One day, many years ago, a great Eastern emperor was out hunting.  At sundown, the hour for evening prayer, the sovereign dismounted, spread his mat on the ground, and knelt to pray, as was the custom.

As he prayed, a peasant woman was frantically searching for her daughter, who had left home earlier in the day to play but had not returned by the time the sun was setting.  She was so worried for her child’s safety that she did not see the figure of the emperor kneeling in prayer and stumbled over him.  Without a word of apology, she picked herself up and continued on her search for her daughter.  The emperor, as custom required, said nothing and resumed his prayer.

Just as he finished his prayers, the woman returned, happily reunited with her daughter.  They were surprised and frightened to see the emperor and his entourage, and quickly bowed down before the ruler.

“You!” stormed the emperor.  “You knock me over in the middle of my prayer and do not have the grace to apologize!  Explain your disrespectful behavior or you will be severely punished!”

The woman slowly rose and faced the emperor.  “Your majesty, I was so absorbed in the thought of my daughter in danger that I did not see you here.  I do not even recall stumbling over you.  Now while you were at prayer you were absorbed in One who is infinitely more precious than my daughter.  How is it that you noticed me?”

The emperor was stunned into silence.  His anger disappeared.  He smiled at the mother and child and wished them well.  Later he told his counselors that a peasant woman, who was neither a scholar nor a cleric, had taught him the meaning of prayer. 

Today, Jesus teaches his disciples and us about prayer, and it is a lesson that we need to hear over and over again because prayer is the work of a lifetime.  No one has a perfect prayer life and no one that I know is ever satisfied with his or her prayer.  Yes, our prayer, our conscious contact with God, is something that we must consider and work at throughout our life.  So, as your pastor, I will always encourage you to pray, but today, I want you to consider how you pray, and if we’re being honest, maybe for some of you the first question is whether or not you do pray. 

Friends, prayer is not simply a formula of words or a choreography of ritual.  Prayer, I think, is a consciousness, a perspective, an awareness of God as the source of all that is good and the fulfillment of our life’s journey. 

In the gospel today, Jesus teaches us to pray.  Most important, he teaches us to whom we pray: God who is a generous and caring father.  Although we Catholics have a deep devotion and love for the Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints and we ask them to intercede and pray for us, all our prayer is ultimately directed to God, whom Jesus calls Father. 

And Jesus teaches us for what we should pray, not just for immediate needs like our daily bread, but more important, for ultimate needs, like the furthering of God’s kingdom, the grace of forgiveness, and protection from anything that would take us from God.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with praying for specific needs; after all, we do it at every Mass in the prayer of the faithful, not to mention our own personal and daily prayers of petition.  But, this gospel challenges us to go beyond specific needs and get to the larger picture, to focus on the gifts God offers us in prayer, often in surprising and unexpected ways.  What inspires confidence in us is not whether God gives us specifically what we ask for in prayer; no, our confidence comes from knowing that the Spirit dwells within us and establishes an intimate relationship in us with our God who is present and caring for us in every situation of life. 

Is your prayer just perfunctory, an Our Father there, a Hail Mary here, or only when you really want something?  Is your prayer just you talking to God, asking for what you want, rather than listening to what God wants of you and praying for God’s will to be done?  Are you praying and asking the same things that you did years ago?  Are you often distracted in prayer, like the emperor, or do you sometimes find it tough to pray at all?  Most of us, myself included, have these issues with prayer as some time or another.  But Jesus asks us today to be persistent, to keep trying.  Just because we think our prayer isn’t perfect, or because we’re not that good, or because we're not being answered, that doesn’t mean that we give up!  We keep learning about prayer, we keep perfecting our prayer, most importantly, we just keep praying, because the reward is being in touch with our God, the One who knows us and will give us our heart’s desire.