultural and spiritual riches contributed by the different ethnic groups and religious minorities in every land. October Mission Intention A Pentecost-like missionary renewal in this third Christian millennium. Renewal of the missionary fire of the first Pentecost at this dawn of the third Christian millennium.

Ask for what you truly need

(Oct. 21, 2001 -- 29th Sunday in Ordinary time)

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

In the recent movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?" three men escape from the chain gang and head back to a backwoods cabin to retrieve a buried treasure one of them had supposedly stolen from a bank. Along the way they encounter trials and tribulations of many sorts.

They arrive at the cabin just in time to be caught by the officers of the law who had been chasing them. Their punishment, though they have been pardoned by the governor (which the lawman in charge claims not to know about), is to be hanged.

Sunday readings for Oct. 21 Exodus 17:8-13 Psalm 121 2Timothy 3:14-4:2 Luke 18:1-8

The leader of the gang (or at least the most talkative wise guy among them) falls to his knees to pray to the Lord for deliverance, so that he could see his seven young daughters again. With tears in his eyes this man, who had bragged not to be a believer, beseeches God to save him.

Suddenly the whole valley is flooded with water and the men escape. The two others proclaim it a miracle, but the wise guy reminds them that they had already known that the Tennessee Valley Authority had been planning to flood the valley to bring in hydroelectric power. "Not a miracle," he says. Just good timing. But the others continue to believe.

In the Gospel Jesus tells the story of the dishonest judge and the persistent woman. The woman pesters the judge for a just decision, which he finally renders because she wears him down. Jesus' application is this: "will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?"

Our lives are like the lives of those men escaped from the chain gang. We are sinners, not deserving of God's attention or deliverance. Yet in his own love and mercy God listens to the pleas of those who beseech him persistently. God has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who call upon him, who pray "my help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

When we pray, do we ask the Lord for what we truly need, the gift of his lifegiving Spirit? Do we approach him conscious of our sin and our need for forgiveness? Do we believe, as the psalms tell us, that the Lord will guard us from all evil?

Are we like the two men in the movie who believe in what God has done for them? Or are we like the wise guy who knows better, who seeks to explain away the movement of God in our lives?

Do we pray for what we truly need, not forgetting to praise God and glorify his name, give thanks to him for his many blessings, offer him our sorrow for sins, at the same time that we offer him our petitions "day and night"? Do we recognize that our own prayer is a gift and miracle directly from God -- not just good timing on our part?

Teaching his disciples "to pray always without becoming weary," Jesus teaches us the same lesson. It is God who moves us to pray by giving us the gift of faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Through the Church and the celebration of the Eucharist, we offer up our prayers to the God of life and love, who does more than merely listen to us: he gives us the words we need to approach him with faith and love.

Raising our minds and hearts to God, let us lift up our hands in praise and thanksgiving, sorrow and petition. We need not ask "O Lord where art thou?" For he is in our midst when we allow his Spirit to help us pray.

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.