The Nazareth Page -A gospel meditation for your home
October 19, 2025 – Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 18:1-8
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Download this simple process to Prepare for Sunday using the Observe, Judge, Act Method
Today’s gospel is about making requests of others. It includes a parable about dishonest public judges who did not respond fairly to some who were brought before them. In the case mentioned in today’s gospel a woman complains that a judge usually ignored her. Nothing unusual about that case. It still happens.
But on a deeper level the gospel is about God. The implication is that we will also appear before God with requests. Sometimes this kind of prayer is called a prayer of petition. Years ago, I played a lot of basketball. Sometimes I noticed that some players (not me) made the sign of the cross before shooting free throws. Over my career I made most of my free throws. I saw many of those who crossed themselves missing theirs. This made me wonder about the efficacy of prayer.
The most important words of the gospel today are Jesus’s advice that we should “pray always.” Here’s what I believe that means. But first, a thought about prayer in general.
People pray in many circumstances. They pray out of need. They pray at certain times of the day, like upon rising and before sleep. Thanksgiving prayers are spoken after favors are received. Families often pray before meals. And I recall learning “The Morning Offering” which can be said at the beginning of the day when we offer “all our prayers, works, joys and sufferings” of that day to God. Interesting to me is that Jesus says nothing about these prayers but rather encourages all of us to “pray always.”
That would mean praying at all times and everywhere. Which is what I try to do whenever I remember to pray. Which admittingly, is sporadic and not “always.” Although I have prayed while walking through Costco, or while driving when there’s not much traffic, while mowing the lawn, while muting commercials on TV, while occasionally looking out the window at my grass that needs mowing, In general, when I am not distracted and thinking about not too much.
While I am no expert on the art of prayer, I also think of these most unscheduled prayer times as orchestrated by God’s Holy Spirit, who is always present, “bidden or unbidden” – a phase taken from an ancient Irish prayer. God fills our lives with many important tasks which taken together hopefully make the world better. But there are time-outs from our responsibilities to be present to God who is always listening.
David M. Thomas, PhD