Our Sabbath Scripture Stories – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

Read or listen to this Sunday’s Mass readings here.

  • Genesis 18:20-32
  • Colossians 2:12-14
  • Luke 11:1-13

Peter was playing trucks with his baby brother, Ben, this morning.  Both of them were on the floor with their collection of mini trucks, cars, and vans.  “Zoom!  Zoom!” Peter would exclaim, much to the delight of his 2-year-old brother.  It was nice to have Peter home from college.  He added so much sparkle to the family.

“It’s almost time to get ready for Mass!” Mom called out to them. 

“Just a couple more turns!” Peter replied, still sending the vehicles around Ben’s special rug with roads, streets, and highways woven in it.

Stepping over all the toys, Dad came into the living room to read to the family today’s Gospel. 

“God is so good!” Dad commented to Peter and Ben.  “I’m amazed at how what you were doing is going to fit into what I planned for today’s Gospel lesson!”

Dad opened the Bible to the passage from Luke, chapter 11.  He read the words with firmness and clarity.  When he finished, he took four poster cards off his lap and gave one to Lucy, one to Peter, one to Mary Clare, and one to Vincent. 

“Okay, you four,” he directed them.  “Come stand over here, and hold up your poster boards.”

The kids got up and, after a little rearranging, the letters on the boards spelled P-R-A-Y. 

“What’s this all about, Dad?” Vincent asked, still holding up the card with the letter “P” on it.

“Well, today’s Gospel teaches us all about prayer.  The disciples wanted Jesus to teach them the true way to pray to the Father.  So Jesus taught them the “Lord’s Prayer.” 

“We say that every Sunday in church and at bedtime!” Lucy shouted.  “I know it by heart!”

“You sure do, honey!” Dad said.  “And today I’m going to show you a way to remember the parts of the Lord’s Prayer.  It’s something I made up to help me a long time ago!”

“Okay, kids, turn your cards around!” Dad directed.  The letters P-R-A-Y became four traffic signs.

“This should be good,” Vincent was heard mumbling.  “How is Dad going to teach the Lord’s Prayer using traffic signs?”

Dad smiled at Vincent.  “You’ll see … ” he told him. 

Then he went on.  “The first letter we have is ‘P’ represented by this intersection crossroads sign in the shape of a cross.  We praise God that He died for us and gained us eternal life.  We feel God’s love and mercy.  We overflow with gratitude!”

Dad motioned Peter to step forward with his sign.  The letter “R” had a U-turn sign on the back.  “The ‘R’ from our word P-R-A-Y stands for ‘repent!’  So here we have a U-turn or turn back sign.  In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to forgive us and help us forgive others.  We turn away from sin like one of Ben’s cars would turn back down his little streets!”

Ben picked up one of his little cars and demonstrated.  “Zoom! Zoom!” he squealed again.

“Mary Clare, you’re next,” Dad told her, and she held the “A” card.  The traffic sign on Mary Clare’s card was the symbol for a two-lane highway.

“The ‘A’ stands for ask,” Dad told his family.  “That is why I used the two-lane highway sign!  Ben’s road carpet lets cars pass in both directions.  That’s the same with prayer!”

“How do you figure, Dad?” Lucy asked him.

“You see, Lucy, we ask, and God answers,” Dad told his daughter.  “It’s like a two-way street—talking and listening, or asking and answering.  Our prayer life is not a one-way conversation with God.  It’s a back-and-forth process!”

“So lastly, we have the ‘Y’ in our word P-R-A-Y,” Dad said.  Lucy dutifully moved forward with her card that had a yield sign on the back. 

“The ‘Y’ stands for yield.  We yield our lives and surrender to God’s holy will.  We thank God for all our blessings, because we are His children.  He knows what is best for us,” Dad stated.  “When we yield our lives totally to God, He gives us the strength to overcome temptations.”

“So let’s review what we have learned,” Mom said.  “I’ll say the letter, and you give me the word Dad taught you about prayer, okay?”

The whole family was ready!

“P!” Mom exclaimed.

“Praise!” they all responded.

“R!”

“Repent!”

“A!”

“Ask!”

“Y!”

“Yield!”

Ben again grabbed some of his cars and delighted in being part of the demonstration. 

Vincent got a sly grin and also grabbed some of his little brother’s cars. “So to drive this all home, Dad,” Vincent reasoned, being quite the comic, “we follow the highway of prayer, not braking along the way, not turning off the road, fueling up on the Bible, steering with the Holy Spirit, passing on sin, honking out holiness … “

“Vincent,” Dad laughed, “I couldn’t have mapped it out better myself!”

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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – CDownload

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