MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #388

"And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh receiveth: and he that seeketh findeth: and to him that knocketh it shall be opened: And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?"
(Luke 11:9-13)

CONFIDENCE in prayer is urged on us by our Lord's grand and distinct promise: "Everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." Everyone, therefore, without exception, is heard when he asks for right things, in a right way. "Every real prayer, that is, every prayer which proceeds from the inward needs of the heart, and which is offered up to obtain what is really good and necessary, is heard by God. He is always ready to give us what we need, and only desires what is good for us" (Bisping). And if, sometimes, we do not receive that which we in our short-sightedness have asked for, God gives us something else instead, which is better for us to have. Our Lord explains this in His simile of the child who asks his father for bread, etc. If no earthly father, hearing and understanding his request, would be so cruel to his child as to give him something useless or hurtful instead of the thing for which he asks; how much less would our heavenly Father do such a thing. He will always listen to our prayer, and give us those things which conduce to our welfare.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)