Jonah 4:1-11 / Luke 11:1-4
One of the sports that is really amazing is gymnastics.
The graceful and yet gravity-defying movements are really astonishing and wonderful to see.
We will certainly admire the gymnasts for what they can do on the exercise floor, the parallel bars and the roman rings.
Yet, we can also be sure that they have put in many hours of practice, many hours of sweat and pain.
All that just for the sake of sports and maybe for a medal.
Jesus was looked upon by people as a teacher with authority, a healer, a miracle-worker and some may even see the divinity in Him.
More than that, when the disciples saw Him praying, they also knew that the wonderful work He was doing flowed from His prayer.
They too wanted to feel that power and hence they also wanted to learn how to pray and what prayer He used.
Jesus taught them the prayer of the "Our Father" or the "Lord's Prayer".
That is the heart of all the Church's prayer. Obviously it is not meant to be said occasionally or sporadically.
We have to "practise" that prayer constantly - we have to pray it. And it has to go from just saying that prayer to living out that prayer.
We will have to have rigours of "practice" - the monotony, the boredom, the frustration, the doubt.
But when we are faithful to it, we too will experience power flowing out of our prayer, the power of love that flows through our lives towards God and others.