Dear Parents and Carers,

In the Gospel of Luke 11:1-13, we hear the disciples asking Jesus how to pray. Prayer is about establishing a personal relationship with God, as with any relationship, prayer takes time and energy on our part. Developing a rich prayer life is an important step to building our relationship with God. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray using the words that we know as the Our Father. Through this prayer we ask God, to give us each day our daily bread, to forgive our sins and to also forgive those who have sinned against us. When we pray, we enter into a conversation with God, we open ourselves to asking God to come into our lives and be with us through all aspects of our lives. We also need to be open to God’s will. This means that things may not happen in the timeframe that we envisage. When we make a request for something, we are asking God to work through us to enable this to occur. For example, when we pray for peace, we are asking God to help us to be makers of peace to those around us.

Having taught his disciples a simple, daily prayer, Jesus goes on to reassure them that God answers prayers. First he tells a parable about a persistent neighbour who asks a friend for bread at midnight. The friend is already in bed and has no desire to disturb his family by opening the door. But because the neighbour is persistent, the sleeping man gets up and gives him all that he needs.

If a neighbour is willing to help us if we are persistent enough, how could God not respond to our requests?

Jesus leaves his disciples with three verbs, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. We need to continue to build our relationship with God through daily prayer life so that we can continue to ask, seek and have the door of faith opened to us.

Wishing you a great week ahead.

Mrs Jane Webb
Acting Principal