It is 16th October 2016. We celebrate the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings are from Exodus 17:8-13; 2Timothy 3:14-4:2; and the Gospel from Luke 18:1-8. The first reading teaches us that with prayer we can overcome any evil that surrounds us. Moses demonstrated his faith by ‘lifting up his hands’ in unwavering prayer as Joshua fought against the Amalekites. We need to shoulder those in need through our prayer life. Prayer does bring success and the assurance that God is on our side fighting for us against all the evil that we cannot fight it alone. In the second reading, St. Paul urges us to be persistent in doing everything in patience with the mind of teaching the Good News to someone. “Proclaim the word, be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” (2 Tim.4:2). The responsorial Psalm cements our hope telling, “Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Ps.121:2). In the Gospel Jesus inculcates in each one of us the untiring pleading with confidence in prayer. God is not tired of listening to us in prayer. God wants to bless all our prayers. The way we approach God need to be persistent. When we ask God for anything trustingly with the insistent openness, God cannot refuse us. God answers every prayer we raise to God in trust. God hears all our prayers without fail. In delaying and not allowing to have the way we want is to show that God is not afraid of any of us. God has the final say on the matters concerning our welfare even though we have the freewill and intellect. We must never give up on God. Persistence in prayer does not mean endless repetitive painful long sessions with the Lord. Our prayer life makes us to live for God day by day trustingly waiting in patience that God will take care of us. We grow in character, resilience, hope and faith through our regular prayer. The widow could win the approval of the unjust judge by her constant pressure; all the more we are able to get the attention of God by our continual and persistent prayers. God cannot and will not ignore us in our prayers. Let us trust God one more time in our prayers. None of us are prayerful as we should be. Everyone lacks some way or the other in our prayer life. Let us put our prayer life in order, all the rest will come under the scanner of God’s blessings. Have a good day.