Rabbi Marc Gellman, known for his participation in the “God Squad” with the late Fr. John Hartman, has claimed that “Every prayer that has ever been prayed is one of four types: thanks, gimme, oops and wow!”

Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has already talked about prayer, telling his disciples to avoid babbling meaninglessly like the Gentiles and instead teaching them the Our Father. In today’s Gospel, he instructs them further on how to ask God for what they need. We are clearly in “gimme” territory.

We are urged to pray persistently. God wants us to ask with determination and devotion. Why? I think of St. Augustine’s explanation that God doesn’t always give us what we ask for immediately and wants us to ask over and over. It seems that God hopes to prepare us so that we are ready to accept those gifts to us.

Getting everything that we want right away and effortlessly would make us monsters. I remember Jesus telling us about putting new wine into old wineskins and how it results in losing both the skins and the wine. If the desired answer to our prayers doesn’t come right away, let’s not doubt and despair but instead hope that our souls will expand in preparation.